The movie’s original title was ‘Book of the Dead’ because it was (loosely) inspired upon the Necronomicon myth. You should know that is was a low budget film,patched together with a bunch of then inexperienced (would be) actors. All of the stunts where done by the actors themselves, there was no money for stuntmen or anything like that. Never the less it’s fun and it stands out of the masses.
The story is short and simple ; a bunch of college students go out to an abandoned cottage for the weekend. This cottage is located in some dark woods and they are cut of from the outside world. They find a book (the Book of the Dead ) made from human skin and written in blood. With this creepy relic they find an audio log of a professor who had been studying this manuscript. As they play the tape – they (re)awaken the demons … form there on all hell breaks lose. It’s well know fact that if you are looking for a plot, horror movies in general aren’t a good option. Nevertheless the tensions and shock -factor of this movie are outstanding.
The action is great, the sound effects are exceptionally eerie and the zombies make The Exorcist look like a tea party with Linda Blair as the hostess. Also, the camerawork is very creative and refreshing. The Evil Dead was one of the first horror movies to actually,(consciously ) incorporate humour into horror. The violence is first scary, then shocking and finally hilarious . However, they got into trouble with the censure crew at the movie auctions and the movie was considered a ‘video nasty’ and was thrown in the same bin as snuff shit such as “Traces of Death”. Humour was obviously lost on the sterile auction drones… – the Evil Dead was released simultaneously on video and theatres, which was never done before. Unlike most popular horror movies the tempo of this film isn’t your standard ; 20min ‘story’-20min lead character –20 killing/running/fining out the obvious and 20min climax /survivor becomes hero by facing the killer or monster. This movie grabs you by the throat from the start and doesn’t let go until hours AFTER you played it. The result is a authentic 70’s horror flick, dipping with blood, oozing with slime and screaming so loud it’s echoes are still heard in the Horror Hall of Fame.
The scene that stands out from the rest is of course the girl / tree scene that happens halfway through the movie, once again its a pretty simple concept, girl gets separated from the others, runs through the woods, gets ties up and raped by a tree, the scene is non explicit but did manage to get the film banned on release. While it will always live in the hall of fame its pretty tame all things considered.
Uncut DVD available from just about everywhere
