Some horror, lots of gory action, zero comedy

Rating: Null/10 (25 November 2000)

Firstly, I saw this film expecting a gory-slapstick-comedy, I was disappointed, but ended up enjoying this film for different reasons. It starts off nicely with some great camerawork, then within 20 minutes one of the main characters is being raped by a tree (I'll say that again so you know you 'heard' it right- one of the main character's gets raped by A TREE), although there's no frontal-nudity or anything of nature, this scene is still rather shocking and it became evident to me that this film wouldn't be the laugh-riot I was expecting. Now the film continues as a rather disturbing horror flick until the first dismemberment, after this point just about all the violence is directed toward plastic looking demons. The remainder of the film is entertaining for two reasons, the gore (which is continuous and fairly graphic, but not as extreme as I expected with the violence being limited (for the most part) to stabbings (often in the face) and an occasional decapitation. However, towards the end Raimi does cross the line between gory and gross), and Raimi's creative camerawork,which is showcased in an ouststanding 'haunted house' sequence and forms the backbone of this film. In summation, this film is worth seeing if you enjoy horror, with about 20 very disturbing minutes, and lots of gore after that. My main complaint is the lack of humour (although Campbell seems to be a parody of the 'all-American' kid).