The Evil Dead

The Evil Dead is a low budget horror film created in 1982 by director Sam Raimi (who is also the director of Spider-Man). The movie stars Bruce Campbell and Sarah Berry who are two of five teenage friends who rent a cabin out in the backwoods of Tennessee for the weekend. Shortly after arriving at the cabin the friends stumble onto a mysterious voice recorder in the basement which tells a story of horrific possessions as well as an incantation which releases evil spirits onto the cabin once more. Along with the voice recorder the friends find a book called The Book of the Dead which is pretty much an information guide to the underworld that comes into play later on in the film.

Eventually four of the five college students become possessed by evil spirits and are now part of the undead army. Ash (Bruce Campbell) must find a way to survive the night with nothing more then a shotgun with very little ammo and his wits. Ash cannot leave the cabin because even the woods are his enemy so he must stay the entire night before being able to escape to civilization the next morning.

If you like horror films at all this is a film you have to watch. Although it’s not the scariest of films it is very well done for the amount of money that was put into it. The special effects are obviously a little weak because of the time the film was created but overall it gets the point across even though most of the effects are in Claymation. The plot like most horror films is pretty standard with young teenagers running away from some kind of evil and sooner or later being taken out one by one. The filming was done in a very professional well done fashion. There were a few shots and angles that were pretty interesting starting with the introduction when the car pulled up to the cabin.

Overall the film is just a fun movie to watch and I highly recommend viewing it along with its two sequels Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness because the trilogy is simply a classic.