Fantastic Low-Budget Horror Movie

Rating: Null/10 (11 July 1999)

I am an aspiring film student, so I can appreciate fully what the filmmakers had to go through in order to make this film.
Raimi does have an arresting visual style. Using the camera as the evil force was a relative new thing I would imagine in the early eighties when this came out. The beginning of this film is, I think, the only time where you see the evil force skimming across the landscape like a phantom. The story could have been better, as the plot had been used by so many bad horror films before it. The one thing this film had was a great moody forboding to it. The low budget forced Raimi into using the camera to scare people most of the time. This same low budget also gave Raimi the "freedom" to do lots of quirky things with the camera, such as when Ash comes out of the cellar towards the end and the camera not only shows the view from straight above, but also shows a view from below. Another good example is when Bruce is looking down in the basement nearer to the beginning and the camera, instead of looking down at what they are seeing, looks up at them from the attic. What this does is not only give the viewer something to continuously occupy their minds, but also serves to point out to the mind of the viewer the fact that the evil (the house) was all around Ash. I loved the way Raimi just seemed to want to play with the camera for effect. I do not think many filmmakers seem to want to just play with the camera and the point of view. There were few drawn out shots, which makes for a better paced film.
What the story lacked in depth Raimi made up for not just in camera style, but also in his ability to know that the audience needed for this film. This is a very kinetic film, a lot of movement. Some for no other reason than to show a different view of the surroundings. In the end, I think Raimi and Campbell are the two biggest reasons to view this movie.
The ending is also very good.