The Evil Dead (1981) (R)

The Evil Dead (1981) (R)

Directed by Sam Raimi

Starring: Bruce Campbell, Betsy Baker, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor

Daddy Says:

...that his daughter watched this without him when he wasn't home and he's still miffed about it. I watched it several years ago, but rather than review it again without having seen it recently, I'll just say that it's a great low-budget horror film. A great example of early Sam Raimi showing off camera tricks he would reuse in his later big-budget Spider-man movies. Not to be missed.

Rating for The Evil Dead: *****.

Daughter Says:

I say I will never watch a movie that comes out of a creepy looking box, but here I was watching The Evil Dead. That is one gross, scary movie. I love the guy who plays Ash. He plays Sam in Burn Notice and I find him so funny. But I had no idea he could ever be in a scary movie.

There are so many things to cover when it comes to this movie. I think I'll just start at the beginning and go through it in order. (I'm sorry if I ruin anything for you, but maybe it's for your own good in this case)

The beginning of the movie wasn't too bad. A car driving on a twisty road and we're watching it through the trees (sort of like we're the monster), then the car comes to a scary rickety bridge. Not too bad, a little foreshadowing actually. We all know that in a scary movie if there is a rickety bridge you have to pass over to get in and out, you know there is no way that bridge is going to make it. But I'll just skip to where it starts getting bad. So the four people in the car accidentally release the evil dead. Guess who they went after first? The loser sister who's a loner and a freak of nature. So when she says she didn't draw the creepy picture of a book with a face or there is a monster in the basement, no one believed her. That was until the basement door blasted open and they sent down the only two guys they had down there in the dark.

Nothing was down there but the same book the loser sister (did not) draw. There also was a tape recorder that had the magic words that brought the evil dead to life. Sometimes I wonder about people and the use of the mind. Well, the evil dead soon draws out the loser sister into the middle of the woods where the trees are really perverted and rude. They end up raping her. It's crazy and really stupid. There is no need for that scene whatsoever. Well, the movie just goes downhill from there.

I enjoyed watching the main character go through some gross scenes. At one point, he ends up in the basement and the room begins to bleed. Well the pipes are on the basement ceiling and they are leaking blood. Ash looks up and the pipe breaks covering him completely with blood. It is gagging and hilarious, because his mouth was open when it happened.

But at the same time, I think this movie went a little to the extreme. There were many things I would have done differently or cut out completely. For example, I would have taken out the freaky psychedellic scene after the basement scene. The floor was the ceiling and the mirrors weren't mirrors and such. It was really weird. Plus you know how I feel about the rape scene. I also found the ending really gross and makes me sick to my stomach when Ash "stops" the evil. I will give this movie credit for that. This movie was really gross. They did a great job at that. I don't know if that was what they aimed for but it worked.

There are tons of negative parts to this movie and if that's the point of a scary movie then they deserve the rating I have given them.

Rating for The Evil Dead: ****.