Are You with Us? Evil Dead
By Ryan Mazie
April 1, 2013
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Having never seen The Evil Dead before, I figured it was finally time to get myself initiated with “The Ultimate Experience in Grueling Terror.”
Rated X upon its release, which translates to NC-17 today (a rating that is undeserved nowadays, yet it still wears), Evil Dead was one of the horror films to propel the “splatter”-genre that ran out of steam a few years back with Saw and Hostel. While those last two series were all blood and guts, Evil Dead has withstood the test of time because it also has a heart.
The no-name actors cast by placing ads in newspapers clearly go beyond the call of duty to make this little film work; not just for their sake, but also for director Sam Raimi, who put every financial avenue he had on the line to scrap together the $375,000 budget. Shot in the middle of the woods during a freezing winter that is supposed to be a warm spring break, a group of five friends are subjected to a night of unspeakable evil when they find and play a taped translation of a passage from the “Book of the Dead.” Becoming possessed by dead monsters, evils within the living woods are determined to destroy them all before the sun rises.
I found there to be plenty of scares in Evil Dead as well as dark humor-based laughs that are with us due in no small part to the constant use of practical special effects. There is no sub-par CGI to be seen, because there are barely any graphics at all. The only thing that looks a bit goofy now is the much-ado tree rape scene, but the concept is so disturbing that it still produces tension. The evil dead-ites look scary enough to produce nightmares and the limb hacking sequences are still wince-worthy (“Watch out for the pencil!”).
Happily not disappointed by the film after the immense build-up, what I really enjoyed about The Evil Dead was the unpredictability of who was to become the next victim to the living woods. While of course we know Bruce Campbell stars throughout the trilogy, unlike other classic horror films, the killing order seems to be preserved with secrecy for some reason. Maybe this is because the cast is killed off relatively fast during the 85-minute production, or because the film really isn’t about the characters, but rather the scares and laughs.
Raimi, who later went on to work with one of the biggest-budgets of all-time directing the Spider-Man franchise, was forced to be crafty for his first feature. He took a DIY-approach from everything to the monster make-up to the camera rigs. Even lacking a budget, Raimi’s creativity never seems hindered. For example, the classic and original shaky-cam shot of the demon’s zooming point of view was achieved by pulling a camera on wheels with a string. The marathon filming produced a mountain of footage that turned into a year and a half editing process.
Trilogy hero Bruce Campbell, who has turned into a cult legend himself outside of his character Ash, is the only actor to continue with a serious film career alongside his friend Raimi.
Given how much the film still works today, it is hard to see what the remake can necessarily “improve” upon besides the addition of special effects using today’s technology. Audiences still debate if the ’87-released Evil Dead II is a sequel or an undercover remake with a budget.
Standing at an astronomically high 98% on Rottentomatoes.com, even at the time of its release, Dead was welcomed to positive reviews. While the acting was never mentioned as a pro, the deft mix of horror, camp, and humor, all drowned in an Olympic-sized swimming pool worth of gore, won over critics with the stomach to bear it. Raimi’s ability to create an atmosphere of dread with his camerawork on such a small budget was probably one of the many reasons Sony eventually gave him the keys to the Spider-Man kingdom.
After months of knocking on doors to find a distributor, New Line finally bit. Released in 1983, The Evil Dead at least let Raimi and friends and family keep their possessions, raking in $2.4 million domestically, but wouldn’t be considered a breakout. That would have to wait until the film hit VHS and became a popular rental. Banned in several countries, and heavily edited in others, The Evil Dead gained a status as being the scariest movie to see, giving the film a long life on video. The cult status it gained helped spur DVD sales with multiple special editions and trilogy packages being released (a quick scroll through Amazon will show you a variety of options so vast that they don’t even all fit on one page).
I find it funny that it took about three years for Hollywood to remake the Spider-Man franchise, yet it took them 30 years to remake The Evil Dead. I’m not sure what that says, but maybe the fact is that Sam Raimi’s true legacy isn’t with the big-budget superhero flick, but with his no-budget horror film that fans still watch. I can’t believe it took me this long to finally watch The Evil Dead, but now I am all prepared to see how much this remake brings to the table rather than reanimates.
Verdict: With Us
7 out of 10