THE EVIL DEAD (1981)

Cole's Rating: ★ ½

Jesse's Rating: ★★★

Darius' Rating: ★★★
Thatcher's Rating: ★★★

Director: Sam Raimi
Year: 1981
Cast: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor
Genre: Horror
MPAA Rating: NC-17

        Whenever you watch a horror movie, thoughts about the main character run through your head like this: “Don’t go in the closet! Why did he go in the closet? He’s so stupid! He shouldn’t have gone in the closet!”. It’s something that we can’t help because the filmmakers established dramatic irony in a common, yet amateur way. When I watched Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead, thoughts like that ran through my head in an annoying, persistent, and aggressive fashion because the movie was set up so horribly. Now I understand that it was filmed by college students, and I’m not criticizing the low budget because sometimes those are better than big studio productions. But for every circumstance of distress that the poorly acted characters were in, there was at least one logical, safe way out. Instead of taking those, the characters string us along for a gross, gory, unintelligent, irritating, and disorienting ride, which creates a horror flick loved by some and hated by others. I’m whole-heartedly and unconditionally in the latter group.

        The movie opens up with five friends who drive out to a cabin in the woods for a “vacation”, yet it’s never really evident what they are going to be spending their time doing at this beat-up, eerie “vacation spot”, other than doing a truly awful job choreographing fights with zombies that somehow always let the zombies come out on top. I’m not going to lie here, the movie gripped me for the first twenty minutes with good camerawork and a component that good horror filmmakers know and use, which is hiding the monster for some time (here it was only, like I said, no more than thirty minutes). In Jaws, Steven Spielberg hid the shark for a good amount of time, and instead riddled the first half of the movie with exceptional dialogue, great acting, and essential scenes. In The Evil Dead, Sam Raimi instead drowns us in a laughable screenplay, pitiful acting, and a whole lot of blood, which probably consumed most of the films budget. After all, the makeup sure didn’t cost much (the zombies looked like cheap clowns). What’s more, the movie is consistently permeated with factual errors, and annoying ones at that. Here the zombies mock the humans in an incredibly annoying fashion, and then they’re too dumb to walk around the trees in the forest. Instead, they run them over. 

        So once the filmmakers started to run out of ideas, they conduct scenes that qualify as the grossest I’ve ever seen. Most of them aren’t very imaginative either, so if you’ve got a weak stomach, this isn’t for you (if it’s for anybody at all). I personally didn’t want to put up with this garbage that astounds me if people like, so I whooped out the remote and hammered on that fast forward button. You know what, I don’t even feel guilty that I missed most of these atrocious scenes because I knew what I was missing. A great horror movie throws in scenes that are unexpected and completely appropriate. It looks as if not a single scene in this entire movie is eligible for those two adjectives. 

        I went to Walmart on a bright Monday afternoon and spent five dollars on a DVD titled The Evil Dead. It looked appealing. After all, who doesn’t like a good, cheesy horror movie every once in a while? In addition to that, this movie managed to scrum up a 98% of critical recommendation on Rotten Tomatoes. I don’t think that I’ve ever wasted my money like I did here, because The Evil Dead consumed an entire hour-and a-half of my time that I could have spent watching movies such as The Trouble With Harry, Carlito’s Way, or Dog Day Afternoon (to name a few). To think that ten minutes in, I was considering viewing the remake for comparison of high to low budget on the same story. Hah! Why would anybody bother to remake this? Clearly I’m out of the loop, so if anybody could fill me in as to why it’s a recommendable movie, please do so. As for now, I see The Evil Dead as a waste of a mere DVD jacket, a waste of a substantial amount of fake blood, and a waste of time. People who scare easily, BEWARE of The Evil Dead! Just kidding; it's a laugh.

-Written by Cole Pollyea

Jesse's Thoughts: The Evil Dead is a tiny horror film made for virtually nothing (budget might have been under $100,000), but it's still larger than life. Director Sam Raimi was only about 20 years old when he traveled to the middle of nowhere and made an all out classic. His talent is in every frame and the use of camerawork was ahead of its time for the horror/shock genre. There's a grainy unsettling feel that seeps its way into the proceedings. However, if you're not screaming, you're laughing because the demonic creatures featured are kinda goofy and fun. Raimi's childhood friend Bruce Campbell (the legendary Ash) stars. The Evil Dead reigned in major cult status, spawned a couple of sequels, and put its Michigan-born director on the map. It's proof that at the time, studios did a lot cinema-wise with so, so little.   

Darius' Thoughts: Even though The Evil Dead may not be the best horror movie, it's certainly enjoyable enough to be. Done by the great Sam Raimi (Spiderman), this low budget, drive-by classic may even deserve better than 3 stars, but I'll establish my rating later. Let's move on to the story: A young man named Ash (Bruce Campbell anyone?) goes off to an old creepy cabin with some buddies to enjoy his weekend. Unfortunately for him, he encounters scrolls from the book of the dead, the idiot reads from them, and the dead are awoken to possess those around him. Let's state first off how incredible the cinematography is; it is bar none the best I have seen EVER. That's pretty good for low budget horror. The genius ways they angle the camera has to be seen to be believed, and their is no use describing them here. Also, the outrageous blood that earned Raimi the infamous NC-17 is darkly funny and scary at the same time, not to mention very good special effects. The campy-ness is fun to laugh at, and the suspense kills you as you are waiting for the demons to appear. So why the 3 stars? Ill tell you why: the pacing SUCKS. I clocked it, and it took 45 minutes for the action to start. You think that's enough, sam? Afterwards, the rest is 45 minutes of gory struggle and then abruptly ends. What kind of movie is that? Ironically, the much better sequel starts the action off IMMEDIATELY. But that's another story. Come back for my The Evil Dead II review folks! Pacing aside, this enjoyable, but not so scary horror flick is a must see for horror fans, and a should see for anyone else, not to mention having an awesome poster.

Thatcher's Thoughts: 'The Evil Dead' is a truly unique horror film. It even has an intriguing start which switches back and forth between the protagonists on their way to a cabin retreat and something sinister lurking in the woods. Overall, Sam Raimi (‘Spiderman’, ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’) does a very good job at portraying both the friendly and tense moods all throughout with an unrivaled balance. The acting is better than expected for such a low budget film, yet the atmosphere might be perceived as a little campy. It's just not completely serious in terms of tone, and you can tell. It certainly doesn't ruin the movie, though. In fact, it's just one of the elements that makes it so special. As for the story, it's a classic; a group of young  people visit an isolated cabin in the woods that turns out to be filled with dread and evil. A factor that sets the movie apart from others is Raimi's visionary approach with an "in your face" style and some of the best frantic hand held camera movements I've ever seen. You may be able to recognize the Dutch angle (in which the camera is tilted sideways to emphasize danger in a shot), which Raimi uses to his advantage in many scenes. For it's humble beginnings, this isn't the greatest horror movie out there. Albeit, there are some generally creepy scenes to find. Plus, this film was much better than a LOT of contemporary horror titles produced around the same time (‘Motel Hell’, ‘Mother's Day’, and ‘Basket Case’ just to name a few). 'The Evil Dead' is worth checking out, although 'Evil Dead II' is a debatably better movie. It's practically a remake, but with all the kinks worked out to perfection.