The Evil Dead (1981)
Country: US
Technical: col 85m
Director: Sam Raimi
Cast: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss
Synopsis:
When a carload of dating couples rent out a cabin in the woods they inadvertently unleash the evil spirits of the place by reading from a mysterious 'book of the dead'.
Review:
No one bothers to mention why anyone would wish to go to so unattractive a location for the weekend. However, that is not the point of the exercise; rather it is to allow debut film-makers, Raimi and the Coen brothers, an opportunity for visual display. Thus we are treated to some vertiginous steadicam tracks, buckets of gore, and cheesy stop-frame animation. Though scary, the film avoids repelling its audience through deliberate over-egging of the pudding (every cliché in the book, exaggerated foley effects, adroit quotation from other films) and through its unremitting gallows humour. That said, the tree rape does push the bounds of taste and in 1983 the film found its way onto the UK police's top five most wanted list as a 'video nasty', missing the point entirely.
Country: US
Technical: col 85m
Director: Sam Raimi
Cast: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss
Synopsis:
When a carload of dating couples rent out a cabin in the woods they inadvertently unleash the evil spirits of the place by reading from a mysterious 'book of the dead'.
Review:
No one bothers to mention why anyone would wish to go to so unattractive a location for the weekend. However, that is not the point of the exercise; rather it is to allow debut film-makers, Raimi and the Coen brothers, an opportunity for visual display. Thus we are treated to some vertiginous steadicam tracks, buckets of gore, and cheesy stop-frame animation. Though scary, the film avoids repelling its audience through deliberate over-egging of the pudding (every cliché in the book, exaggerated foley effects, adroit quotation from other films) and through its unremitting gallows humour. That said, the tree rape does push the bounds of taste and in 1983 the film found its way onto the UK police's top five most wanted list as a 'video nasty', missing the point entirely.
Country: US
Technical: col 85m
Director: Sam Raimi
Cast: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss
Synopsis:
When a carload of dating couples rent out a cabin in the woods they inadvertently unleash the evil spirits of the place by reading from a mysterious 'book of the dead'.
Review:
No one bothers to mention why anyone would wish to go to so unattractive a location for the weekend. However, that is not the point of the exercise; rather it is to allow debut film-makers, Raimi and the Coen brothers, an opportunity for visual display. Thus we are treated to some vertiginous steadicam tracks, buckets of gore, and cheesy stop-frame animation. Though scary, the film avoids repelling its audience through deliberate over-egging of the pudding (every cliché in the book, exaggerated foley effects, adroit quotation from other films) and through its unremitting gallows humour. That said, the tree rape does push the bounds of taste and in 1983 the film found its way onto the UK police's top five most wanted list as a 'video nasty', missing the point entirely.