We've Dug Something Up for You!

Rating: Null/10 (22 July 2001)

Welcome to the Crypt! I'm kidding, of course. This is Evil Dead, not that lame TV show. This movie was absolutely terrifying! There was a time in our history when America took pride in it's horror movies. This film is the pinnacle of that time. You have a scenario that rips off the premise from "The Exorcist" and "Night of the Living Dead", but still pulls it off exceptionally; a group of college kids go to a cabin in the middle of nowhere, and begin to murder each other. As it happens, there happens to be an ancient spirit residing there. Instead of a full-out assault, it doesn't kill them right away, but instead let's the kids linger. This movie is intense, and it showed that Raimi was an irreverent talent. If only Raimi's other films were so lucky. "The Quick and the Dead" sucked, and "Evil Dead 2" wasn't very funny, and was uncool. However, "Evil Dead" is Raimi's indie masterpiece. It's extremely graphic, and there were times where I was watching the film and started to think, "uh..Lunch-coming-up!" If you can stand scenes of people being cut open and counting their rings, then you'll be fine. I thought I would be a lot less scared by "Evil Dead". I was pretty cool through it, but I still had bad dreams. As far as killing people, it's pretty good. This is the best of the "Evil Dead" series, by far. And, at least one of the cast members is a decent actor who'se done some good work. I'm talking about Bruce Campbell. Bruce did a lot of stuff; he worked with Lea Thompson on "Caroline in the City", he was in Waxwork 2; he was the main character in Brisco County, Jr. But "Evil Dead" was the hallmark of Bruce's career. Bruce can now be seen at L.A's prestigious Garden Street Mall, where he sells lightly salted meat products. In short, watch "Evil Dead" for a real thrill ride. I read in Fangoria about how Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi were at each others' throats, and that the entire three days of the shoot were absolute hell. Rating: 10/10 (When Raimi made "The Gift", I think something inside all of us withered and died.)