Cabin Fever Splatter

Rating: Null/10 (13 January 2001)

I've read many criticisms of this film which state that the first twenty or so minutes of the film are the best. I could not disagree more. Once the actors stop trying to act as if they are relating to one another, and start chopping each other up, it all gets much better. The best part of The Evil Dead is that, unlike the second and especially the third episode in the series, it can be taken seriously. In fact, it is a lot more enjoyable if you take the film seriously and try to imagine how Ash is feeling when stuck in a cabin with only a pair of Deadites for company.
The makers of The Blair Witch Horsedung could have learned a lot about low-budget horror film making if they had taken the time to sit and watch this film. Real horror comes from being able to relate to the characters (is there anyone who didn't feel a certain revolted confusion when Scotty chopped up Shelly with an axe? thought not...), not from false claims passed off as publicity and shaking the camera so much that the viewers have a headache afterwards. Granted, the acting from most of the players in this film is just as bad, and the special effects are almost as non-existent, but moments like when a possessed Cheryl begins laughing as she is locked in the fruit cellar show that if you spend enough time and energy building an atmosphere in a horror film of any budget, the splatter you show for the rest of the film will be much more effective.
(seriously revealing plot information ahead, don't read past this point if you haven't seen the film)
A case in point is the moment where the book is thrown into the fireplace, and the two remaining Deadites suddenly stop in their tracks. I didn't know whether to throw up or laugh when I first saw them falling and rotting apart (I suspect I did both at one stage, as I first saw the film a long, long time ago). As both bodies rot away into pools of goo, we don't see any explosions or other such dramatic poise as we do in films like Final Destination. Instead, we simply hear a disembodied voice that Darth Vader would find impressive calling to Ash: "Join us... join us...", and then we see Ash walking out of the cabin as another disembodied spirit comes after him. A million times more effective than any of the "oh, look at those scary funny twigs" moments in Blair Christian Propaganda could ever hope for.
In other words, anyone who hasn't seen this film has not seen what a real triumph of low-budget horror filmmaking looks like. The first sequel is a nice adjunct to the film, but forget about Evil Dead III completely. In my rulebook, if a sequel is made to an intense piece like Robocop or The Evil Dead, and it fails to recieve an MA or R rating from the Australian Office Of Film And Literature Classification, it is not the genuine article.