A classic zombie movie

Rating: 7/10 (27 February 2016)

A classic zombie movie.
A group of friends - Ash, Cheryl, Scott, Linda and Shelly - head out to a remote cabin. The cabin has an eerie feeling and they soon discover some items left by previous occupants. One of the items is a strange book...
I'm generally not a zombie movie fan (unless it's a good zombie- comedy, eg Zombieland, Warm Bodies). Zombie movies tend to be very unoriginal and predictable and usually consist of hordes of zombies chasing humans around, Benny Hill style, for large portion of the movie.
However, The Evil Dead is different, and much better. Writer- director Sam Raimi builds the tension well and, even though you know there is zombieness coming, you don't know when, or how. Even once the zombies start appearing, it is not your usual random chase and fight scenes. The atmosphere is genuinely tense and scary.
Production values are pretty poor, but that helps the movie, in a way. The cheap special effects heighten the sense of decay and abnormality of the situation.
The movie made Raimi's career. Just a pity the follow-ups, Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness, didn't have the same originality and unpredictability, degenerating into zombie clichés (though they were still better than the average zombie movie)
The movie also launched the career of Bruce Campbell, who starred as Ash. He would appear again, as Ash, in Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness.