Great

Rating: Null/10 (29 December 2004)

In my reviews of 'Darkman' and 'The Quick and the Dead' I have mentioned numerous times of my appreciation for Sam Raimi and his movies. I have to say, that I think he is a stylish director and a great story teller.
Now I have to admit that it was not until recently that I got to see 'The Evil Dead' and 'Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn', despite Evil Dead being his first movie. I had seen the third movie, 'Army of Darkness', a while ago, and I really enjoyed it (come on, who didn't?), so with some widely available, and cheap DVD releases, I got the whole trilogy. Yay! 'The Evil Dead' follows a group of friends who take a trip to old, cheap cabin (two ominous signs there!). When they arrive, they find a cellar (ominous sign the third), and what appears to be abandoned research into the occult (fourth and final sign of evil). They play a recording of incantations that bring ancient demons to life, and now Ash (Bruce Campbell) and friends have to survive until dawn.
If Bruce Campbell's comments supplied with the DVD were any indication, I wasn't looking forward to much apparently. Well, the acting was rather campy, but still a little better than what Bruce had implied, and the plot wasn't astounding or completely original. He forgot to mention the movie's special effects: rivaled, and beaten, by 1933's 'King Kong'. I wish I was joking here, I really do.
Hey, I'm not holding any of that against 'the Evil Dead'. Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell were unknown to Hollywood when the movie was in production, and the budget was very small, yet they came up with one of the best horror movies ever made, and one of the scariest movies I've ever seen. The way the film is shot, and some of the better moments of acting, maintain a dark atmosphere and manage to keep the movie suspenseful. However, I didn't know if the special effects towards the end were supposed to disturb me or make me laugh at the cheesiness. That's my only real complaint about the movie. I did want to see the Ash from 'Army of Darkness', but now I see him as a male version of Ripley from the 'Alien' saga - terrified at first, calm and casual at the end.
8/10 - Not for the faint of heart...