scary, violent, creepy soundtrack and bad acting!

Rating: 6/10 (14 August 2012)

Having recently just watched this film for the first time and seeing a 7.6 rating on IMDb before hand, i have to say that this film did not live up to those expectations and mildly disappointed me. I did not hate this film, nor did I love it, what I can say is that I understand its cult following and I can appreciate it for what it is, and that is a decent horror flick, written and directed by Sam Rami. Now to begin, I was never expecting solid, performances or an Oscar winning role, but for what it was i just couldn't feel much more than, these people will eventually die (basic horror logic) and to be honest i'm not that bothered about it either,and that to me is down to a poorly written script or down down to bad casting, but none the less, i felt No sympathy for any of them, apart from the only believable character, to which i could believe is the point, and this would be ash; who was a bit more three dimensional and stood out more than the others, rather than using clichéd horror thinking and doing stupid s**t (ignoring the basement scene). Now putting acting aside and looking at it for what it was it was otherwise pretty good; one thing things I especially loved was the score that was pieced to each and every scene, it really gives the film that horror edge and makes you quiver with fear, even if there is nothing particularly haunting happening in that given time; pretty much that I know somethings going to happen but when; and the score builds this up perfectly for say when two arms smash through a door. another thing that I though was absolutely great in this film was the special effects, oh how I miss the simpler films, where things can look better than CGI and at the same time not be spending wad loads of cash on it; going back to the special effects, the make up for the zombified humans was disturbingly frightening, especially Cheryl and creepy ass laugh. the ending scene with the melting corpses clearly made out of plaster scene (or clay for the Americans) was so cool, and because it looked like it had that skin like texture, it made it seem more like it was melting than if it was being done nowadays in CGI, thing is to me, is that realism can ruin things like that and thats why this film is very entertaining for the genre that it is. however another small gripe I have is the way the film is shot, the camera annoys the hell out of me, reminds me of home videos that have been shot by a budding film maker in his teens. The whole floaty cam and as if it is the evil spirit, it just bugs me, and I don't really know why. Overall I really enjoyed the story, because if you don't read any synopsis' it really does help to make it a better story, the special effects are awesome, the music is incredibly creepy and frightening, yet the acting lets the film down. well worth a watch though, and for some classic 80's cheese horror, i would certainly recommend this film, as long as you remember it is not meant to be a masterpiece. I'm off to watch Evil Dead 2 to see what happens in the continued story. 6.5/10