Review of The Evil Dead (1981) by Phillip B — 05 Jan 2014

Some friends head for a weekend at a cabin in the woods, and wouldn't you know things go bad. Evil spirits haunt and posse the group and things kind of down hill from there.

This thing is creepy, at the moment, the creepiest thing I have seen. Though I have just gotten into horror and gore flicks this is definitely my new benchmark. Both the atmosphere and gore are top-notch. The final scare is -really- bogus but the transition to the credits made me giggle. Which is good because for a movie that is praised for being equally humorous as it is thrilling I didn't really see that. It did make me laugh a few times, just not as much as I thought I was going to. If the 'dark humor' is meant to be in the acting and the over the top effects those are things that are a necessity for the kind of film it is, not something that it should be praised for having. When I hear Horror/Humor I think of Friday the 13th part 6, where the laughs are very much your face. Maybe the laughs are else where and the subtlety was lost on my for my first viewing. I was also let down by, Ash Williams who isn't as fantastic as a hero as his reputation lets on. Then again this is the first of 3 and I am positive that this will change however as for this movie, he's kind of lame.

But all that is nit-picky in the grand scheme of things, and none of that really takes away from the suspenseful blood soaked masterpiece this ting is. The best practical effects from 30 years ago will always date better than the best CG effects from 10 years ago. It really is a must see for anyone interested in the genre.