The Evil Dead (1982) ***1/2 out of *****
Cast: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Hal Delrich, Betsy Baker, Sarah York Written and Directed by: Sam Raimi Running Time: 85 minutes
Ultra low budget but extremely inventive horror film about a group of friends vacationing in a cabin who accidentally awaken an evil force in the woods via the Necronomicon, the Book of The Dead. Bruce Campbell stars as Ash, who eventually becomes the sole survivor and has to battle both the demons from the woods, and his friends who have become demons (including his own girlfriend).
The results shown on screen are amazing considering the film's tiny budget, constant location changes, and a filming schedule that was sporadic over two years. Followed by two sequels: Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1993).
The DVD release of this film from Elite Entertainment contains the film in it's original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The disc contains two versions of the film's audio: a stereo 2.0 track and a newly remastered Dolby Digital 5.1. Included are two separate running commentary tracks: the first features writer/director Sam Raimi and producer Rob Tapert and the second track features the film's star, Bruce Campbell.
Campbell's commentary is informative and extremely witty, as he has a story to tell for virtually every scene in the film. Such informative tidbits include: The original title of the film was going to be Book of the Dead (and in fact when the film premiered in 1981 that was it's title) and when they were asked to change the title to The Evil Dead, everyone thought it was the worst title they had ever heard. Also, there's a scene early on in the film where the group sits around and listens to a tape recorder which they've found that's explaining about the demonic forces in the woods. For that scene, it was written for the characters to be smoking marijuana, so being the wacky kids that they were at the time, they decided to actually smoke marijuana for the scene. Almost all of that footage became unusable because many of the actor's had never smoked before, and as a result they became "confused" and were unable to perform the scene.
I wish the entertainment factor was as high for the Sam Raimi/Rob Tapert audio track. The two people you'd think would be more enthusiastic in talking about this film instead barely have much to say at all. Don't get me wrong here, when they do speak it's entertaining to hear, but there are many instances where both are silent for long periods of time. Sometimes after one of those long silences Rob will ask "Have anything to say Sam?" To me, that's not a good sign. Also, it seems like Sam Raimi doesn't remember much about the film and it's production... well, compared to Rob and Bruce anyway.
Also included on the disc is a photo gallery (which includes pictures from the film's "gala" premiere) and about twenty minutes of raw footage from the film. This raw footage really shows you how much a film can be improved upon using simple audio techniques.
Overall, The Evil Dead is a good low budget horror film, superior to many films in it's genre. And the collector's edition DVD release is well worth your time if you're either a fan of the film or just a fan of the filmmaking process. All special edition DVDs should be this thorough and entertaining.
The Jacksonville Film Journal -- Film Reviews by Chuck Dowling URL:http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ Email:chuckd21@leading.net
© 1999 of The Jacksonville Film Journal. No reviews may be reprinted without permission.
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