Review

Five friends head to a cabin in backwoods Tennessee for a weekend of fun and frolicking amidst the autumnal splendour. God alone knows why I wrote that. Unfortunately they should have taken notice of the portents on their way to the cabin, and that rickety old bridge would have been a dead give away to horror fans. Seems some Professor and his wife, back from an archaeological dig in the Middle East, stayed at the cabin while the Prof unravelled the secrets in a “book of the dead”. Said book has the unnerving ability to summon Candarian demons from the beyond via a chant. Naturally the Prof uttered the incantation, and for good measure recorded it on a reel-to-reel tape player. On the bright side, that bad boy would be all over the internet in the modern world leading to major outbreaks of demons and putting Sadako out of business.

Naturally Ash, our resident hero for the evening, and his four mates find the tape player and hit the play button. Really bad mistake, as about everyone succumbs to demonic possession with the only way to vanquish their personal demons being by dismemberment. Actually there seems to be a demonic force in the woods to begin with that was perhaps already summoned by the Professor. That's about it for plot really, a rollicking good movie ensues. Ready to join us for the review?

The Evil Dead was the movie that launched the careers of director Sam Raimi, B-grade superstar Bruce Campbell, and whatever the hell Ted Raimi does. The movie was the first in a trilogy that also gave us one of the great protagonists of horror, the immortal Ashley “Ash” J. Williams. When you think about it, the horror icons are all villains with very few memorable heroes to hang our hats on. Besides Ash, I can only think of Ellen Ripley, Laurie Strode, and Van Helsing. Made for $50,000, Evil Dead is not only a cult classic but a movie that many consider one of the few horror flicks to actually be a decent movie. I tend to slightly disagree on the second part, to be honest. Raimi's debut feature is chock-a-block with gore, carnage, and a heck of a lot of comedy. Let's get down and do the shuffle.

Sam Raimi had arrived with this movie, unfort it lead him to get hot over a dude in tights.

With little to no budget, director Raimi succeeds in doing what a lot of main stream directors fail to do in horror, actually scaring his audience. Evil Dead is one hell of a ride through the macabre and Raimi doesn't let the tension slide in any scene – this movie just keeps coming at you. Just when you think you have the horror bases covered, Raimi unleashes the gore in an almost Monty Python fashion. There's blood, then there's The Evil Dead that splashes it on by the gallon. The audience are painted blood red by the end credits, and by heck we really want to wade through it again.

Right from the opening scene, our group of victims on the road to their destiny, Raimi knows what his audience are dialling in for and gets things out of the station in style. A quick track cam through the Tennessee woods leads to driver Scott having a wheel lock and almost colliding with an oncoming vehicle. If that wasn't enough, they get stuck on a old bridge as some boards give way and plunge into a river below, Ash's reaction here is the first hint that Raimi is going to inject humour as well. When we finally do get to that isolated cabin, a swing on the porch is pounding the front of the cabin, but stops immediately Scott unlocks the front door. Man, I would have hit warp factor nine right there in the getting out of Dodge stakes.

As night falls, the hints get progressively worse that we aren't going to get out of this one without perhaps needing a change of undies. One of the chicks sitting drawing near an open window is possessed, I guess, and draws a facsimile of “the book of the dead”. A cellar door keeps banging to make everyone aware that a visit downstairs is on the cards. And whatever it is in the woods goes on a peeking-time rampage; hey, boob action, who's complaining?

When we finally do get to that tape recording, naturally they have to play it, Raimi ramps it up and simply screams out carnage is on the menu. The infamous forest rape scene goes down, people are getting possessed left, right, and freaking centre, before Ash and Scott hit the dismemberment bandwagon like crazed members of the Sawyer clan. Raimi simply opens the throttle, hits the milk substance, and drives his movie into horror immortality. All this on a budget that Spielberg wouldn't get out of bed for. Yo Garris, when is Raimi getting a Masters of Horror slot, Bro?

