A Film Student's Dream

Rating: 8/10 (6 April 2013)

Five friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons.
While I am not going to dispute the greatness of this film, and I would not deny it is a modern horror classic (among the very best of the 1980s), I find that the best way to critique the film is as though I was watching it at the time.
At the time, Fangoria wrote that the film "might be the exception to the usual run of low-budget horror films." They were right. Watching it as though it had just come out gives you that feeling that these guys (none of whom were known at the time) really brought something new to the table. Stephen King saw it, the horror community saw it, and there it was.
And you have to give Raimi and friends credit. This was ultimately a gamble. Sure, they made a test version ("Within the Woods"), but here they laid it on the line and maxed out their credit to see their dream work (not unlike Kevin Smith and "Clerks" a decade later). It could have flopped, and they could have spent the rest of their lives waiting tables to pay off their debts. I think they deserve credit for that.
But there is another way to see the film, and that is through the lens of thirty-plus years. In retrospect, the film holds up well with critics. Martyn Glanville says it is "one of the great modern horror films, an even more impressive when one considers its modest production values." True. And yet, I feel like it has lost a bit of something.
There will always be an "Evil Dead" versus "Evil Dead 2" debate, and while the atmosphere of the first is more dark and horrific, the second has a good pace, equal or better effects and a ramped-up sense of humor that has made it the bigger film... and done in such a way where you can watch it without seeing the original, perhaps making the first film obsolete. Throw on the franchise addition of "Army of Darkness" and now the 2013 remake, and the brand might have lost its luster (just a tad).
What is perhaps most interesting is the cultural impact the film had, even for those who never actually watched it and probably never will. Bruce Campbell launched a successful acting career (and an almost stalkerish legion of fans), Raimi made other great movies and was given the Spider-Man franchise. And then you have the Coen brothers, who got their start on this picture in the editing department. Few directors have had a bigger impact on film over the last few decades than the Coens. And they have this film to thank for that.
So, for me, I recognize "Evil Dead" as the classic (both ult and otherwise) that it is, despite my preference for the sequel. Where I really see the film's strength is not in its horror, though, but as a homework assignment for film students -- any cinematographer who does not learn a trick or two from Raimi is not even trying. The angles, the zooms, the colors...