Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManicor, Betsy Baker, Theresa Tilly.
Director: Sam Raimi.
It's franchise month(s) on the blog this month, and I'm going to start it off with The Evil Dead because it's easy and because Ash Vs The Evil Dead started off just a few days ago and was a lot of fun. I've seen this so many times, though, and I'm worried I'll be a bit bored but I'm going to give it my best shot to give this a solid write-up.
It definitely deserves one, since it is probably one of the greatest achievements in DIY indy horror film-making. By now everyone probably knows most of the horror stories that were involved in the making of Sam Raimi's labor of love, so I won't bore everyone by regurgitating them here all over again, but the film really is something of a miracle given those circumstances.
It's easy to forget how influential this movie is, particularly because a lot of movies have emulated it and a lot of it's values have become rather cliche...but they weren't so much at the time. The basic, simple premise of five kids going to a cabin in the woods for the weekend and running afoul of a horrible ancient evil wasn't something done a lot, considering slashers were still in and supernatural horror was just kind of finding it's feet(again, anyway). It predates A Nightmare on Elm Street.
It's also to easy how to forget how different this film is in comparison to the rest of the series. To me, this is easily the best of the franchise: ferocious, inventive, energetic and actually pretty scary. The rest focused on a lot of comedy, with Ash becoming a catch phrase spewing, over-the-top monster fighter instead of a scared schmuck...and the scared schmuck bit is kind of what makes the original work. Ash is essentially "the chick" in this movie at a time when Women were always the final survivors and ran around in a panic.
I probably first saw this when I was Fifteen...the magical age where movies like this seem like some sort of whispered secret. It wasn't, really, but it sure seemed that way when I was a kid. There was something sort of forbidden and naughty about it. I think I had been told or read someplace that it was hard to find...except that it was available to rent at the video store, so it couldn't have been THAT difficult to find on home video.
Had such a crush on Ellen Sandweiss as Cheryl. Then the movie torments her horribly...which is probably a big part of why the film worked for me. I adored the quiet, withdrawn nerdy artist girl a lot back then...and still do. She has such a natural beauty. The rest of the characters not so much. They do a wonderful job with Scott:he's just a total asshole and incredibly unlikable.
Ash a certain everyman charm at the start(to the point of basically being an entirely different character), and the game of peek-a-boo he plays with girlfriend Linda is a charming little scene that gives us the necessary affection for Ash that we need to care about his journey throughout the events of the film. It's interesting to note that the movie doesn't telegraph Ash's role as the "final girl" in this movie: early indicators point very heavily to Cheryl, who seems to have some sort of psychic sensitivity to the evil hanging around at the cabin and is the first to encounter(and escape) the evil forces. A case is even slightly made for Scott: while he is an asshole, a lot of the photography gives him a lot of focus and the early actions of the films (exploring the cabin, going into the basement) show Scott as "the strong one." Both are ultimately misdirects, but it's there and it's an interesting element.
The tree rape scene. I think I always felt like it was out of place, and I especially do now. Poor Cheryl. That being said: it IS well done. Raimi's now infamous "camera on a two-by-four" trick creates these breathless sprints through the forest that still hold up well today, and his use of the branches and vines on strings and kicking over small trees makes the whole thing look really good. The real thing that's out of place is the prying about of Cheryl's knees and ramming a thick branch into her lady parts...the attack itself works.
No sooner do we have the establishing shot that states that no escape will happen, Cheryl becomes a Demon and off to the races we go. We get the excellent effect shot of the pencil going into the ankle, some mostly strong demon makeup as she tosses her friends around the room and then (as another misdirect) Scott kind of saves the day and tosses Cheryl into the cellar.
I want to take a minute to discuss how handy the exposition is in this film. It's just so...no bullshit. A recording just says "Hey, here's what it is, where it comes from, there's no real way to stop any of it without murder and that's it" and we just enjoy monsters attacking people in a cabin.
I do adore how gorily whacked-out and energetic so much of this movie is. Shelly is possessed and attacks Scott...she doesn't look recognizable whatsoever, just a bunch of weird make-up tossed on her...if it is indeed her, which it probably is sometimes and not others. Scott drives a knife into her hand...so she bites it the rest of the way off while Ash and Scott look on horrified. It leads to one of the most amazing POV shots I've seen: Scott hacking her to pieces with an axe...and then the body parts flop around on the ground...this movie is so incredibly over-the-top. It's hard to write about: there's not much to analyze, really. The camera work is inventive, energetic and does an amazing job hiding just how amateurish everything is...rank amateurish, to be sure, but amateurish nonetheless.
There are benefits to the film's low budget madness, though: there's a raw sense of emotion to everything. While Campbell had not developed as an actor yet, he makes a genuine effort to bring as much emotion as he can to the table and is mostly successful. His scenes of struggling with the now-possessed Linda(who is probably the most annoying demon ever) are certainly effective even if they aren't super engaging. The movie doesn't really want to be engaging, though, at least not on that level: the name of the game here is absolute carnage and mayhem, and there's certainly more than enough of that.
I think the film's at it's best when Ash is running through the basement trying to gather more ammunition: more quick cuts and rapid fire editing and an environment that is entirely hostile-projectors run, record players create musical discord, taunting voices of his dead friends, blood spews out onto him from pipes...every single one of his sense is assaulted, and it's an excellent horror movie scene. Campbell plays it well, too, in that aforementioned sense of terror and confusion usually reserved for the "final girl." Ash does not put on the old-school, macho affectation until the sequel and becomes the version of the character that became a cult icon.
The finale has some silly looking but still impressive stop-motion effects...and covers poor Bruce Campbell is artificial blood and weird goopy stuff. It's great.
Final Thoughts: I don't think there's much else to add. A strong but amateurish outing for both star Campbell and director Raimi. Inventive, gory and passionate, The Evil Dead still remains the greatest success story of micro-budget independent film-making.
Final Rating: Four Stars.
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