The Evil Dead
"We can't bury Sharyn. She's our friend."

Here, we have the nastiest vacation film of them all. Five friends go on a nice little trip to a cabin in the remote mountain wilderness. Unfortunately, their vacation is cut short when they accidentally awake a bunch of evil spirits by reading from the Book of the Dead. It doesn't take long before the gang gets assaulted and terrorized one by one -- after watching The Evil Dead, I guarantee that you will never be able to look at a tree the same way again. Eventually, their bodies get taken over and turned into zombies... until only one remains. But Ash (Bruce Campbell, in his first role) ain't goin' down without a fight! And so begins a massive bloodbath out in the woods.

This is the first of a trilogy which I admittedly ended up watching backwards. I first laughed my arse off watching Army of Darkness, ditto with the more violent Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn. But be warned: The Evil Dead is not a comedy. It was made earnestly as a straight-out splatter horror film and played with great seriousness. Well, at least it tries to be. Most of the cast is pretty green, even the mighty, action-hero-jawed Bruce. But he takes so much abuse in this film you can't help but admire him for his sheer grit and willpower.

By today's standards, the special effects lean towards the shoddy side. This is mostly the cause for any humour you may get out of this film. But what do you want with $50,000 and a 16mm camera? (So don't be looking for a letterboxed copy because it wasn't shot that way.) Then again, do you really want the blood and guts to look too authentic? Towards the end of the film, the carnage is just non-stop and relentless. No one would be able to take it if it looked real! And that is part of the lure of the film -- that you aren't sure whether you should be laughing or just cringing with disgust at the excessiveness of it all. This was certainly the feeling when it was released to the public and became such a cult movie phenomenon. Without such a response to the phony gore, then what would inspire director Sam Raimi to try to outdo himself with Evil Dead 2, essentially an over-the-top comedic remake of the original?

I've always been more partial to the first 20 minutes of The Evil Dead, although this film, in my opinion, also has one of the greatest final shots ever put on celluloid. But it also introduces many of Raimi's inventive, cinematic trademarks. I will never get sick of his atmospheric camera effect, in which it tracks across the ground at super-fast speeds, around rocks, trees and other obstructions. The Coen Brothers learned this trick from him and continue to put the Evil-cam in their own films. And although most people always talk about the shock effects and gonzo cinematography, there are some subtle gestures from this budding filmmaker. The most notable attribute is his mastery of sound design: be it the laughing of the girls, or the lack of sound at all (save for the occasional creaking of the cellar top). Touches like this build the ever increasing dread and shudder-factor.

This was the original Blair Witch Project in that it contains the same old message: as long as you've got a camera and plenty of warped imagination, a great movie can still be made, regardless of a non-existent budget. Oh yeah, that, and watch the hell out of No. 2 pencils.

DROOL FACTOR: A groovy, young Bruce Campbell. Rather than picking up the video, I recommend the new-ish Collector's Edition DVD. This includes a great commentary track by Ash himself, in which he tells anecdotes about what a maniac Raimi is and pokes fun at his own bad acting. It's like he's right beside you on the sofa.

GROSS-OUT FACTOR: Find me a grosser movie than this and I'll be extremely impressed. Okay, maybe Peter Jackson's Dead Alive!, but still! Fierce scenes of rape, dismemberment, decapitation, impalement and barrels of blood led to it being banned in the UK and Germany.

STRONG CHICK FACTOR: Other than the fact that the bimbo college girls make pretty good she-zombies? Errr... nil on this one.

-- Julie Ng

The Evil Dead is currently available on video and DVD.

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