This cool horror flick starring B-movie king Bruce Campbell was one of the first “video nasties” of the 1980s.
Adapting their own short called Within the Woods, childhood friends Sam Raimi, producer Robert Tapert, and star Campbell secured funding from local businesses and traipsed off to the forest to make one of the most ferocious, original and unrelenting horror movies of all time.
The saga kicks off when a group of friends – Ash (Bruce Campbell), girlfriend Linda (Betsy Baker), pal Scotty (Richard DeManincor, billed here as Hal Delrich), Scotty’s gal Shelly (Theresa Tilly, billed as Sarah York), and sensitive, artistic fifth wheel Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) – take a sojourn to a dilapidated cabin deep in an isolated forest.
In the cabin, they discover a recording left by a history professor who taped his translation of a strange old book called the Necronomicon, or Book of The Dead (the movie was originally going to be called The Book Of The Dead, but the title was changed for fear of turning kids off by using a literary reference).
Playing the tape opens the gates to the underworld, and all manner of nastiness and gory mutilation ensues. Ash’s friends are soon possessed in very horrifying ways.
Not since Friday the 13th(1980) had teen slumber parties taken on such a new dimension.
It looks a little rough around the edges these days (and the still censored tree-rape scene is just unnecessarily vicious), but The Evil Dead remains an inspiration for first-time filmmakers and a testament to the power of plasticine, glue, a few garden tools and gumption.
The film spawned a superior sequel, Dead By Dawn (1987), which exchanged much of the stomach-churning horror for spot-on humour.
An infinitely quotable second sequel (and final instalment) – Army of Darkness(1993) – abandoned its gore-laden roots almost entirely in favour of some truly unforgettable comic scenes as Campbell’s hero Ash is catapulted back to fight the undead menace in medieval times.
Ash
Bruce Campbell Cheryl
Ellen Sandweiss Linda
Betsy Baker Scott
Richard DeManincor (as Hal Delrich) Shelly
Theresa Tilly (as Sarah York)
Director
Sam Raimi
Video
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The saga kicks off when a group of friends – Ash (Bruce Campbell), girlfriend Linda (Betsy Baker), pal Scotty (Richard DeManincor, billed here as Hal Delrich), Scotty’s gal Shelly (Theresa Tilly, billed as Sarah York), and sensitive, artistic fifth wheel Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) – take a sojourn to a dilapidated cabin deep in an isolated forest.
It looks a little rough around the edges these days (and the still censored tree-rape scene is just unnecessarily vicious), but The Evil Dead remains an inspiration for first-time filmmakers and a testament to the power of plasticine, glue, a few garden tools and gumption.
