Starring: Betsy Baker, Bruce Campbell, Barbara Carey, Richard DeManincor, Philip A. Gillis Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: Unrated Binding: DVD Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, THX, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Starz / Anchor Bay Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: March 05, 2002 Running Time: 85 minutes Theatrical Release Date: April 15, 1983
Amazon.com essential video: In the fall of 1979, Sam Raimi and his merry band headed into the woods of rural Tennessee to make a movie. They emerged with a roller coaster of a film packed with shocks, gore, and wild humor, a film that remains a benchmark for the genre. Ash (cult favorite Bruce Campbell) and four friends arrive at a backwoods cabin for a vacation, where they find a tape recorder containing incantations from an ancient book of the dead. When they play the tape, evil forces are unleashed, and one by one the friends are possessed. Wouldn't you know it, the only way to kill a "deadite" is by total bodily dismemberment, and soon the blood starts to fly. Raimi injects tremendous energy into this simple plot, using the claustrophobic set, disorienting camera angles, and even the graininess of the film stock itself to create an atmosphere of dread, punctuated by a relentless series of jump-out-of-your-seat shocks. The Evil Dead lacks the more highly developed sense of the absurd that distinguish later entries in the series--Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness--but it is still much more than a gore movie. It marks the appearance of one of the most original and visually exciting directors of his generation, and it stands as a monument to the triumph of imagination over budget. --Simon Leake
Ultimate? Nope. Not yet. For it to be TRULY ultimate, it needs to include the short WITHIN THE WOODS. It doesn't. So I guess we'll be seeing more of the same in the future.
Yes, it's a classic! Just a quick note on THE EVIL DEAD: since the film was shot in 16mm, any edition on DVD which is matted may be incorrect. The aspect ratio in 16mm is 1:33 to 1, which looks great on a regular TV screen. True, the film was shot to be released theatrically in 1:85 to 1, which would include matting. The 2002 Anchor Bay standard edition is Fullscreen, using what appears to be the entire 16mm frame. Since George Lucas' THX mastered the print, I would assume that everything is as it should be (and they did do a great job on the picture and the sound!)
As to the film? There are so many great reviews that I can't add a thing. See it! Enjoy it!
One Of The Best B-Movies Ever! A group of teens are going to the woods to spend some time in the wilderness. They arrive to their cabin and begin to settle. While snooping around in the basement, they disover a strange bood. They examine the book. After they discover what the book is, they find out that they have let loose a group of demons.
The Evil Dead has to be one of the top 3 scariest movies ever made. This movie scared me a bunch, but not because of the gore. The scenes that scared me the most were the point of view shots. These shots scared me becuase you simply didn't know whose point of veiw you were looking through!
The gore is pretty decent. Even though it looks synthetic in a few scenes, it still looks gruesome. The other special effects flat out suck, but you would expect that from a B-Movie. All of the B-Movie aspects are in the Evil Dead, but you never really notice them.
The acting is pretty good, and I like the way Bruce Campbell handled his role. He did a great job with playing the weak, yet powerful character of Ash.
The Evil Dead is a must see for all horror fans. It is highly recomended.
Still Not Perfect....which leaves room for yet ANOTHER release! Well, they've got a lot of DVD extras. LOTS! But no "Within The Woods", and I guess that's because some fools want big money for their limited participation if it's ever distributed. AND...no new Sam Raimi retrospectives...nor any old, dug-up interviews. It's Raimi-free. At least you can find old interviews on YouTube! They got 2 younger, up & coming directors to cream all over Evil Dead, but they can't get Raimi to talk about his own damn movie!? WTF!? And Campbell's "new" footage is limited to his rants recorded in a group discussion at Flashback Weekend 2005. Ho-well, another slightly-imperfect DVD release for a slightly-imperfect movie...but it's still good. Almost all of the special features you saw in the Book of the Dead edition (sans Bruce Campbell's documentary "Fanalysis") plus many more new extras! No one knows how to milk a movie for all its worth like Anchor Bay! They will beat a dead horse until there's no more horse left to beat.
The Evil Dead....... The Evil Dead(or Book of the Dead, as it was originally called) is a 1981 horror film that was written and directed by Sam Raimi. He's famous for movies such as Darkman, The Quick and The Dead, and Spider-Man. Although this isn't his first film, it is his most widely 'acclaimed' film. The film stars Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss and Betsy Baker. It was made on a budget of $375,000. It tells the story of five college students who take a vacation in the woods at a cabin which quickly turns into horror when they find an audiotape that is a key to unlocking evil spirits. The film was extremely controversial, in its' day, for its' graphic violence and gore. It is accepted as a classic in the genre these days and has a cult following worldwide.
Originally, when I first saw the movie years ago, I didn't like it so much. It was quite different than horror movies of the day back then because of its' excessive use of violence and gore as well as its' dark humor. It wasn't til recently when I purchased the movie that I seen it for what it was truly worth. It's absolutely brilliant. A classic, for sure.
If you collect horror movies on DVD, this is a classic you definitely need in your collection. It stands as a testament of horror movies from way back in the day. You'll get a kick out of it.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tony's Online Tips
Trevor
