Whether You Find it Scary or Funny (or Both), You Won't Forget it Easily.

Rating: 10/10 (21 April 2012)

THE EVIL DEAD sits right up there with other horror films such as the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. But though all three of these films are horror films, they couldn't be more different in plan of attack or in effect. NOTLD, a real gross-out when it first came out, seems somewhat tame in the shadow of movies like the SAW series. And BLAIR is sort of in a class by itself; it does things that no one ever attempted, and is nearly always not only successful, but brilliant.
Which brings us to THE EVIL DEAD, the feature film debuts of both director Sam Raimi and his favorite star Bruce Campbell.
The first time I saw this film was at a New Year's Eve party (of all things); we had had a bit to drink and consequently the six or seven of us that watched the movie found it hilarious. And this is oddly enough a valid response, but uniquely, the opposite is true. Because some time later, being home alone for the evening and with nothing in particular to do, I took a second look, and this time the story drew me in and I had to watch the last forty minutes or so with the lights on.
Made for less than $400,000.00, nearly eighty per cent of which appears to have gone into the visual effects, this is a film that has a strange and inexplicable power to it despite amateurish acting, an often terrible script, and variable special effects (mostly the result of poor editing, as in the obvious cut between the live actor in makeup and the model after the Book of the Dead has been thrown into the fire.
They didn't spend money on originality either: the plot is so familiar it was trite when the film came out: five friends (college buddies?) head for a remote cabin in the woods; the exact location is never given but one suspects the Smokey Mountains as a passing reference is made in the car to having "just crossed the Tennessee border." Little time is wasted on setting the scene. There is a moment in the car when "something" wrenches the wheel from the driver's hands and they just miss a collision. Upon turning onto the dirt road leading to the cabin, the background music suddenly falls silent and all we hear is a rhythmic thumping. It turns out to be the porch swing banging against the side of the cabin although there is no breeze; the movement stops as soon as Ash (Campbell) locates the door key.
Pretty soon they are seated around the dinner table, eating and getting pleasantly loaded, when all at once the trapdoor to the basement opens. Predictably enough, Scotty (Richard DeManincor billed as Hal Delrich) and Ash decide to explore. And they find something: An ancient Sumerian book of the dead and a tape recorder which, when they listen to it, speaks of evil spirits in the woods. The fact that the Sumerian civilization was located in the Middle East and therefore such spirits would hardly be likely to be found in the mountains of Tennessee is not even mentioned.
Anyway. They play the tape, which has on it an incantation to wake the spirits. And they keep listening despite the pleas of Ashley's sister Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) to "SHUT IT OFF!!!" Then a tree limb crashes through a front window and the contents of Pandora's Box literally take over the rest of the movie.
I don't need to go into detail except to say that the spirits pick the kids off one by one, possessing them and turning them into hideous monsters that look like a cross between Linda Blair in THE EXORCIST and Gary Conway in I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN.
The rest of the movie is an utter bloodbath, complete with bodily dismemberment and other equally disgusting stuff. But there is a certain tongue-in-cheek humor about the proceedings as well, with an abundance of in-jokes and horror movie clichés like Cheryl going out (ALONE!!!!) to explore the woods (and you won't believe what happens to her out there!).
I won't reveal any more. But whether you think the movie ridiculous or one of the scariest things you ever saw (or both depending on your mood), it remains an audacious debut both for Raimi and for Campbell; his acting here is still that of an amateur, but of the entire cast he was the one who broke into the mainstream, though the three women have remained active in films.
I love this movie, and probably for reasons I would rather not know.