I consider “The Evil Dead” to be a “gateway” film; a portal into a more vast and varied world of horror. It rests on that narrow cuff between mainstream cinema and that which is slightly more obscure. Everyone has seen “Night of the Living Dead”, “Friday the 13th” and Hell, even “Critters”, but less have experienced the pure grueling gorefest that is Sam Raimi’s initial claim to fame. At a young age, I found that once I sought out “The Evil Dead” and decided to broaden my horizons past what they show on television, the spectrum of horror grew exponentially.
Ash (Bruce Campbell) and his friends have traveled to a rustic cabin deep within the mountains for a weekend of partying. Before their first afternoon is finished, however, they stumble upon a mysterious flesh-bound text titled the Book of the Dead as well as a tape recorder hosting a variety of unholy incantations. By playing the tapes they unintentionally release a legion of evil spirits who begin to possess them one by one, transforming them into grotesque demonic entities. As the night wanes on and on, only one will be left standing.
“The Evil Dead” became a classic as soon as it hit theaters. Almost immediately, horror icons such as Stephen King and Wes Craven were singing its praises. It doesn’t take long to see why it was so well-received by the gore-hungry masses; “The Evil Dead” is a unique and trendsetting masterpiece of the genre.
Despite being one of Sam Raimi’s earliest turns in the Director’s seat, his surreal and imaginative techniques have all the flare of a seasoned veteran. Raimi manages to build tension and atmosphere like few you’ve ever seen before. He goes to bizarre methods to achieve this, such as adding weird sound effects to inanimate planks of wood as Ash passes beneath them or winding the camera around insane overhead angles. It’s all very weird, but not weird just for the sake of being weird. All the more surreal elements are blended together to perfection. There’s a reason this man has become one of Hollywood’s golden boys in recent years and all the potential can be seen right here.
There are some downsides to this film, I must confess. Despite brilliant direction and a score far more epic than your average horror film of this type would normally deserve, the cast remains as irritatingly untalented as you’d expect from any low budget 80’s horror film. Yes, even the great Bruce Campbell himself offers a particularly grating performance, which the man readily admits to being borderline intolerable (“You bastards! Why are you torturing me like this? Why!”). I think of the entire cast, Linda (Betsy Baker) was the most obnoxious. She wasn’t particularly bad while alive, but after being possessed she became so unbearably annoying you just wanted Ash to decapitate her as quickly as possible.
And yet, Raimi actually does a respectable job concealing the flaws of the assembled players. Clever camera techniques keep their unconvincing mannerisms cut to a minimum, and the addition of hilarious camp (albeit, completely unintentional camp) manages to keep the audience from taking things too seriously. Despite the over-the-top cheesiness of the film, Raimi and Campbell both claim to have had a strictly serious horror film in mind, which is why this installment differs so greatly from the sillier (but still fantastic) sequels, “Dead by Dawn” and “Army of Darkness”.
The self-proclaimed “ultimate experience in grueling terror”, there are times when “The Evil Dead” is genuinely nerve-racking and there are times when it is simply just awesome. I happen to adore the rather low budget special effects, particularly during the climax. Some of the best stop-motion I’ve seen in my life. The only time the film is ever particularly frightening is toward the end, when Ash is left to defend the cabin all on his lonesome. Lots of horror films try to instill that sense of “oh shit, I’m totally alone” upon the audience, but none succeed in passing the main character’s dread onto the viewer as well as “Evil Dead”. When Ash enters the cellar in search of shotgun shells and the entire cabin begins to bleed, you just feel creepy all over.
While “The Evil Dead” has become decidedly more mainstream in recent years (thanks in no small part to the power of the internet), there remain a staggering quantity of people who have never even heard of it, let alone seen it. But I guarantee you, once you take the time to enjoy this flick you’ll find yourself hungry for more and more horror films cast from a similar mould. And once you start traveling down that road, you likely won’t come back.
Grade: A- (as in “About how many times can someone get clobbered by a bookshelf in one movie?”)
Ash (Bruce Campbell) and his friends have traveled to a rustic cabin deep within the mountains for a weekend of partying. Before their first afternoon is finished, however, they stumble upon a mysterious flesh-bound text titled the Book of the Dead as well as a tape recorder hosting a variety of unholy incantations. By playing the tapes they unintentionally release a legion of evil spirits who begin to possess them one by one, transforming them into grotesque demonic entities. As the night wanes on and on, only one will be left standing.
“The Evil Dead” became a classic as soon as it hit theaters. Almost immediately, horror icons such as Stephen King and Wes Craven were singing its praises. It doesn’t take long to see why it was so well-received by the gore-hungry masses; “The Evil Dead” is a unique and trendsetting masterpiece of the genre.
Despite being one of Sam Raimi’s earliest turns in the Director’s seat, his surreal and imaginative techniques have all the flare of a seasoned veteran. Raimi manages to build tension and atmosphere like few you’ve ever seen before. He goes to bizarre methods to achieve this, such as adding weird sound effects to inanimate planks of wood as Ash passes beneath them or winding the camera around insane overhead angles. It’s all very weird, but not weird just for the sake of being weird. All the more surreal elements are blended together to perfection. There’s a reason this man has become one of Hollywood’s golden boys in recent years and all the potential can be seen right here.
There are some downsides to this film, I must confess. Despite brilliant direction and a score far more epic than your average horror film of this type would normally deserve, the cast remains as irritatingly untalented as you’d expect from any low budget 80’s horror film. Yes, even the great Bruce Campbell himself offers a particularly grating performance, which the man readily admits to being borderline intolerable (“You bastards! Why are you torturing me like this? Why!”). I think of the entire cast, Linda (Betsy Baker) was the most obnoxious. She wasn’t particularly bad while alive, but after being possessed she became so unbearably annoying you just wanted Ash to decapitate her as quickly as possible.
And yet, Raimi actually does a respectable job concealing the flaws of the assembled players. Clever camera techniques keep their unconvincing mannerisms cut to a minimum, and the addition of hilarious camp (albeit, completely unintentional camp) manages to keep the audience from taking things too seriously. Despite the over-the-top cheesiness of the film, Raimi and Campbell both claim to have had a strictly serious horror film in mind, which is why this installment differs so greatly from the sillier (but still fantastic) sequels, “Dead by Dawn” and “Army of Darkness”.
The self-proclaimed “ultimate experience in grueling terror”, there are times when “The Evil Dead” is genuinely nerve-racking and there are times when it is simply just awesome. I happen to adore the rather low budget special effects, particularly during the climax. Some of the best stop-motion I’ve seen in my life. The only time the film is ever particularly frightening is toward the end, when Ash is left to defend the cabin all on his lonesome. Lots of horror films try to instill that sense of “oh shit, I’m totally alone” upon the audience, but none succeed in passing the main character’s dread onto the viewer as well as “Evil Dead”. When Ash enters the cellar in search of shotgun shells and the entire cabin begins to bleed, you just feel creepy all over.
While “The Evil Dead” has become decidedly more mainstream in recent years (thanks in no small part to the power of the internet), there remain a staggering quantity of people who have never even heard of it, let alone seen it. But I guarantee you, once you take the time to enjoy this flick you’ll find yourself hungry for more and more horror films cast from a similar mould. And once you start traveling down that road, you likely won’t come back.
Grade: A- (as in “About how many times can someone get clobbered by a bookshelf in one movie?”)
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