The Evil Dead, directed by the brilliant Sam Raimi was quite a visionary film, depending on how you use the term visionary. It opened a whole new genre of horror up to the totally unexpecting early 80s or late 70s or whenever the hell it was released. I'm too lazy to look right now. But it was quite visionary, mainly because genius director Sam Raimi made the entire movie which is now a cult classic, for about the same price that it costs most directors to eat lunch. Raimi's use of camera tricks instead of special effects and friends with nothing to do for a weekend instead ofa cast and crew revolutionized film budgets forever. And the movie was good enough to be on this site, which obviously means nothing at all because also on my list of movies to review are gems like "Cherry Falls" and "Rock and Roll High School. Anyway, being the first in the series, The Evil Dead is the first review of the day, for this Halloween Evil Dead Marathon, and if I don't get to the actual review soon, I will keep ranting about nothing at all for four or five pages.
The movie begins unassumingly enough, with Ash, our hero, and his lame friends all in the car on the way to a cabin which they have apparently rented someplace far out in the woods. In the car are the 5 cast members, who were basically "people that would work for free" or Sam Raimi's personal friends.
Since it's the beginning and there are no more characters introduced at all in this movie (they couldn't afford "plot devices"), right now is a good time to introduce you to all the characters.
Now, as I was saying, the movie starts with Ash and company on their way to a cabin in the woods, which they rented for the weekend. They're in the car, on a normal car trip... that could turn LETHAL! The car is almost destroyed multiple times just on the way to the cabin, mainly because of Scottie's poor poor driving skills that include almost crashing into a large 18 wheeler with the words "LAZY MARY" inexplicably written on it, driving over bridges in a manner that causes them to collapse, and honking the horn at hillbillies and then telling them to fuck off. Also, I found it it incredibly amusing that when Scottie asked Ash where they were Ash gave him some bullshit about just crossing the Tennessee border and pointed at a map, but ironically the thing he pointed at was neither a map nor was it of Tennessee.
Once they finally arrive at the cabin, things settle into the routine that they will keep for basically the remainder of the movie - Scottie be's a dick in general, everyone else puts up with it and pretends hes funny to keep his ego up. He eventually disappears into the basement and discovers the Necronomicon and some other evil evil stuff. He plays a tape of the Necronomicon out loud, which starts the whole evil demon storyline, but the characters don't know about that just yet.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the Evil Dead mythos, the Necronomicon is the Book of the Dead, which is bound in human flesh and written in human blood. It contains ancient magic for summoning demons and all that kind of shit. Inside the cover, however, from what I've seen it reads a lot like a Dungeons and Dragons Monstrous Manual, basically just a bunch of pretty pictures of monsters and some stats on them every once in a while.
Next there is a drawn out scene where Ash gives his girlfriend a necklace by pretending to sleep and holding it out towards her. I can't quite figure out the point of it. The necklace is eventually important, but I don't understand the long drawn out "pretending I'm asleep" routine from Ash. Maybe he's trying to emulate the asshole factor that is Scottie. Then Ash and his woman start making out, and you get the feeling that Ash is gonna get him some lovin, but then the scene moves and we realize weve been peeping in the window through the eyes of a "Peeping Tom" demon. It then goes on to look at Jackass, I mean Scottie, and his woman, Sherry, who look even closer to havign wild passionate sex then Ash and Linda did, and after that it looks in on Cheryl.
Next begins the most hideously disturbing scene ever until the movie Seven was released (the scene where Brad Pitt and Morgan Freedman shave their chests together is more disturbing than this one, in my opinion). Anyway, Cheryl realizes that there is something out in the woods, and being a stupid stupid bitch decides to walk out there wearing almost nothing and screaming loudly "Is anybody there?" Sadly, she gets far far worse punishment than she deserves. She is knocked down by posessed trees, what little clothes she has on are torn off and then Cheryl is violently raped by a tree. Even I am unsettled by that shit. Just like.... ewww. That is fucking sick.
Anyway, on to a more pleasant scene like ANY OTHER SCENE... This is actually where the movie starts beign a horror movie instead of just a really disturbing tennager flick from the 70's or a public service announcement about the dangers of tree rape. First off, Cheryl becomes posessed by a Kandarian demon (notice the specifics. Other demons are just too expensive for Raimi's budget). She stabs the hell out of Linda's foot with a pencil, and more blood comes out of it than could possibly be in Linda's entire body. Meanwhile, Scottie throws Cheryl's bitch ass into the basement and locks the door, but Cheryl can still open the door part of the way - enough for her to make fun of all those "living" characters for the remainder of the movie.
