Director: Sam Raimi
Rating: 8 out of 10
Ladies and gentlemen, Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell! With The Evil Dead the world was introduced to the directorial talents of Mr. Raimi and the comic book chin of Mr. Campbell. It's old school, it's low budget, and it's got buckets upon buckets of gore and guts.
The plot, what little there is, revolves around five friends who go into the moutains to vacation in a little, rundown, isolated cabin. As usual, things begin to go awry pretty quick. After some investigation in the cellar two of them find a strange book and a tape-recording from a previous tennant. Basically, they play the tape and, before you know it, demons are rising and inhabiting the friends one-by-one. Just a word to the wise, if you watch the film the demons appear to be zombies of some sort. But, if you reside in certain circles that are familiar with the mythology of The Evil Dead films you'd be best to refer to them as "deadites".
The film isn't perfect by any stretch. It has some pretty dumb dialogue, and the first person to be assaulted (sexually by a tree, no less) does the old "Is someone out there?" routine as she walks out of the house alone into the dark forest to investigate. But, after that, hold on to your hat. The make-up on these things is absolutely ghastly: white faces, dead eyes, and cracked skin. In fact, there's an animated sequence where we see one of them become a deadite that's so fantastic to witness. Raimi zeroes in on a close-up of the victim's foot, and right in front of your eyes the veins begin to spread in a sped-up stop-motion animated series of shots that's just plain unsettling to watch. But, when you're working on a budget and all you have is your talent to work with, these are the brilliant little things you come up with.
The last film I wrote about was The Thing, which I gave props for offering up some truly terrifying visuals without the use of computer technology. Well, this film is right up there too. The demons and gore are all practical effects that would only look unnatural if they were computer generated. The first-person POV steadi-cam work is also first class, giving us the vantage point of some evil being stalking outside the house. Raimi mixes in some stunning camera angles so as not to bore the audience, considering 99% of the film takes place in a small cabin and there's only so many ways to shoot the same room before it looks stale. Look out for several tilted shots and a pretty amazing upside-down shot that circles over the top of Bruce Campbell's head and settles on his terrified face in a nice close-up.
Speaking of Bruce Campbell, this guy carries the 2nd half of the film with only his physicality and acting chops to accompany him. After all his friends are turned into demons, he is all alone in fighting off the army of deadites trying to make him of their own. He has to play incessant fear and terror, mixed in with sadness over losing all his friends, not to mention the gallons of blood and guts constantly being sprayed across his face. He became the more wise-cracking "Ash" in the sequels, which is what he's know for, but here he plays it pretty straight as a wide-eyed kid who doesn't know what the hell to do. And he does a damn fine job.
It's a classic flick that, while looking a little dated, still holds up on a visceral level. I'll be watching the sequel in the coming weeks.
Next: Saw
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