Directed by:
Sam RaimiScreenplay:
Sam RaimiCinematography:
Tim PhiloComposer:
Joseph LoDucaCast:
Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker, Theresa Tilly, Ted Raimi, Scott Spiegel, Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi, John Cameron (more)Plots(1)
Story of five college-age friends who travel to a cabin in rural Tennessee where they stumble upon the Book of the Dead, an ancient tome bound in human flesh and inked in blood. After unwittingly awakening the unspeakable terror told of in the book, each of the friends is transformed into the evil dead, one by one, except for Ash (Bruce Campbell). So, Ash is left with no other way to survive than to dismember the living corpses of his sister, girlfriend, and two of his friends. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Videos (1)
Reviews (11)
When I saw this legend of B-movie horror films in 1990 for the first time, to this day a functional genre cult, I was perplexed. Now that I have repeated this experience, my doubts are still there. I consider Evil Dead to be an amateur film that fails fatefully in all the aspects that are important to me. Terrible acting performances, a nonexistent script, cheapness, the idiocy of the film characters - should I continue? Even that one star I'm giving it is not for any merits because the film is bad and is taken seriously to the extent that it is somewhat amusing in its twisted way. Nevertheless, Sam Raimi showed here (at least in his camera work) that he has filmmaking in his blood, and when he adds enough perspective (which he already demonstrated in the sequel of the same title) and gains some experience, he can shoot in a grand style. Overall impression: 10%.
()
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.
()
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.
()
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.
()
I get why this film has cult status, but for me it’s not worthy of a full score. The first half was great, but the second has several dull moments, the plot gets stuck somewhere and all I could do was wait for an ending that was clear. The final disintegration of the demons didn’t have any atmosphere due to the not very good special effects. It needs a remake, those special effects today don’t work as they should.
()
Ads