 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. This is for the 1981 film The Evil Dead Which has been very very important for the horror community for the horror industry It has inspired a lot of people and there are references to this film made in so many other films and The fact that if you haven't seen it, you'll miss a lot of stuff So if if people have not seen it, I would say they need to whether it's you watching this review now Or someone you know who is actually in the horror got to see it Now that said When I just sat down to watch this that's proud. That's the first time in about 20 Years that I've seen the film and the last time I saw the film about 20 years ago was the first time I saw the film so it was well overdue for me to revisit this movie and I Enjoyed it even more than I remember enjoying it the first time this film is It's it's quite nice the other but you know One of the problems people end up having when they watch film now Is that they forget the context of when the film was made and they make comparisons to film now? And what's able to be done now as opposed to what the limitations were back then so for a film like this It's very important to remember that and also remember how kind of cutting-edge a lot of the stuff in the film Was specifically Sam Raimi's style of shooting which is very interesting And I'll talk a little bit more about that in a bit But anyway are written and directed by Sam Raimi starring Bruce Campbell. I don't even need to name Movie other movies Raimi's done. Everyone knows Sam Raimi. I don't need to name other things that Bruce Campbell's on everyone Knows Bruce Campbell is Yeah This was followed by Evil Dead 2 Army of Darkness the 2013 Evil Dead remake which I should probably review at some point and Ash versus Evil Dead the TV show Which went three seasons which I feel like all those I'm gonna have to review now because I started The whole series right now. I feel like I got to finish the story out. So I'll work on it So the budget was about $400,000 that they were able to get and it started by Sam Raimi putting together a short film That was give the idea of what this film would be called within the woods And it was done as kind of like a proof of concept In order to be able to show in potential investors This is what I can do and I want to make a feature length of basically this so give me some money now that ended up working And one of the interesting things about that is when the film was done shooting They took it to an editing company to get everything edited together and Joel Cohen Yes, one of the Cohen brothers Joel Cohen happened to work at that editing company now He liked the film he worked on the editing and he became friends with Sam Raimi so Through talking to him he found about I found out about this idea of doing the short film as a proof of concept and was like That's a great idea. I'm gonna use that and ended up doing it in order to secure funding for the film Blood Simple which I have not seen yet. I still need to see that. I've heard only good things about it But that's kind of where things went now Going a little bit further with that Raimi and the Cohen brothers were friends and after Evil Dead Raimi that then went on to work on a film with the Cohen brothers called Crime Wave Which came out after you know, right after Evil Dead basically and that film was a gigantic flop And it almost killed the careers of those individuals. Luckily for Raimi He was able to go back and there was enough interest in doing Evil Dead 2 So He almost didn't have a career basically. We almost didn't get a bunch of other stuff after that So it's just interesting to know these connections another very important person in the story of Sam Raimi and Evil Dead is Stephen King because Stephen King had seen the Evil Dead very early on before it got distribution at New Line Cinema and He had sung its praises now Bruce Campbell says I've heard it on an interview He says to this day that film would not have become what it was or even become a success if it wasn't for Stephen King Being so vocal about liking the film. So the Evil Dead success owes everything to Stephen King in a way Well, I mean not everything but everything as far as getting Seen enough to get distribution. So it's it's very interesting to know that connection. I would recommend real quick There's a wonderful podcast called post-mortem with Mick Garris and he interviews a lot of people from horror industry He had an amazing interview with Bruce Campbell that I had listened to a bunch of months ago And it is so worth it Bruce Campbell ends up talking a lot about his experience on the set of the original Evil Dead and how Challenging that was there were a lot of terrible things with that because they're shooting location in the woods They actually didn't even have plumbing. They were staying there the cast and the crew So a lot of them were I mean they weren't showering or anything and they were running around in the woods getting sweaty and using all this fake blood and prosthetics and stuff You can imagine things were stinky and people were disgruntled and Yeah, kind of messed up and apparently was a very challenging shoot, but what we have is amazing The Camera actually at one point so the way they do those kind of like evil shots of like the wind in the evil Kind of wind in the woods Quickly moving through through the woods Which was a pretty groundbreaking technique as far as horror goes and has been emulated sense and looks great in the film Honestly, it gives you a really good sense of dread and also of how hard it is to kind of dodge this evil That's coming after these individuals How they did that shot is they actually mounted the camera on planks of wood and had people hold the wood and run Through the woods with it so very low-tech, but looks great And it seems like maybe it would be more of a high-tech type thing that could have been done But you know when you have a low budget you just you know Do