It still shows that today's multi-million movies can sink where others can swim when compared to the original 1986 scare-fest 'The Evil Dead'.

It cost only $350,000 to produce at the time and the box office receipts were around $2.6 millon, the remake of the original movie cost over $17 million and even with inflation amounts to nowhere near that cost, and having said all that it's not so-called nostalgia that pushes me to rate this horror movie highly, not even the way it set of a whole new way of how the public devoured horror and creator's started to follow Sam Raimi's lead, it was the way the movie made you felt with no quick fix stupid jump scares however, a lost feeling of nowhere to run or hide from the impending evil force accompanied by clever camera work and the sort of music you wouldn't like at your mother's funeral.

Take the simple scene where some of the forsaken holiday from hell punters attempted to escape the evil entity, by taking the only dirt track out of the grim forest only to be met by an upturned bridge so blocking their attempt to reach civilization, the only safe place they knew of to return to was the battered hut they was calling home for the weekend, how much more could you feel open to attack than just a few old nailed planks between you and doom? And I think this was Raimi's whole intention and many didn't understand what makes the whole movie work, it's just the simple feeling everyone gets wherein they just feel exposed, unprotected, have no idea of their attacker or where their coming from, especially then if you notch it up a gear with a centuries old evil malevolence intent on screwing your whole body inside out.

This is why over thirty years later new formats by the way of Evil Dead steel book bluray, to sort after original VHS copies and hand painted models sell in their millions still, how many other movies can testify to that? There is vast interest all over the globe in this horror flick there is no denying that, so it shows you don't need vast amounts of money to make a great movie, you just need vast amounts of imagination to create an exceptional movie.

I think this was the 4th time I've watched this, and every time I'm left wondering _"Was this supposed to be horror, or satire, or just campy B-movie horror with over-the-top buckets of blood?"_ I've still yet to figure it out. It's gruesome enough to be considered "gorror" (gory horror) but insanely stupid enough - and satiric enough - to be almost comedic. Yes, there are some jump scares but the whole thing was just so incredibly asinine that it's impossible to see it as a real "horror" movie. I can imagine that, in 1983, it was probably "th' bomb" with teenagers who were starting to get into really gruesome stuff (with the advent of the _Friday the 13th_ and _Nightmare on Elm Street_ movies) but watching it today, it's just impossible to take it seriously. The first time I saw the "tree scene", it was pretty freaky; now it's just stupid. The one "shout out" I can give to this is the pencil through the ankle; that scene STILL makes me cringe like only the Achilles' tendon scene from _Hostel_ can do. Hopefully this will be my final time to watch this; it's gruesome and probably as gory as they could get back then but - I don't care what any other review states - this one, by today's standards, is just ridiculous. Kudos to Sam Raimi for what he created back then, but that was then and this...well, today this just reeks.

10/10
THIS 1981 MASTERPIECE IS TIMELESS AND STILL ONE OF THE BEST LEADING HORROR MOVIES FOR THE GENRE OF ALL TIME, AT THE SIDE OF PHANTASM.
THE EVIL DEAD
FULL UNCUT UNRATED
VERSION IS PHENOMENAL A OUT OF THE HOLE OF MY MULTIVERSE ARCHIVES (4500+) THIS IS STILL RIGHT AT THE TOP OF MY HORROR SECTION AND I GAVE AN UNCUT UNRATED NAUGHTY HORROR SECTION AND THIS AWESOME AMAZING MOVIE DEFINITELY BELONGS RIGHT AT THE TOP WITH A SELECT FEW.
BECAUSE THE EVIL DEAD ROCKS WOW..JUST...WOW
THEY JUST DON'T MAKE THEM LIKE THIS ANYMORE AND THAT'S A CRYING DAMN SHAME.
GORE,BLOOD,CUSTARD,
RICE PUDDING, MILK,
COCKROACHES AND STOP MOTION, PEOPLE GETTING WALLOPED WITH FIST AND 2 BY 4s,
DECAPITATION AND FULL BODY DISMEMBERMENT OH YEAH AND RAPED OFF A FOREST...

X FINAL THOUGHT:
THIS MASTERPIECE IS THE APEX OF HORROR AND IT DEFINITELY CHANGED THE GAME FOREVER AND FOREVER THIS MOVIE WILL REMAIN AT THE TOP NOT JUST IN MY ARCHIVES BUT IN THE WORLDS ARCHIVES IMMORTALISED AND QUITE RIGHT TO.
"PERFECTION".

