The Evil Dead Review

The Evil Dead

Year: 1981

Directer: Sam Raimi

Writer: Sam Raimi

Characters:

Ashley J. Williams (AKA - Ash) portrayed by Bruce Campbell, he is the boyfriend of Linda, and works at S-Mart, he is the main hero in the movie and has to fight his friends and girlfriend to stay alive.

Cheryl Williams, portrayed by Ellen Sandweiss, She is Ash's younger Sister, she is the odd one out of the group and could sense that something evil is in the woods, she is the first to be possessed by the Deadites and acts as the main antagonist of the film.

Linda, Portrayed by Betsy Baker, Linda is Ash's girlfriend they are both very much in love, Ash gives her a necklace early on in the film and is forced to fight her to stay alive.

Scotty, Portrayed by Richard DeManicor, Scotty is Ash's best friend and college room mate, he is Shelly's boyfriend, and is known for being quite the joker, but he soon realises that there is nothing to joke about when Shelly is killed

Shelly, Portrayed by Theresa Tilly, she is quite the airhead, and doesn't really do much, she doesn't realise whats going on and doesn't really live long enough to figure it out.

Plot

Ash and his friends take a trip to a remote cabin in the woods, where they find an old tape recorder and a strange book (Book Of The Dead - "AKA" Necronomicon Ex-Mortis) hidden in the cellar.

After playing the tape that was left in the tape recorder, all hell breaks loose and the Deadites start possessing anyone they can.

Ash and his friends must fight to survive the night, however it becomes near impossible when Ash is the only man standing and his friends are all Deadites that cannot be killed.....

Production

The Short film Within The Woods was made as a Prototype to try and bring in investors to fund The Evil Dead, they used it as a learning curve to experiment with different filming techniques that they would later use in The Evil Dead, it stars Bruce Campbell and Ellen Sandweiss who also starred in The Evil Dead

Raimi managed to secure a small budget of $350,000 - $400,000 and with his cast and crew he headed to a small cabin in some woods near Morris town, Tennessee.
When they got to the Cabin they found it was in a complete mess, and had to have a complete make over and some parts of the cabin had to be rebuilt and extended.

The movie took about a year and a half to finish shooting, and raimi was forced to use 'Fake Shemps' or 'stand ins'  to replace the actors who had left the shooting over the period of time, One of the only actors Loyal from Beginning of the shooting to the end was Bruce Campbell, who was also a Producer of the movie, and Raimi's childhood friend.

Bruce Campbell went through many torturous circumstances as the character Ash, he later stated on the Evil Dead DVD special features, that he would return home some nights in the back of a pick-up-truck covered head to toe in fake blood which was made from a mixture of corn syrup, food colouring, and non-dairy coffee creamer.

After filming had finished Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell had to re shoot some shots in Sam Raimi's Basement to get the right shot for the movie.

Review

Sam Raimi said that this movie was a less than perfect first attempt at making the movie he really wanted people to see, but due to budget restrictions he had to make do, and that is why he made The Evil Dead 2, but for me this movie is perfect in every way.

The acting was first class as usual from Bruce Campbell, and you could see how much effort was put into the filming whilst you watch it.

Raimi used many different camera techniques during the shooting process from strapping a camera to a plank of wood and running through the woods with it or boating over the lake with the camera to give a smooth camera action and as much atmosphere as possible, but for me the best camera work was the Stop Motion technique used for the decaying Deadites at the end of the movie.

Sam Raimi stated in an interview that he wishes he never filmed the Tree Rape scene, alot of people thought it was degrading and it was the main reason for its label as a video nasty in the 1980s, but i thought the scene was done to a dignified standard and without it the movie would never have been the same as it gave it a raw Oh My God!! anything can happen feeling and you just dreaded what was the come next.

I feel the budget was used perfectly and you could see that it was used wisely, by putting most big budget horror movies to shame, even today's standards of horror movies that cost $10,000,000 do not stand up to the standard of The Evil Dead.

The Evil Dead is considered one of the greatest and scariest horror movies of all time and i cant agree more, i think it is possibly the scariest movie i have ever seen, i first watched the movie when i was only 10-11years old and have many fond memory's of hiding behind my cushion when i was scared haha, even now i would still consider it to be the scariest movie i have ever seen, and it would take something very special to be out done.

Home Media

The Evil Dead special edition

Disc 1: The Evil Dead,

            Theatrical Trailer

            Still & Photo gallery

            Behind the scenes footage & Outtakes

The Evil Dead (Book Of The Dead Limited Edition)

Disc1: The Evil Dead

           Theatrical Trailer

           4 TV Spots

           Poster and Still Gallery

           Talent Bios

           Fanalysis Documentary

           Discovering Evil Dead featurette

           Behind The Scenes Footage and Outtakes

Evil Dead Trilogy

Disc 1: The Evil Dead

            Theatrical Trailer

            4 TV Spots

            Poster and Still Gallery

            Talent Bios

            Fanalysis Documentary

            Discovering Evil Dead featurette

            Behind the Scenes footage and Outtakes

            THX Optimizer

Disc 2: Evil Dead 2

           Theatrical Trailer

           The Gore The Merrier featurette

Disc 3: Army Of Darkness (Director's Cut)

           4 Deleted Scenes

           The Creature Concept Art

           Director's Storyboards

Disc 4: The Evil Dead

            The Living Love the Dead

            Dead Good Marketing Featurette

            Bruce Campbell: Geek or God? featurette

            The Incredibly Strange Film Show

            Antihero - Evil Dead Inspired Music Video

The Evil Dead (Ultimate Edition)

Disc 1: The Evil Dead

            One by One We Will Take you: The Untold Saga Of The Evil Dead

Disc 2: The Evil Dead

            The Evil Dead: Treasures From The Cutting Room Floor

Disc 3: Life After Death: The Ladies Of The Evil Dead
           The Ladies Of The Evil Dead Meet Bruce Campbell
           Discovering The Evil Dead
           At The Drive-In
           TV Spots
           Reunion Panel
           Still Gallery
           Unconventional
           Make-up Test
           Poster & Memorabilia Gallery Trailers

 The Evil Dead - The Treasures Collection

Disc 1: The Evil Dead

            'Book Of The Dead' to 'The Evil Dead' - The version differences. 

            Within The Woods, a superior quality copy
            Book Of The Dead work print trailer
            PC viewable Evil Dead DVD-ROM folder 

 The Evil Dead BLU-RAY

Disc1: The Evil Dead

           One By One We Will Take You: The Untold Saga of The Evil Dead

           The Ladies Of The Evil Dead Meet Bruce Campbell

           At The Drive In

           Poster and Photo Gallery

           Trailers

Rating: 10/10

         Good Points 

• Very scary movie
• Awesome Plot
• First class acting
• Amazing camera work
• Awesome special effects and stop motion

         Bad Points

There is nothing bad about this movie it is perfect.