Review of The Evil Dead (1981) by David L — 29 Nov 2013

Another 80's horror classic which I can now tick off the list. It's very short in duration, and cuts to the chase right away with little time for Introductions. Five students, one house, and a woodland home to several evil spirits that come alive once the magic book has been meddled with.

One by one the individuals then become possessed by the demons who turn them into savage ghouls, thirsty for blood. It's clearly a very dated film nowadays but that is part of the appeal in watching it now.

It's certainly not going to win any awards for acting or modern technology but its obvious how controversial some of the gore scenes would have been at the time, as its pretty squeamish stuff even in today's society.

Some of the graphics will be viewed more comically than they would have been upon its release simply because of how old fashioned it now looks. The rubbery looking limbs that clearly look so fake when pencils and knives are being stabbed into them, and the squirting white puss oozing from the severed heads are prime rib ticklers.

On the other hand the gouging out of the eyeballs still conjures up a sickening image, as does the taboo rape scene in which the trees themselves are the main protagonists. It would be interesting to see how the new remake reinvents this movie, as part of the attraction is the low budget special effects and there's a fear that this will be lost with a modern day input.

Rarely did I find this scary, and nor did I feel it flowed particularly well as no time was spent developing the characters or setting the scene for the haunting events. It's certainly an eye opener of the resources available for 80's movies though, and its a credit to the producer for creating such a grisly visual that will have a place in horror history for a long time to come.