I JUST WISHED WE WOULD HAVE GOT
ASH VS FREDDY VS JASON
LIKE WHAT NEW LINE WANTED TO DO BUT RAIMI SAID NO BECAUSE HE WANTED TO DO
THE EVIL DEAD 4 INSTEAD AND THOUGHT THAT IF HE LET NEW LINE GO AHEAD WITH THEIR IDEA IT WOULD SHIT ALL OVER THE FRANCHISE, I GUESS WILL NEVER KNOW.

OH I HAVE BEEN WAITING 25+ YEARS FOR
THE EVIL DEAD 4
What happened their Sammy.....
probably same thing what happened to Spider-Man 4
(Just saying).

At least I have
Jason vs Freddy
And The Evil Dead full unrated version so I can live with things that never came to pass.

Now THAT is a lot of blood.

Why, oh why, do I love this movie, so? Why do I love you so much, Raimi? However, in this case, I can understand why someone wouldn't enjoy the film. The story can be a little poor at times, the pacing is occasionally slow, and the characters aren't the most developed. I think the movie gets more epic towards the finale, but that's not to say there aren't good points in the beginning and mentioned categories. I love the thematic connections that came back at the end of the movie to wrap a nice little bow to Ash and Ashley's arc. The necklace Ash gives Ashley from the beginning prevents him from chainsaw-ing her neck at the end, and his eye-open eye-close game Ash played on here, demon Ashley plays later on him when he's burying her. But aside from a couple beats like that, the story is very simple. A group of friends go to a cheap cabin in the forest, they find a demonic book, then all hell breaks loose... literally.

What I really love about this movie is it's presentation. The red and blue color palettes and framing of shots are just gorgeously wild, as excepted from Raimi. My absolute favorite parts are the hand-held moments from the POV of the demons. I've never seen a horror movie before tackle a motion like this, and it turned out beautifully. There's something a slight amateur-ish about it, but lovable. Actually, the whole movie is very obviously low-budget independent. The cabin is clearly on a sound stage with propped lighting and fog machines, but something about it's look is just intoxicating. It's the ideal cabin for a horror movie. Everything about it is mesmerizing.

I think what fans like to draw from this movie is the experience it provides. The mythology behind the book of the dead and the ride you take with Ash throughout this movie, and the subsequent sequels, is something I can see people getting rallied behind. It's amazing how Raimi was able to take, what seemed like just a simple horror movie, and provide a whole successful franchise around it. Now that I think about, I actually want my own copy of the book of the dead.

Highly recommend viewing for this October!
Lots of fun horror action and plenty of blood!

RELEASED IN 1981 (but not until April, 1983, in the USA) and written & directed by Sam Raimi, “The Evil Dead” chronicles events when five Michigan State students travel to a remote cabin in western Tennessee for spring break wherein they discover a copy of the Book of the Dead and an audiotape whose incantations resurrect demons in the woods. Havoc ensues.

This is a cult classic movie and the famous director’s first full-length feature. It only cost $350,000 to make and was shot in 1979, as well as the first weeks of 1980. Bruce Campbell makes for a quality protagonist and there’s a good trio of girl-next-door types (Ellen Sandweiss, Theresa Tilly and Betsy Baker), but Raimi only really takes advantage of these feminine resources with Sandweiss as Cheryl.

The first half of the movie is great, which involves the five students’ arrival to the cabin and the initial possession/attack sequences. It’s atmospheric, well executed and compelling. The second half, however, is redundant. While each new attack ups the ante it’s basically more of the same in the same setting (the cabin). Don’t get me wrong, the second half is effective chaotic & chilling horror with loads of cartoony gore, but it’s too one-dimensional with no meaty subtext to chew on. It’s just people being attacked by hideous creatures, one after the other.

This simplistic approach CAN work, as witnessed by 1972's "Gargoyles," but in that movie the initial gargoyle attacks led to a captivating confrontation in their hellish cave complex in the last act. The latter half of "The Evil Dead," by contrast, is just one attack after another in the same general setting. But the latter half of “The Evil Dead” is just one attack after another in the same general setting. This might work for 11-14 year-olds who are wowed by cartoonish gore and constant diabolic thrills, but it doesn’t work for more mature people who require some element of mindfood or, at least, variation to keep interested. Another negative is the final gory sequence which is decidedly low-budget and cartoony, albeit creatively and expertly done on a film student level.

THE FILM RUNS 1 hour & 25 minutes and was shot in Morristown, Tennessee, with additional work done in Michigan.

GRADE: B-/C+