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The Evil Dead (1981)
Unyielding...Violent...Amazing
Directed By: Sam Raimi
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, & Betsy Baker
MPAA Rating: “NC-17” (for substantial graphic horror violence and gore)
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, & Betsy Baker
MPAA Rating: “NC-17” (for substantial graphic horror violence and gore)
If you have not seen The Evil Dead, then you are not a true horror fan. Pack up your bags and head back to the Disney Channel, because this is the movie that will push you to your limits before kicking you squarely off into a whole new world of terror. If you have seen it and don’t like it, then you just don’t like movies. Shot on a miniscule budget with an unheard-of cast and a fledgling director, it is 85 minutes of pure horror violence. Blood coats every second of this bitter pill, literally running from electrical sockets and lightbulbs when it isn’t exploding from some poor gal’s severed limb. To watch it and not be shocked by the level of carnage on display is impossible.
Ash Williams (Campbell) and his friends, including his loving girlfriend Linda (Baker), head off to an abandoned and run-down cabin for a weekend of fun. After hearing a strange noise in the basement, Ash finds a book made of human skin and written in human blood as well as a recording of an old professor describing some terrible evil. When the professor begins to chant a strange incantation of sorts, an unspeakable evil is awakened and begins to plague the friends. When the innocent Cheryl (Sandweiss) tries to escape, she is savagely attacked and raped by the trees, forcing her to return to the cabin. Not too long later, Ash and everyone else realize that she has been possessed by the evil and that, unless they can stop the force, it will possess all of them and turn them into rotting, snarling, and bloodthirsty monsters.
Okay, so let’s be very honest for a second. The Evil Dead is not a technical marvel. The special effects are hammy and the acting is second-rate. Not even the most jaded horror enthusiast would deny any of this, but none of this really matters when you look at its budget. Sam Raimi could not really help any of this given his limited resources. However, the important thing is what he did with what he had. If he had a carton of milk, he would load it up into one of the monsters and let it spew out. Using practically nothing except for a camera, a small cast, and plenty of fake blood, he makes one of the best horror films of all-time. His direction is smart, savvy, and wild; he plays up the strange camera angles all the time. The music seems to fit it all. Like I said, Raimi uses what he has to create a truly amazing movie.
What can I say? I love The Evil Dead...love it, love it, love it. It’s the kind of movie I could watch over and over and never get bored. Packed with all kinds of gore gags, truly scary moments, and off-the-wall violence, The Evil Dead is gross, obnoxious, vile, and as close to perfect as it could possibly be. The fact that Raimi had to use such cheap techniques to create the violence somehow makes them even scarier. Look at the larger-budgeted Halloween II (made the same year), the violence on display there looks nice and all, but it does not even come close to the imperfect terror that permeates each and every scene in The Evil Dead. If you want to really make a hardcore horror fan cringe in terror and disgust, just show them this film. It gets me every time.
Ash Williams (Campbell) and his friends, including his loving girlfriend Linda (Baker), head off to an abandoned and run-down cabin for a weekend of fun. After hearing a strange noise in the basement, Ash finds a book made of human skin and written in human blood as well as a recording of an old professor describing some terrible evil. When the professor begins to chant a strange incantation of sorts, an unspeakable evil is awakened and begins to plague the friends. When the innocent Cheryl (Sandweiss) tries to escape, she is savagely attacked and raped by the trees, forcing her to return to the cabin. Not too long later, Ash and everyone else realize that she has been possessed by the evil and that, unless they can stop the force, it will possess all of them and turn them into rotting, snarling, and bloodthirsty monsters.
Okay, so let’s be very honest for a second. The Evil Dead is not a technical marvel. The special effects are hammy and the acting is second-rate. Not even the most jaded horror enthusiast would deny any of this, but none of this really matters when you look at its budget. Sam Raimi could not really help any of this given his limited resources. However, the important thing is what he did with what he had. If he had a carton of milk, he would load it up into one of the monsters and let it spew out. Using practically nothing except for a camera, a small cast, and plenty of fake blood, he makes one of the best horror films of all-time. His direction is smart, savvy, and wild; he plays up the strange camera angles all the time. The music seems to fit it all. Like I said, Raimi uses what he has to create a truly amazing movie.
What can I say? I love The Evil Dead...love it, love it, love it. It’s the kind of movie I could watch over and over and never get bored. Packed with all kinds of gore gags, truly scary moments, and off-the-wall violence, The Evil Dead is gross, obnoxious, vile, and as close to perfect as it could possibly be. The fact that Raimi had to use such cheap techniques to create the violence somehow makes them even scarier. Look at the larger-budgeted Halloween II (made the same year), the violence on display there looks nice and all, but it does not even come close to the imperfect terror that permeates each and every scene in The Evil Dead. If you want to really make a hardcore horror fan cringe in terror and disgust, just show them this film. It gets me every time.
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