The Evil Dead

The first half is excellent. With a minimum of resources, Raimi manages to evoke an oppressive atmosphere of fear. The tree rape scene is something that is not easily forgotten. But the second half is terribly jumbled, as if Raimi didn't know what he wanted to do and was paying for his inexperience as a filmmaker. What I mean is that the scenes are poorly sequenced. In one scene there is a brutal death, and in the one that immediately follows, the characters look uninterested, as if not much had actually happened a few minutes before. I consider Evil Dead to be merely a good, not great, precursor to the flawless sequel. (06/27/2002)

On the one hand, it is perhaps too frantic and prolonged by several unnecessarily long scenes of destroying "friends", yet on the other hand, it is definitely imaginative, playful, solidly suspenseful atmospheric fun. I saw Evil Dead for the first time today, so I really can't go on and on about nostalgia, VHS tapes and whatnot. But even so, the film has a kind of special charm that is hard to describe. I'm curious about the sequel. (07/27/2012)

Crazy affair, changing from atmospheric horror to slasher to splatter finale, holds together only thanks to occasional crazy idea. Raimi delivers fresh ideas but lacks balance. Campbell has charisma, but others around him only fulfill the role of background. As for the suspense, the best for me was probably laughing Linda between the doors, the thought of which still makes me laugh and scared at the same time. But the highlight remains the last visit to the basement before Raimi unleashes his gallery of disgust. The atmosphere there is palpable. In the final evaluation, it is a weaker horror, where the viewer can fully enjoy grabbing different limbs and later their separation. And even though I enjoy being scared of what I can't see, it's disappointing when I don't find out anything at all. (03/22/2006)

The cult value, of course, prevails. If it hadn't become such a theme, there would be no reason to revisit this slasher, but history would have it otherwise. Today, however, the first film is like a bit of Deja vu, a strange sense of Ash having two hands, of not making fun of the Necronomicon yet, because this is the actual first encounter with evil. And, of course, Bruce is still a young innocent man here. It's interesting, but other parts of the Evil Dead phenomenon have more charm for me. (02/20/2019)

It takes a pair of balls to make meat like this on a budget of $375k, and for a then !!! twenty-two year old !!! The Evil Dead was a dream come true for Sam Raimi, as he and Bruce Campbell had saved up for it during their high school years and largely financed the entire project themselves. To be honest, I didn't believe it could be that good :))), however, already here, in Raimi's first "major" film, you can see his unmistakable style, some excellent directorial ideas, and an amazing ability to create, in conjunction with the sometimes quite unpleasant music :)), a great atmosphere that will have you gasping from the first minutes. An absolutely stunning work for its time, and one that has given Sam Raimi a reputation as one of the most interesting icons of film directing. (02/09/2010)