Nothing to get cut up about.

Rating: Null/10 (7 October 2001)

The story goes, that when this film was first submitted to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) it was viewed by James Ferman (BBFC president and overlord of British censorship from 1975-1998) and two other adjudicators from that organisation (one male and one female). Ferman and his male colleague, taking this film in the spirit it was intended, found the whole film absolutely hilarious, while the female found it wholly distasteful. Unsurprisingly, given the film's previous track record in the UK, which I'll come to in a moment, it was her view that won out and, under the Video Recordings Act of 1984 (which meant that all video releases had to be certificated) it was cut by over two minutes for an 18 certificate. This may not sound much but did make a big difference.
The original UK video version of the film, released in 1983 when British videos were unregulated, had been precut by it's distributors by one minute. The reason for this was that they were fearful of falling foul of the vague and inconsistant, yet highly draconian, Obscene Publications Act. Despite the sixty seconds of cuts this first version was indeed prosecuted by the Director of Public Prosecutions, under the aforementioned act, on more than one occasion, but never successfully.
In these more liberal times, March this year saw, for the first time ever in the UK, the COMPLETELY UNCUT version of "The Evil Dead" released onto video. Ironically this version is LESS shocking than either cut version. To put it simply, someone being whacked with an axe twice is shocking, yet three or more times is funny! Now that the uncut version has finally been released,it means that for the first time British viewers can enjoy the film as what it's meant to be - a preposterously over the top slapstick comedy. Albeit one with very eery opening scenes.
So come on England, throw away those cut versions, and get on the Sam Raimi rollercoaster for a ride you'll never forget!