what you can that's what this lighting there we go The editing or he said that the the original cut for the film was a hundred and seventeen minutes And they ended up cutting that down to eighty five So it was way more consumable for audiences now a lot of the stuff that ended up getting Cut out was kind of Bruce Campbell taking time to you know think more deeply about the the What upset him about having to basically kill his own friends It was kind of more of him kind of dealing with his issues as opposed to how the film is now at the shorter cut where it's You know, he doesn't really have time to think as much He does a little bit of you know pertaining to Linda especially because that's the love interest But not so much the other friends. He's just kind of like go go go taking care of things And it's like he doesn't have time After evil dead Rami's career was almost done like I said But thankfully we ended up getting evil dead to which I feel like the first evil dead leaves off It's such an awesome place that Rami picked up from to go to evil dead to and obviously evil dead to which I'll I will review at some point is a much different tone It's a lot less serious even though I'm sure you could look at the evil dead and say it's not fully serious because it's not because there's a lot of kind of Fun that's had there with the camerawork and with the material on screen I Do love the evil spirit cam especially that it starts the movie with that It's so unique for that time just that little bit leads the audience to believe that the car steering in the beginning The car steering wheel being grabbed and moved as Scott says in the beginning That little bit of starting with that like evil moving through the woods gives you that idea as an audience It's a quick hint of oh that whatever that was through the wind Are going through the woods grab that steering wheel? So it's very effective to kind of set the stage for what's happening Very interesting moment. That's very small when they're driving to the woods Scott yells at a bunch of fishermen who are standing by the side of the road waving which shows this kind of like adversarial nature of City folk versus non-city folk which further boils down to people disconnected from nature living in the city versus nature in a sense and that goes even further With everything that's going on with the evil that's in the woods because really I mean the evil becomes the woods at certain times the characters are even saying it's the woods They're evil they're they're coming for us and then the whole tree rape scene too like literally the tree is Going after someone and doing terrible things, but I'll talk about that later so I thought that's a very interesting moment to kind of signal this this divide of city folk versus more rural folk The foreboding slamming of the swinging bench as the as you go up to the cabin for the first time is a Really good way to build atmosphere very very early and it just really also helps the overall look of the cabin as it's just kind of Like there you can see that it's in very much Disrepair and that just helps to set the atmosphere set the environment make it creepier make it scarier The wind possessing Cheryl's hand shows how easy it is for these characters to actually be afflicted by this evil So I like that that's done very early in the film that kind of sets it up to You know create the world that you're in so that you can see that it doesn't really take much For the evil to get in these people so the danger level is very very high Especially because of the fact that they're isolated and then they start to become even more isolated Especially with like when they try to leave and the bridge has been like curled up by the evil which looks amazing I'll talk about a little bit more Secret rooms in movies never mean a good thing and that's definitely the case in this film with that hatch That goes down to the basement which looks so creepy I mean the cabin is an amazing location for this film in my opinion because it just looks so messed up and Scary and in disrepair and terrible If you notice in the basement, this is and sorry Weird if you notice in the basement, there's this quick moment That you can see a torn piece of a poster that's hanging on the wall And that is a poster for the hills the hills have eyes West Cravens the hills have eyes, which Is something that's just cool to notice, but it's also cool because it's it's it is another instance of city folk versus nature You know not prepared and things go wrong So it's a similar thing for the evil dead as it is for the hills have eyes The recordings in this are a really good way to reveal backstory without being super boring And it also adds a really good element of mystery to the film as well as kind of building tension Because the way the recording sound it it's just it's creepy and just listening to those recordings and also You know making you wonder what happened there before and why are those recordings still there? What happened to that person who made those recordings that stuff just starts to go in your mind and it adds to the whole experience of the film the sound that they make for the evil the evil whatever it is is really nice because it's kind of a mix of sound of rushing air and then someone making very like deep Ciclic old guttural noises. It's very well done. It's very very effective and every time you hear it It rightfully signifies. This is the evil's perspective that you're seeing From and that's another thing that's very very good about this is that those kind of evil POV shots Not just you know going through the woods, but also like you know moving around the outside of the cabin and One of my favorites when Cheryl is it has become a deadite and she's trapped in the basement her perspective watching the others who have not yet been Afflicted by the evil have a conversation and it's totally from her perspective and it just looks cool It's a cool camera shot Showing you through that perspective