Next Sherry goes zombie and tries to kill Scottie - I mean, who wouldn't kill Scottie - but he practically cuts off her hand. After this, the zombie seems to be in so much agony that it gnaws off its own hand, spraying large amounts of blood and gore all over the room. Scottie then grabs himself an axe and goes totally fucking apeshit on the zombie (that'll teach HER to gnaw off her own arm) while Ash stands nearby looking as if he's about to vomit. He should be glad he didn't have to watch the tree rape scene. Together, Ash and Scottie bury the desmembered body parts of Sherry, and then Scottie decides to make a break for civilization, while Ash stays behind with Linda, who you remember bled her entire bodys supply of blood from a wound the size of a pencil point.
Ash just hangs out til he realized that Linda has been posessed by a Kandarian demon with the mentality of a 5 year old little girl. Then Scotty shows up bleeding profusely and telling Ash about how the trees are alive... hmm, strangely like what Cheryl said. He's also quite covered in blood, just like Cheryl was.... You don't suppose....? BLEAH! ICK! VOMIT NOISE!... Well, at least they didn't show it this time.
Anyway, Linda and Cheryl zombies pretty much just torture Ash mentally and physically for quite some time at this point in the movie, while Scottie sits on the couch unmovingly just bleeding a whole lot more than a real human ever could.
At this point Ash says one of the best lines in this movie, which I will now repeat for you:
"The sun'll come up in an hour or so, and we can all go home. You, and me, and Linda, and Sherry.... Oh... well, not Sherry..."
The next 2 movies were far better for quotes.
Then theres a lot of violence and such, what with the annoying Scottie finally meeting his demise, but nothing really important happens til Ash heads for the basement to get shells for his new weapon of choice - the shotgun. As he goes down the stairs he sees a pipe on the ceiling that seems about to burst - and burst it does, spraying out every single drop of fake blood that Sam Raimi could get his hands on at the time he made this movie. There is a surprising lot of blood here considering Raimi's budget. In fact, At this point I'd like to show you what I think Sam Raimi's budget for Evil Dead looked like:
Back in the movie, I think in this next part Ash goes completely and totally insane. He sees the clock and record player go off and everything in teh cabin starts shaking around uncontrolably. And then, he sticks his hand into a mirror, just like in "The Matrix" but like 25 years earlier and without any money in the special effects budget. It's damn impressive. Raimi got his $3.79 worth in that scene.
Then, all the remaining zombies try to kill Ash a whole lot and make him dead. Obviously they fail. Ash does a three stooges style eye gouge on zombie Scottie, and then Scottie and Cheryl double team him. Luckily though, he uses the necklace that fell off his girlfriends body as a grappling hook and grapples the Necronomicon, which he then throws into the fire.
The Necronomicon burning has quite an effect on the zombies, causing them to perform quite a few actions that you wouldn't normally associate with zombies who had just witnessed a book burning, such as:
Ash just sits there, stunned. Also, he is so covered in blood at this point in the movie that it is ridiculous. He looks like he's been bathing in a bloody bathtub or out in one of those infamous blood storms or something. All of a sudden the sun comes up and Ash walks out of the house... but then a thing runs up behind him and he screams!!! And the movie ends, with a happy happy song, not telling us what happened to Ash. Thats why they needed an Evil Dead 2, I guess.
All in all, I must say that Evil Dead is a pretty decent horror movie, especially considering its budget and its time. And Bruce Campbell (Ash) is one of the best actors I have ever seen, period. And I am a big fan of fake blood, so I have to give this movie mad props for that.
I also have to give the camera crew an award, because the camera work is crazy in this flick. You have to watch it, but the view through the eyes of the demon is actually a really cool effect, which definately adds to the movie. Also, the camera just cuts to a lot of stuff at random, sort of like in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but somehow better (not hard).
And also, whoever did the music (probably just random selections from Raimi's record collection) did a wonderful job, especially with the really happy upbeat music that plays while the end credits roll.
All in all I must say that Evil Dead is not only good, its classic. It's one of those movies that if you have never seen it, you should almost definately do so. In fact, see the whole series. You may not thank me after the first one, but you almost definately will after the third one.
I give it 73/81 stars.
--Scuba Steve, October 31, 2001