SummaryFive friends travel to a cabin in the woods where tape recorded incantations from the Book of the Dead unleash relentless demons that can only be killed by total body dismemberment.
SummaryFive friends travel to a cabin in the woods where tape recorded incantations from the Book of the Dead unleash relentless demons that can only be killed by total body dismemberment.
Shot on 16mm for less than $50,000, Sam Raimi's visceral debut remains a benchmark of modern horror. Plot and acting are minimal - five stooges inadvertently awaken demonic forces - but then this isn't about intellect or intricacy: it's about intensity and intestines. [1 Oct 2001]
The Evil Dead. Books can kill. A cult horror film that impresses with its cruelty and unique atmosphere. Director Sam Raimi creates a stunning combination of horror, dark humor and madness. The film tells the story **** of young people who find themselves in an old abandoned house, where they encounter demons and sinister forces. Violent visuals and unpredictable plot twists create constant tension. Bruce Campbell's excellent performance as Ash Williams gives the film a special flavor. While some viewers may find the film to have dated special effects, The Evil Dead is still a powerful force in the horror genre and an inspiration for many films to come.
Unbound by cinematic convention, Raimi unleashed his free-range camera, and ghoulish, omnipresent sound effects to create a bleak, paranoid atmosphere and a raft of sudden, effective shocks.
The film is ferociously kinetic and full of visual surprises, though its gut-churning reputation doesn't seem fully deserved: if anything the gore is too picturesque and studied, an abstract decorator's mix of oozing, slimy color, like some exotic species of new-wave interior design.
You could say this is all good gory fun, and The Evil Dead remains a triumph of brains over budget. But in retrospect, you can’t help wondering if Raimi and co didn’t have some women issues to work through?
Too bad it's hog-tied by a ridiculously familiar plot, uneven direction and characters of such dizzying simplicity that you wish the demons would get to them just to smack some sense into their heads. [26 Sept 1983, p.D3]
This would get max stars for the hilarious shovel decapitation moment alone. Awesome effects throughout, wish I'd seen this much sooner, had seen bits and pieces but never got around to the full experience.
Cheesy, wacky, excessive and unique, "The Evil Dead" may be a movie that I ultimately value more for starting the career of Sam Raimi than for its merits as a piece of entertainment, but that doesn't mean my watching this for the first time was anything short of enjoyable. Dated in all the ways you'd think it'd feel more modern and modern in all the ways you'd think it'd feel more dated, "The Evil Dead" is a complicated movie to digest in the year of our Lord 2020. You find yourself impressed with the makeup and effects, yet disappointed with the performances and music. You appreciate the film's contributions to the genre and its totally unorthodox feel, yet lament the existence and question the purpose of the infamous "tree ****" scene. To compartmentalize such things is always suboptimal, and the experience overall was definitely wild and weird, but not one I'll forget so soon.
I finally get why people consider Evil Dead II as one of the best and superior film sequels. For as much as I found this one truly innovative in terms of its stylish direction, some ideas, amazing camerawork and fantastic stop-motion animation, claymation and practical effects in general, it's in grave need of more self-awareness to compensate for its great lacking in substance and justify its unbelievably dumb characters. It's still good fun, though.
(6/10)
Clearly outdated movie that looks ridiculously today. It lives from their gore effects, but they are looking so cheap today and there is nothing more of the movie: the story is simple, the characters superficial, the actors average.