of the deadite, which is such a weird thing too because usually these types of films are from the perspective solely from the perspective of the Protagonists and there it switches it goes to both sides, which for its time Was very uncommon and was very groundbreaking. It's been done since obviously But what a cool thing to think of The tree rape scene is something that nobody forgets And for what it is supposed to be they did a good job shooting it now There are a lot of people I'm sure who will argue that they should just shouldn't be there because it's it's too much And I could see that but you also have to admit that for what they were going for It worked like they executed it well The peeled-up bridge looks amazingly good. It looks so good and it also adds this amazing moment of Ratcheting up the terror for the characters, but also for the realization of the audience because When you see it for the first time, you don't know that's the case You think they're trying to get out and then you realize along with those characters There's no way out. So the isolation that already existed is taken to another level now and it seems like They have to fight the evil. There's no choice. You can't run at this point The deadites end up acting very quirky And combining that with interesting camera shots and movement creates a really interesting fun feeling for the film Now Raimi does a lot of kind of interesting shots of like Going at the face of characters in a different in an interesting way or actually just shooting anything in an interesting way a lot of his shots are very off-kilter and a lot of them are from, you know, lower down Going up and not just like going up head-on But like maybe like cocked to the side or something like that But there's so many interesting shots like that and then shots of looking through things to something else The whole film has those very interesting engaging shots So it just doesn't get boring and I love that about it And he'll also do this kind of things where he like speeds things up a little bit and it's kind of it's It's enough to make you feel like something's off, but it also doesn't take you out of the experience of the film So his filmmaking very very interesting and it's important to note I said this in my review of this other film dead alive by Peter Jackson He actually had said that he took a lot of inspiration from the evil dead So if you watch the evil dead and then you watch dead alive, you can see Definitely you can see the inspiration which both very good films Over-the-top gore in this film But it actually adds a very certain charm to it and because of the way they do the camera and the Kind of fun bits of dialogue that they have in the film mainly from the deadites It it just feels fun even though it's this this intense gore and over-the-top It just feels fun because the whole film feels fun All the stuff with Shelly as a deadite is particularly good and the touch of all the twitching of her body parts Once she's been dismembered He's just that extra little touch that makes it even more fun because it's kind of absurd It's a little bit funny to a degree even though it's also kind of horrifying So I just love that kind of mixing of the two things Remy does it so well Between the deadite dialogue and the way they act at times like Linda initially They're actually very playful, which is a weird thing to realize Which also adds to making it more of like a fun less serious type film is that you know Think about Linda in particular. She does a lot of just kind of sitting around saying things to Ash doesn't attack him and you know like laughs creepily sings a little bit and Between those kind of weird funny things that they say dialogue wise and how they act really quirky and odd It creates this unique experience that like I was saying rolls into the fun of everything that goes along with the camera work and Yeah, it's just It's it's cool The scene of Linda's head getting popped off or getting lopped off I'm sorry Ends in such a funny way with the head thumping to the ground and then the neck Spurting blood all over Ash's face because the body lands on him and that's one of those things where it's like quick shots that You feel like things are moving so fast But then your mind catches up once the body's on top of them and the blood's just like spurting out and you're just like Oh, that's crazy and kind of funny Just really well executed it looks good the persistence of the deadites and ramping up of the taunting of Ash You can see drives him increasingly to more levels of madness in the in this film And I think that's one of the big strengths with the character of Ash is that he starts off very very normal And you can see gradually through the film because of everything he's gone through He starts getting more and more and more unhinged until the very end of the film Which obviously then with you know evil dead, too It just picks up there where he's basically unhinged and it's all been driven by the deadites And this is weird thing then where you're like you feel like the deadites had mainly just been playing with him the whole time So that's that that new interesting thing that Raimi ends up injecting into horror especially a film like this where They're not just out to kill you. It's not just this this Straightforward mission of eat people or kill people. It's messing with them It's having fun and somehow that's more terrifying, but at the same time it makes it lighter and easier to consume The mirror that becomes a pool of water is an amazing shot It looks really cool and the way they did it It truly does look like it's the mirror and then Ash's hand goes through it and you realize it's water It just looked outstanding and it's very you know, obviously it's very low budget it and it it serves to show you how Practical things like that can be done. You don't need, you know, CGI Nowadays you can still do stuff like that and it's very cheap The stop motion of the bodies falling apart