The Ultimate Horror Movie

Rating: Null/10 (20 January 2003)

Released twenty years ago, 'The Evil Dead' is still a film that holds
up today. An unusual mix of grim horror and laugh out loud black
comedy, this first film of a trilogy has got more cult followers than
you could imagine. Girls, women, men, boys and children flock to
see this movie. While some moments aren't as shockingly original
as they were back then, most of it is still scary and holds up well.
The film opens with our hopeless hero Ash, his girlfriend Linda,
his sister Cheryl and their friends Scott and Shelly heading off to a
deserted cabin in the woods supposedely for a weekend of fun
and games. However, what starts off as fun turns into terror with
the discovery of the 'Book of the Dead' in the cellar and the tree
rape attack of Cheryl (an amazing scene, by the way). With his
friends possessed, all Ash can do is kill them without mercy
beforeb he becomes the evil dead's next victim. Many people over
the years have complained about the violence but upon watching it
today, it seems surprisingly tame for an 80's horror picture. And
yes, I AM watching the UNCUT version. To me it doesn't seem as
shocking as it would have been twenty years ago. Bruce Campbell
is genius in his role as Ash. In this film, he plays Ash as a witty,
intelligent, good looking college student who likes to hang around
with his pals but in the next two, he would be a bumbling idiot who
gets hit on the head a lot. Here, Ash is a normal guy who finds
himself surrounded by dead incarnations of his friends and there
is a great look on his face around the middle of the film that says
perfectly "I'm all alone and surrounded by the living dead". A lot of
these character traits are thanks to Sam Raimi, writer and director,
who has wrote a genius script and directed it like a pro. He's even
created his own type of shot! For me, 'Evil Dead' is my least favorite
of the 'Evil Dead' trilogy with 'Army of Darkness' being my favorite
but that doesn't mean to say it's a bad film. It's a grim, disturbing,
humorous and violent look into the ultimate holiday gone wrong.
An absolute must see!