good fun

Rating: Null/10 (13 August 2001)

ah, evil dead, the first movie of the series (followed by Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn and Army of Darkness).
It's hard to tell if the actually meant this movie to be stupidly funny or if it was a serious attempt. Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness are blatant comedies and work better than this film, but I think everyone should see this one. (It would be better to see this movie before the others.)
There are some very disturbing scenes like "the pencil scene" and "the tree scene" and the part where Ash chops up his girlfriend with a chainsaw. The acting is absurd, but funny. The funniest character is Scotty. He is the macho-tough guy with a few really good one liners. (He actually says "I'm gonna break your face" to a girl they are staying with. HAHA).
I don't know how cheesey they wanted to make this but as an example, on the exterior scenes you can see the floodlights they put up, in front of the house, in the middle of the woods. They're in plain sight, they didn't even attempt to disguise them. haha. And also, pay attention to the moon. It is hillarious super-imposed in a rectangle in the corner of the screen.

This movie is pretty original and has some tense moments. It could scare some, but I have nerves of steel and was not startled by anything in this film.
I highly recommend watching Evild Dead 2 and Army of Darkness. They are supposed to run together, but the endings don't match up all to well. It's like Raimi decided to change his mind while writing the scripts. Evil Dead 2 is essentially a better remake of Evil Dead with some really funny scenes and over the top gore.