Review of The Evil Dead (1981) by Kendall I — 01 Oct 2012

If there was such a thing as the most perfect horror movie ever, then this would show as proof.

PLOT:Ash (Bruce Cambell), his girlfriend, Linda (Betsy Baker), his best friend, Scott (Richard Demanincor), his sister, Cherly (Ellen Sandweiss), and his best friend's girl, Shelly (Theresa Tilly) go out into a cabin in the woods for a night of partying. When Scott and Ash find transcripts on a tape and an old book, things start to get weird. They play the tape and find out that the book is know as the Book of the Dead and that the last residents that inhabited this cabin were subject to possession by Khandarian demons and that the only way to stop them was to completely dismember them. A recording of the last inhabitant saying the incantation brings the demons to life and insanity occurs. Trees come to life. Demons start to possess friends. Now it's up to Ash to try and save his friends and live the night in the cabing while staying alive. It's a basic horror plot (stupid kids stay the night in a cabin getting possessed by demons) with a creative twist and execution to the best degree.

ACTING:The acting in here was pretty good. Because of the way this movie was made (low-budget and campy), the acting was supposed to be overdone, but it comes off as just right to evoke the right senses of insanity and horror in the characters. The shiners are Bruce Cambell as Ash, Betsy Baker as Linda, and Ellen Sandweiss as Cherly. I don't think Demanincor truly shined. He was just there to do his job, which he did.

SCORE:The score was only there to set the mood right and unnerve the person watching, which it did. The creepy feel of the movie combined with the score to make a truly unnerving set of scenes.

EFFECTS/ANIMATION:The effects had to be cheap, considering this was a low-budget film, but they got the job done well. From chocolate syrup as blood, to green cottage cheese as oozing pus, to painted eyelids, every effect was done basically, but had great effects and was actually scarier than today's CGI blood, guts, and monsters. You may have noticed that I combined ANIMATION in this section, well that's because there was some animation, claymation, in fact. To show the skin rotting off the bodies in the film's final climactic scene, the director decided to use claymation to show the aging process accurately. The claymation animation, though gruesome, was done beautifully and to the fullest extent of horror detail. I loved it most out of all the effects.

CAMERAWORK:Though the film was low-budget, the director definitely had a vision for cinematography, for he captured each shot to the fullest extent and feeling. Thank you, Raimi.

OTHER CONTENT:Every thing about this film as a horror came together to make the formula for a perfect horror film. It's scary, funny, unforgiving, campy, dark, simple, well-crafted, controversial, and even creatively executed. The effects and mood of the film just unnerve the viewer and possibly sends shivers down their spine. Even in the latter scenes all the way up to the climactic battle at the end, the feeling of true horror and the rarely captured feeling of pure insanity is seen in here, beautifully captured by the actors. I also liked how they experimented with sound to make the demon voices just right to scare. It's just a perfect horror film becuase it has everything it needs.

OVERALL,an epic horror film with a basic plot executed to the best degree, acting that fit the mood of the film, unnerving score, working low-budget effects, beautifully gruesome claymation animation, full extent camerawork, the feeling of insanity and pure horror, just right demon voices, and all it takes to make a perfect horror film.