"Join us!" "The Evil Dead" is gruesome fun!

Rating: 10/10 (20 August 2009)

Before "Spider-Man," Sam Raimi started off as the director of the classic fright film "The Evil Dead," which, to this day, is one of the hippest horror films ever.
Ash, his girlfriend Linda, his sister Cheryl, and his friends Scott and Shelly head out to an isolated cabin in the woods for some fun. But right from the beginning, strange things happen. Cheryl hears voices howling "Join us!" And then, Ash and Scott find a recording of a ritual from a book called The Book of the Dead. Too bad for them, because that ritual releases soul-hungry demons who possess everybody in the cabin. The only way to stop the demons is through the act of bodily dismemberment, and it's up to Ash to return the demons to their resting place. However, it's not gonna be easy.
"The Evil Dead" can be very scary, but it's mostly great fun to watch due to its shameless amount of gore. This movie goes so over the top, it sort of becomes comic, and I dig that.
Bruce Campbell has created such an icon out of Ash, a character who has lasted through 3 films. Campbell is a master. The other cast is very good with Ellen Sandweiss as Cheryl, Hal Delrich as Scott, Betsy Baker as Linda and Sarah York as Shelly.
"The Evil Dead" is a movie done with so much love for the genre, and a movie like that only comes once in a while. Hilariously gory, well-acted, and great fun to watch on a nice Halloween night, a horror movie like this doesn't get any better. A classic!
****