The Evil Dead (1981)

Film: The Evil Dead (1981)

Stars: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker, Theresa Tilly

Director: Sam Raimi

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

All October long, The Many Rantings of John is running a marathon dedicated to the Horror classics of the 1960's-90's that I'm seeing for the first time this month.  If you want to take a look at past titles from previous horror marathons (both this and other seasons) check out the links at the bottom of this article.

We are well past the halfway point of our marathon right now, and so it feels fitting that we get to one of the last "horror icons" of this era in terms of direction.  When you think of horror from the 1970's through the end of the 1990's a few names come to mind.  John Carpenter, Wes Craven, George Romero, and today's director, Sam Raimi, are arguably the most influential filmmakers of the genre during this time period.  While all of the other directors have dabbled in other genres, none of them approach Raimi in terms of future box office success.  Sam Raimi started his career as a director in 1980's horror films, the most famous of which is the movie we're profiling today, The Evil Dead.  But in the years that followed, Raimi's career took an unexpected twist into the commercial, with him becoming the mastermind behind one of the most influential films of this century: Spider-Man.  Along with the X-Men franchise, Spider-Man launched the present comic book omnipresence that Raimi is still associated with, making Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness earlier this year.  But I had never seen any of Raimi's films from the beginning of his career, and while I knew what I was getting in for (I knew what would be considered a "signature" Sam Raimi picture), that still did not prepare me for the shock of The Evil Dead.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is light on plot, but essentially we have five college students, the most important of which is Ash Williams (Campbell) headed to a secluded cabin in the middle of the forest.  As soon as they come, strange things start to happen, including Ash's sister Cheryl (Sandweiss) hearing the voices of demons.  When they find a book that claims to be the Book of the Dead they instinctively decide to read it, assuming that it's just a joke or a prank of sorts in the basement.  This turns out to not be the case, and soon the women of the cabin are finding themselves possessed, one by one, by demons, while the men are debating whether to kill them or escape.  In the end, the only one who ends up surviving is Ash after he throws the Book of the Dead into the fireplace...except the ending implies there's one last demon for Ash to fight as it sneaks up behind him before the credits roll.

The most shocking part of The Evil Dead isn't the demons, but the makeup & effects team.  Clearly made on a shoestring budget (if there aren't scenes that are clearly filmed with a standard portable camcorder, I'll be stunned), the film invested a lot of work into truly inventive prosthetics, frequently borrowing and then exceeding what the makeup team was able to achieve with a film like The Exorcist (I literally texted afterward to a friend "what in the Linda Blair is this movie?").  The makeup and visual effects are gruesome, gross, and putrid, as if you can almost smell through the screen the burning flesh and decaying body parts.  It's not for the faint of heart, and there were times I was wincing from behind cupped hands.

The movie also infamously has a scene (though I didn't know headed into it that this scene was coming) where one of the actresses, Sandweiss, is brutally raped by a demonic tree.  This scene hasn't aged well, both in the sense that generally assault is handled more carefully onscreen now, but also because it isn't remotely important to the story, and feels like a "rape as shock" situation.  I try to judge movies based on the time period they're from, so I'm not going to dock too much for this happening, but it has to be mentioned that it is genuinely disturbing, and probably should've been lifted in the remake.

Overall, I will give this 3-stars.  I didn't like it because it was too gross and far too focused on making the audience uncomfortable than genuine frights or story, but I understand that this is a good movie, and well-constructed on a tiny budget.  Campbell is fun as Williams-he is ridiculously hot in the lead role, his dark hair & bright eyes a potent combination for a "final girl" onscreen, and the chills are real.  I just don't need to ever see this again.

Past Horror Month Reviews (Listed Chronologically): The Golem, The Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, Frankenstein, Freaks, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, The Invisible Man, The Black Cat, The Bride of Frankenstein, Mad Love, The Raven, Werewolf of London, Dracula's Daughter, Son of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man Returns, The Mummy's Hand, The Invisible Woman, The Wolf Man, Cat People, The Ghost of Frankenstein, Invisible Agent, The Mummy's Curse, The Mummy's Tomb, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Phantom of the Opera, Son of Dracula, The House of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man's Revenge, The Mummy's Ghost, The Uninvited, House of Dracula, She-Wolf of London, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, It Came from Outer Space, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy, Revenge of the Creature, The Creature Walks Among Us, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, The Blob, Village of the Damned, The Innocents, The Masque of the Red Death, Night of the Living Dead, The Wicker Man, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Carrie, Dawn of the Dead, Halloween, The Amityville Horror, When a Stranger Calls, Friday the 13th