The Evil Dead *** (1981, Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker, Theresa Tilly) – Classic Movie Review 5029

Writer-director Sam Raimi’s seminal 1981 low-budget horror movie The Evil Dead is still a bit of a scary, gut-churning experience, with the film-maker gleefully piling on as much substantial graphic horror violence and gore as he can in 85 minutes, at least as far as his budget allows. There is a lot of blood. It keeps pacing along nicely, even if time has made it seem a little kitsch and amusing, almost endearing. At the very least it is entertaining, and there is no CGI!

It is hard to believe now that The Evil Dead became a cult video nasty, and one of the highest rated video rentals of its year. It won the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films USA 1983 Saturn Award for Best Low-Budget Film. Tom Sullivan won the prize for Best Special Effects at the Sitges – Catalonian International Film Festival 1982.

In Raimi’s simply set up story, five student friends on a driving vacation go wild at a spooky mountain lodge cabin in the woods when they discover the Book of the Dead and an audio tape in the basement, and, by reading out loud the book’s incantations, accidentally resurrect flesh-possessing demons, who start to kill and possess them.

A non-stop compendium of quotes from other horror flicks, Raimi’s film is an amateurish but often imaginative and hugely energetically made cult item, and proved an effective calling card to the industry for the director. The Evil Dead became much imitated and gave birth to an independently spirited, viscerally minded Eighties new wave in low-budget horror cinema.

Raimi’s virtuoso filming style (photography by Tim Philo) and use of elaborately constructed special makeup effects (by Tom Sullivan) compensate for the rather poor technical quality of the film and some feeble and unconvincing acting. Bruce Campbell stars as Ashley ‘Ash’ J Williams, and it is his turn that largely keeps it going, throwing himself well into the spooky action, and it also features Ellen Sandweiss as Cheryl, Richard DeManincor [billed as Hal Delrich] as Scott, Betsy Baker as Linda, and Theresa Tilly [billed as Sarah York], the other four friends. It is the feature debut for both Raimi and Campbell.

The Evil Dead has a troubled history in the UK. It was prosecuted in Britain as unsuitable for public showing, and the video version was originally banned. Mary Whitehouse showed the film in court to support the idea of the ‘video nasty,’ although this pre-1984 Video Recordings Act video was the version the BBFC had cut and passed  as X. It was removed and re-added to the ‘video nasty’ list several times but was never successfully prosecuted.

Bruce Campbell stars as Ashley ‘Ash’ J Williams.

It was made for an estimated $350,000 budget in the winter of 1979-1980 in 16 millimeter by a producer (Robert G Tapert) and director both then just out of college, then blown up to 35 millimeter film required for theatrical release, hence its home movie-style visual quality.

‘The most ferociously original horror film of the year,’ said Stephen King.

Sequels followed in 1987 (Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn) and 1992 (Army of Darkness: the Medieval Dead), directed by Sam Raimi. It was remade by director Fede Alvarez in 2013 as Evil Dead.

The real-life abandoned cabin was located in Morristown, Tennessee, later burned down.

Joel Coen was an assistant editor on the film.

Park Circus is bringing The Evil Dead back to the big screen at selected cinemas across the UK for Halloween 2018, in partnership with Sony Pictures Releasing. It will be screening at selected cinemas from 31 October across the UK, including Cineworld, BFI Southbank, Tyneside Cinema, HOME Manchester and also abroad.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5029

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