Evil Dead (Original)
In 1979, a small group of filmmakers and actors working on a low budget of $350,000 descended into the woods of Morristown, TN, not knowing a thing about how to actually make a movie save for a few practice attempts, and through hard work, determination, and the sheer creative genius of director Sam Raimi, created a film that not only lives on to this day as an undisputed classic fright fest, but rightfully so lived up to its billing at the time as “The Ultimate Experience In Grueling Horror”, with a relentless pace, desolate atmosphere, and low budget but still gruesome makeup and gore effects. Even better, it introduced the world to the all-time greatest good guy in the history of the genre (topping such stalwarts as Halloween’s Dr. Loomis and Phantasm’s Reggie) in the character of Ash (a.k.a. Ashley J. Williams), portrayed here and over the course of the trilogy (and remake) by the uber legendary Bruce Campbell. Ash’s first on screen appearance seems relatively simple, blending in with his friends and actually coming across early on as the weaker of the two male characters with the other being the wisecracking, skeptical Scottie played by Hal Delrich. But as the story plays out, we soon see the appeal of Ash long before he became a wisecracking superhero beloved by millions: At the film’s root core, Campbell and Raimi depict Ash as almost having the most purest, possibly Christian, soul of the group, and the one who seems to be the most in touch with his own sense of humanity and essential goodness. For many, these little touches in Campbell’s performance are so subtle that many might not pick up on them, but what it means is we are subjected to seeing this man whose very soul is cloaked in pure goodness be placed in the darkest, most evil and twisted situation imaginable, and still emerge triumphant, in many ways because the Evil Dead themselves find that they can NOT simply pluck his spirit and possess him (which generally means instant death for the possessed person) as they do with his other friends and his sister who is along for the trip as a fifth wheel. As the main characters arrive at the cabin and settle in, eventually playing a tape where a doomed professor recites demon resurrection passages that bring the Evil to life, the film maintains a foreboding sense of dread accomplished as much with sound effects as it does with visuals or editing. Much of that is due to Raimi’s innate sense of skill and instinct as to knowing how to literally make every single moment of the film achieve the maximum impact. Once the action really gets rolling though, the film takes on heights never before seen and rarely since, starting when Ash’s hippie sister Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss, easily the hottest of the three main actresses) takes a walk out into the woods, only for the woods themselves to literally grab her and uh, show her how much they “like” her (a mindblowing concept for a horror scene to this day), to the various possessions and battles within for the rapidly dwindling survivors, where no punches are pulled in the depiction of blood and gore that results from these instances, not to mention the VOICES of the demons that come to torment the viewer just as much as they do Ash himself. While many try to deride the makeup FX here as being dated and cheesy, it is actually their very rawness that makes it so effective, and certainly preferable to the CGI-obsessed world of today’s filmmaking, where a character can be sliced open and a lame and obvious computer graphic that’s supposed to be a spurt of blood comes gushing out. Old fashioned, practical makeup and gore still remains the way to go for the true horror purists out there, because even if it does require extra time and effort, the payoff can be better appreciated. Of course, the final scene (or shot) leaves the whole thing very open ended, because as we all know Ash was just starting to build his legend that would continue to many a fan’s delight, but what we are left with when it comes to the original is quite possibly horror of the purest kind, which combines literally all the elements of the genre, from the old fashioned power of suggestion to the buckets of blood and guts to the twisted doses of humor to of course, an off the rails, anything goes, rollercoaster mentality that rocked every avenue of the cinematic establishment back in the early 80s and still stands today as an achievement that remains just as legendary for its ongoing home video popularity as it is for the amazing accomplishment that its makers pulled off with so little money…
10/10