The Evil Dead (1981) - film review

Five young college students decide to spend their vacation in an isolated cabin in the Tennessee mountains.  On reaching the cabin, they sense a ghostly presence and are surprised when they find a collection of strange artefacts in the cellar.  These include an ancient book, bound in human skin, and a disturbing collection of objects decorated with human skulls.  There is also a tape recording, on which a previous occupant of the cabin explains that the book is a Sumerian Book of the Dead, containing incantations that can raise demonic forces.   One of the five friends, Cheryl, is immediately freaked out by this, but her attempt to escape is thwarted by the trees around the cabin, which come to life and attempt to rape her.  Through the malevolent forces that have been released through the playing of the tape recording, Cheryl is transformed into a hideous cadaverous monster and begins to attack her friends.  What then ensues is a vision straight from the bowels of Hell, as the students endure a blood-soaked ordeal that is far worse than any nightmare they have ever experienced...

The writer Stephen King described The Evil Dead as the most ferociously original horror film of the year.  The film’s authors promoted it as The Ultimate Experience in Grueling Horror.  To date, the film has grossed $29 million and spawned two successful sequels (Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness).  No one doubts that the film is a cult classic of the horror genre, inspiring other directors to offer us similar spectacles of blood-splattered manic lunacy.  But is it really that scary?

Unlike previous modern horror films (Night of the Living Dead, The Exorcist, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, etc.), whose influence can clearly be felt here, The Evil Dead has the distinct whiff of parody about it.  The horror content is pushed so far to the limits of Grand Guignol excess that it ceases to be frightening and instead appears rather comical.  Perhaps this film would be better classified as black comedy than a true horror film, since it delivers far more laughs than genuine chills.  Or maybe that’s because yours truly has an utterly perverse sense of humour. 

The Evil Dead was one of those ludicrously low budget independent productions that came from nowhere and took the world by storm, exactly as George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead had done just over a decade before.  The film cost $375,000 to make and was shot on 16mm film, which was later blown up to 35mm, giving the grainy texture that imbues the film with its very distinctive dreamlike atmosphere.  There is very little in the way of plot and the limitations of the inexperienced actors are all too evident.  Yet the end result of this amateurish bit of fun is extraordinarily effective.  Once the problem of finding a distributor willing to take on the Censors had been overcome, the film became an instant cult classic, a box office hit that secured the future of its director, Sam Raimi.

This is not a film that will appeal to all fans of the horror genre.  Whilst the first twenty minutes or so are quite chilling (thanks to some inspired camerawork that steadily builds the tension), the film quickly degenerates into an orgy of limb-hacking, flesh-ripping, blood-spurting excess, and veers towards the kind of juvenile silliness that most appeals to a slightly inebriated teenage audience.  The shocks keep coming but the film’s capacity for surprise wears a bit thin after the second violent decapitation and fifth bloody impaling.   Still, the climax is pretty effective, as the walking cadavers decompose before our eyes, spewing out their viscera and vile bodily fluids which, whilst resembling rice pudding and strawberry jam, still manages to turn the stomach.  Definitely not a good film to watch whilst your are eating your supper - not unless you happen to have a large bucket handy.   How to sum up The Evil Dead in two words?  Disgusting fun.

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