The Evil Dead Reviews

[Highly rated reviewer]

Kill her if you can, loverboy.

'The Evil Dead' is about a group of young adults who travel to a cabin in the woods and discover a 'book of the dead'. No prizes for guessing what happens rest of the film.

Is it a great film? Of course not. Once the movie hits the 20-minute mark, the notion of plot completely disappears. I didn't expect the gore to be so elaborate. There's plenty of gore (some say that to today's standards, the gore would be considered tame, but I say it's still quite extreme), and it doesn't look too cheesy. The blood looks real, the make-up effects are great. 'The Evil Dead' contains a few scares and the gore effects are often fun to watch (this was before the invention of CGI and I felt impressed knowing that not one effect was computer generated), but I still wish it could've had more plot. After all, we're basically watching one character after another get killed and come back alive again, and all that changes within the repetition of this pattern is the way they get killed. The quality of the acting leaves very little to be desired, but is on par with films of its time.

There are lots of movies out there that put this in the shade, but there are also a lot, lot worse. Worth a watch, just don’t expect too much. Good for its age.

He he he he he he

This film makes me chuckle. It's a classic film, one of the grandaddy's of horror.

Its very cheaply made, but that's the whole point, there budget would make you laugh, but they did it none the less.

It showcase's some of raimi's rollercoaster camera work that will follow him in to later life, and puts cambell well on his way to the king of the B movie.

Its not really scary and not intentionally funny, but you'll still laugh, it is a must for all horror fans, and budding film makers.

Have a look, but stay away from the trees.

Amusing and bloodthirsty.

Unfortunately I saw the higher budget (3m) sequel/remake to this film before watching the original but it didn't diminish the fun of watching this low budget horror classic.

It is surprisingly funny as well and the acting is better than most low budget eighties horror flicks. It is rather gory but does not border explicit and was incorrecly labelled as a video nasty many years ago.

Director Sam Raimi has gone on to bigger and better things since and it is inspirational to young filmmakers to see such a bold and talented youngster make a film like this that is still popular today.

The documentary 'Fanalysis' on the DVD is also a very entertaining insight into the world of fans and fanatics.

Silly movie

A silly movie which is not scary and lacks of sense.

Easily Raimi's Best Work

Raimi made this when he was only 21! A bunch of friends (led by Bruce Campbell) go camping in the woods, or rather stay in a run-down log cabin. They find an old reel-to-reel tape recorder and a dodgy looking illustrated book. Being the inquisitive types, they do what any self-respecting horror characters should do, and play the tape... The settings and the mood -and this is the tour-de-force of moods- really steal the show and the effects are totally appropriate for the piece. There is one pretty nasty scene and Raimi said with the aid of hindsight he wished he had left it out. The rest is solid scares and slapstick humour. I love this flick to bits.

Rubbish!

Couldn't find no stars. It was rubbish...reminded me of the zombies in Thriller enough said...don't waste a night!

classic

Have to give it 5 stars - was low-bugdet but nice

Still a fantastic watch !

If you're a horror buff you'll certainly have seen this - it's worth renting for the commentries from both the director / producer and the fantastic Bruce Campbell both are well worth listening to and very interesting.

The film has a dated a little and isn't as scarey as when I first saw it around 15 years ago, however it's an absoolute gem of a film and when first released I'm sure it'd have scared the pants of people.

It's low budget but I reckon the acting is great, a superb scarey story and shows what can be done with some real talent.

Worth it for the commentries if you have seen it and definitely worth a go if you haven't it.

EVIL DEAD IS THE WORD IN HORROR FILMS

When five friends (Ash, Linda, Scotty, Cheryl and Shelly) decided to take a holiday in a small cabin in the woods they do not expect to find a tape recording that will awaken a powerful evil in the basement. While searching the basement Ash and Scotty come across a strange book and old tape recording left by a university professor. It turns out that the professor has been able to translate the book and has recorded its writings onto the tape. When played the tape taps into the evil in the woods and causes Cheryl to be possessed and turned into an evil deadite. It is up to Ash and his friends to try and stop the Evil Dead before it destroys them all can they do it? I guess you'll have to watch the film to find out.

I think it can be safely said that Evil dead is a defining film in the horror genre, it was edgier and gorier than anything that had come before it and this meant it sparked a lot of controversy. When first released in the early eighties in the U.K. it was lumped together with a large amount of other films into what was called the 'Video Nasties List'. This was a number of films that the BBFC decided were too violent or gory to be given a rating certificate in the U.K. Luckily in the early nineties a cut version of the film was released on video in the UK, and this would be the first experience I had of the Evil Dead.

There is really no other horror film quite like Evil Dead (well ok ED2 and 3 maybe), the plot is quite simple but not in the least bit boring or uninteresting and keeps you gripped for the entire of this cinematic treat. It was made before the notion of a group of teenagers on a trip encountering some kind of horror-based madness was too overused. Even if it had been made recently then the book of the dead and daemon possessions would have made it stand out from the other teen based horror which has become the staple for horror film goers of the last few years.

The script and the acting in The Evil Dead is probably the shakiest part of the film, there are many cheesy lines and the acting (especially from Bruce Campbell) is pretty bad, but this doesn’t really matter because horror films are meant to be cheesy and the odd bit of hammy acting just adds to the general fun feeling of the film. Ash is not quite the gun toting wise cracking madman that he is in the other two films but then everything cant be perfect first time round.

Probably the best feature of this film is the visual style of the whole production. The entire film is filled with brilliant camera tricks and angles (like the camera smashing though window or twisting round when zooming in on peoples faces), every time the camera zooms or pans it is accompanied by brilliant little sound effects that add top the great feel of the film. Every bit of The Evil Dead has obviously been thought about in great detail to get the unique creepy/obscure feel that the film has with picture and sound working in unison to great effect.

The special effects and gore in Evil Dead look great, it is obvious that they have used quite simple techniques to get the desired effects but they have been carefully implemented to get the best out of the films limited budget. All of the deadites look great and the gut wrenching gory violence is as good as any with limbs flying all over the place and blood literally running down the screen. The only slight criticism I have is it takes a little longer to get going that the other two films in the trilogy, but once it does get into full swing all fans of gross out gore films will be in for a visual treat which is hard to match.

In my opinion Evil Dead is one of the greatest if not the greatest horror film ever made. Every element of the film comes together to give you a roller coaster ride filled with slapstick comedy, blood drenched horror and more creepy atmospheric moments that you could throw a server arm at. If your new to horror then Sam Rami’s master piece the Evil Dead should be your first port of call, closely followed by the other two films in the trilogy.

Its not meant to be scary

For those reviewers who complain that the film 'is not scary', it is not supposed to be, it is a classic horror satire - unsubtle yet brilliant. Watch it again keeping this in mind.