Evil Dead

Also recommended: Dawn of the Dead, The Exorcist, Hellraiser, Roland Emmerich's Making Contact, Day of the Dead, Dead Alive, Re-Animator, Return of the Living Dead, Suspiria, Poltergeist, Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness, From Dusk Till Dawn, Lucio Fulci's Zombie, City of the Living Dead ( a.k.a. Gates of Hell), Night of the Living Dead, Last House on the Left, House on Haunted Hill ( 1958), The Haunting, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Phantasm, Bad Taste, House ( 1986), Scream, Scanners, Ghostbusters, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Toxic Avenger, Resident Evil and Lucio Fulci's The Beyond.

Rating: 4 - GROOVY!!
Little known (to those who only watch mainstream cinema) horror/cult classic about 5 college friends who try to "get away from it all" by spending a weekend shacked up in a cabin in a forest in the middle of nowhere. However, after discovering an old audio tape containing a recorded message that when played causes evil spirits to come forth from the Netherworld in search of those who disturbed their peaceful slumber, the friends find their little weekend getaway turning into their worst nightmares brought to life. One by one the friends are killed by the vengeful demons only to become demons themselves, until only Ash (Bruce Campbell) is left standing to conquer the evil spirits.

"The Evil Dead" is truly one of the best, and wildest, horror/cult films ever made. Originally, a box office failure when theatrically released in 1983, the film has since become a huge underground hit and eventually became popular enough to spawn two very worthy sequels, "Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn" (1987) & "Army of Darkness" (1993).

The "Evil Dead" trilogy, along with Romero's "Living Dead" films, is perhaps the best example of a horror film's ability to evolve if given the chance to do so. The first "Evil Dead" film is played off as strictly being a horror film filled with blood and guts and a very slight touch of humor. "Evil Dead 2", while technically a continuation of part one, is more like a remake of the first film with a much greater amount of camp humor and slapstick comedy thrown in around the elements of terror. The third (and best in my opinion) film of the trilogy is "Army of Darkness". This one is quite different from the first two films in that it takes place during the dark ages (one will have to view the end of part two to understand how the change in time and place has occurred), and that the element of horror has now all but disappeared from the storyline, having been replaced almost entirely by the highly absurd (but also highly entertaining) camp humor and wild slapstick first brought to the series in the second film, with a hint of sword & sorcery and swashbuckling elements thrown in for good measure.

The three films in the "Evil Dead" saga are by far the best career efforts by Director Raimi and Actor/Producer Campbell. Yes, the "Evil Dead" films truly are minor masterpieces in their own right and should be seen atleast once by every film buff. I personally recommend watching all three films back-to-back, along with Romero's "Living Dead" trilogy. Now there's a real "fright film fest"!

Rating: 5 - The Evil Dead
I'm a total fan of this movie, though I can't seem to come up with a satisfactory explanation why. I'll admit the acting is amateurish, the plot is ridicilous and the effects' well', but there's just something about 'The Evil Dead' that makes it a 5 star movie in my world. Maybe it's that weird low-budget charm, or the fact that Bruce Campbell, Sam Raimi and the rest seem like such nice guys. I dunno.

One thing's for sure, the numerous people out there calling this the scariest movie ever, really should watch more movies. Unlike it's sequels, this is actually meant to be scary, but fails in just about every way a movie can fail in that respect. Where it succeeds, however, is at entertaining.

The plot goes something like this: Five teens, who for some reason find themselves in a remote cabin in the woods drinking berry drinks, accidentally play back a recording containing portions of the dreaded Book of the Dead, causing all hell to break loose. That's basically it. Exept this movie somehow manages to pull it off, through the combination of a great location, sheer imagination, and at times wildly inventive camera work (foreshadowing the excellent Evil Dead II).

This movie was considered quite gory for it's time (1982 or thereabout), but the low-budget effects have lost most of their impact over the years. Or maybe I'm just being insensitive...

This DVD has some nifty extras, including a huge still gallery, trailer, and 20 mins of hilarious alternate footage (plenty of demon-posessed growling here). The second commentary track, by Bruce Campbell, is a textbook example of how commentary tracks should be done. Informative, witty, and in some ways more entertaining than the movie itself, it's worth the price of the disc alone.

For more details and to buy the Evil Dead DVD from Amazon, you might like to try:

Evil Dead