As a director, Raimi is on fire throughout Evil Dead. Overhead is used effectively, track cam decisively, and those warped camera angles as the movie goes surreal towards the resolution had me grinning like Norman Bates at a bathroom peep hole. This dude is wasted making Hollywood blockbusters, throw a decent horror budget at Raimi and we're talking the genre back and snarling.

Warning: if you don't like splatter in your movie lunch box then steer clear of Evil Dead. Raimi is pretty tasteful in letting the claret flow, but he sure does bucket it on in a Magician's Apprentice style. The pencil scene had me squirming in my seat, ouch! And the forest rape scene is pretty close to the bone, no pun intended. If you have seen any of the Monty Python piss takes on Sam Peckinpah movies then you will be on the same page of the play book here.

Was it me or did the moon look like it was about to crash into the planet during this move? The sky is falling I'm telling ya!

Special mention of the makeup efforts of Tom Sullivan in this movie. Sullivan is on fire and matches the great Tom Savini for gore and really nails the possessed look. Still looks good today, and goes to show what you can do either by suggestion or via some decent props. You the man, Tom!

Bruce Campbell (Ash) isn't the one-line chewing tough guy of the later two movies in Evil Dead. Here he does a wide eyed fright and emotionally-charged performance that boded well for his future career. Campbell knocks our socks off as he gives a great debut lesson in acting to mainstream 90210-style thespians. Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker, and Theresa Tilly are backing “the chin” to their fullest but are upstaged as Campbell steals every scene he is in. The nice touch in this movie is that all actors look like real people and not the plastic line-up seen in most modern mainstream horror. Half the terror-induced impact of Evil Dead is due to the cast looking just like the folk on your street.

The boys light up a dog end on the T&A front. We get a quick boob shot through a bedroom window, and another during the forest rape scene. Raimi adds it in but isn't going down the exploitation road to let the audience off the hook as the mayhem goes down. The ladies get Bruce looking all manly and showing his feminine side during the course of the movie.

Joe LoDuca adds one hell of a weird score to the mix. It's minimalistic, doesn't intrude, and simply throws sound bites around like a English soccer fan on a lager-induced rampage in Paris. Intriguing and spot on for what Raimi has going visually. Dial in if into the eclectic side of the keyboard. It worked for me, that swing banging against the cabin wall was chilling, baby.

Sam Raimi blew my socks off with The Evil Dead and didn't let me off the hook for a single minute as his cult classic rocked the house down. On a shoestring budget that wouldn't pay the caterers’ bill in most productions, Raimi has notched up one of the fifty greatest horror flicks ever made. Must start listing those at some stage. The dude grabbed me with his directing prowess and left me breathless as the end credits rolled. Simply an outstanding movie that puts the splat into splatter. I was pushing pensioners out of the way to get on board Raimi's freak train as it hurtled into the heart of darkness

New Line distributed The Evil Dead in North America and managed a $2.4 million result on a limited release plan. The movie was hurt in the international markets by most major players banning theatre release. There are no figures for Australia, but from memory the movie was banned here as well (bit before my time so hazy there), which is strange given some of the other releases green lighted around the early 1980s. The movie has hit major pay dirt with numerous DVD releases, read about a new one every couple of years. For the purposes of this review I watched the remastered R4 release from the Ezy tin set release. Grab that one if wanting to catch the movie as there's enough extras to sink a battleship.

On the trivia front, a torn poster for Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes can be seen in the cellar as Ash and Scott find the tape player. Craven had a poster for the movie Jaws in evidence in the 1977 movie, which many interpreted as Craven indicating his movie would be more spine chilling than Spielberg’s big shark epic. Sam showed the Hills poster in his movie to indicate Evil Dead would be even more frightening and up the ante on Hills.

Huge recommendation on Evil Dead to horror fans. Mainstream audiences are not going to groove to Raimi's beat here. The movie hits the horror high notes, adds a touch of humour in places, and launched the character of Ash upon an unsuspecting audience. Raimi goes full throttle and draws every ounce of tension, chills, and suspense from a remarkably professional looking indie flick that puts most major genre movies to shame. If you haven't seen the movie yet then for heaven's sake join us.