Evil Dead: Dead Good *some scene spoilers*

Rating: Null/10 (26 October 2004)

Sam Raimi's first of a trilogy is the most darkest and haunting of a series of modern-classic horrors. Catch "Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn" and "Army of Darkness: Evil Dead 3" for some of the same body horror but also some unequaled comedy, they are extremely funny "Give me some Sugar, baby" THE EVIL DEAD was perhaps for me the first and only movie I have had to genuinely physically leave the room (in daylight)because i was always haunted by it as a kid; not so much now but my VHS copy has disappeared so i will be getting DVD version soon. It is set up nice and slowly; with the five main characters arriving in (DIRECTOR SAM RAIMI'S) battered oldsmobile to a small isolated, derelict cabin in the middle of the woods. (BLAIR WITCH PINCHED THIS)Unfortunately it is home to a series of GHASTLY, PERVERSE, DEADLY, ROTTEN, Horrific, and downright URGH! DEADITES; or the Evil Dead; spirits, poltergeists, zombies and anything you can think of (TREE ROOTS) that in one night make it their mission to terrorise and kill, murder, bludgeon, butcher, massacre the group before daylight. Every room is haunted ground and even the surrounding woods are brought to life where a young woman is raped by the roots; SAM RAIMI'S trademark POV and ATHLETIC camera shots give the piece a macabre air in which every climax is paid off by screams from the audience; ASH (everybodys favourite cult hero BRUCE CAMPBELL) soon becomes an unwilling leader of the group and is forced to fight against the nightmare before they all die. This movie features dark, cramped, claustrophobic cinematography and some chilling BODY HORROR as seen in the likes of John Carpenter's 'The Thing' where the emphasis lies on the destruction of the flesh rather than the soul. The soundtrack (DIEGETIC AND NON-DIEGETIC) is memorable simply for the fear effect it induces on the audience throughout; the initial thuds of the synth score cruelly seem to give the woods life before the horror as you'd imagine a large tree moving would make the similar sound; and of course it's also the result of a possessed swing-rest hitting against the side of the house. One of the few horrors that never lets up; it simply moves from horror to horror and forces you to deal with it.