and the necronomicon with like the tongue coming out when it's in the fire Looks really interesting And you can also at this point look back and just realize how much time that took because of the stop motion aspect of it Very impressive and it still looks good and that's one of the things like I think stop motion for the most part still looks really good And you know as long as it's practical effects, it'll hold up The evil flying at the very very end the evil flying through the woods and then going through the cabin and then Going right up to ash for the ending of the film I think is an outstanding way to end the film because it's the perfect situation of You realize that the evils still there as it's rushing through the woods Then it crashes through the cabin, which is pretty much where all the events of the film took place a little bit outside But mainly in the cabin crashes through the cabin like it's kind of reclaiming it Going all the way through and then it goes up to ashes face and they cut they go to black It leaves you with this feeling of I got like I have to know like where does this go? What's happening next? You know some people may just assume oh he already died, but you know it's that question mark So that when evil dead 2 comes out People who have seen evil dead one and remember what happened at the end of it are just like oh I have to see how they pick up from where they left off there So very effective I already talked about the cameras Camera angles and stuff there isn't much of any story to this film is something that you kind of have to realize But the visual ride and the overall fun feeling that they create for this Kind of makes it feel like the story doesn't really matter that much It's very basic. It's very light. It doesn't flesh out a ton with it Obviously they expand upon it greatly with the films that come after in the show, which is awesome But there's not a lot in this film But it ends up not mattering because you don't even think about it because you're so thoroughly entertained by how the film is executed It's crazy Most of the time when you're watching a film and you realize there's not a whole lot of story At least that's the way it is for me. I start to get upset I'm like this is this isn't working like where's the story, but for a film like this. It just doesn't matter It's crazy This is another instance of isolation being used to great effect in a horror film it makes any bad situation feel that much worse and Even though the characters are in the woods because of how the evil inhabits that place They're basically confined to that small cabin even more so like I was talking after they find out that the bridge is gone So it's these kind of levels of isolation like you know They're gonna be isolated when they're first going to the cabin because you see them driving through the woods Then they get to the cabin you already see it's very broken down and it looks like it would be easy for things to get Inside of it and then once you realize there's something there trying to get in That you know makes the isolation feel even more important and then like I was saying the bridge not being Available and then also losing windows and doors and stuff like that It just keeps upping the isolation and the danger. So very good And then also with the further isolation of ash Being on his own because he's losing friends one by one So there's the loneliness factor coming in too and and that just makes it also feel like intentionally the evils closing in on him further and further and further So this film actually feels to me like the next evolution of the zombie film in a way It has the same premise of people being assaulted by an evil that's inhabiting other people who they knew but Able to use more abilities of those host bodies. That's why I say it's kind of like the next evolution This is basically like if you take night of the living dead the original But you just change the evil a bit so that the people can talk they Don't just want to eat people They are just trying to kill them and actually have fun with it And they can use more of the abilities of the body like I was saying like they can run they can you know Do whatever a normal body can do so for that reason I kind of view it as that next evolution of a zombie film I don't know how other people feel about that because I know it's you know technically that's not the case because it's kind of like evil spirits and That's how it ends up being fleshed out further After the first film, but if you're just looking at the first film, I'm just saying seems like the next evolution of a zombie film Just saying but anyway, that's my feeling on the evil dead. It was really fun to rewatch that film I'd love to hear your comments about the evil dead now. I need to give this film a rating So out of five stars with half stars in play. I'm gonna give this a very solid four and a half star rating It's not a it's not a film. That's perfect. Obviously Because like I was saying there's not a whole lot of story I was between a four and a four and a half But the film just plays so well that I just have to go with the four and a half. It's really good It's very influential a lot of the things done it in it were very Impressive for its time and also to consider the fact that Raimi was 20 years old when he did this think back to when you were 20 years old and would you have had the ability to put something like this together? Probably not But anyway, thanks for checking this out. Do me a quick favor though hit that subscribe button That's your best way to help out my channel and show me some gratitude Let me know that you like any videos I do and if you are gonna hit that subscribe make sure you also hit the notification bell Because that way you know anytime I'm putting up new videos or I'm doing live streams because we have a lot of fun on the live streams and Yeah, I would appreciate that but at any rate, thanks for checking this out and until next time keep it brutal