Review for The Evil Dead

Groovy!
With that one word, I was hooked.
When I watch Spider-Man it is often with a puzzled look on my face. Did the guy who made Evil Dead really make this? There's no gore, there's no crazy humour, but then that's what happens when you bow to Hollywood. Sam Raimi is one of the most inventive and visual directors I have ever witnessed and no more is this apparent than in his theatrical debut The Evil Dead. This film not only made a star out of Bruce Campbell, but also added a huge dollop of humour to what was generally a disgusting genre. Those who bundle this film in with the 'video nasties' of the eighties really need to go back and reassess this film as it is far from that. Sure it does include a huge amount of blood, gore, crazy killings and even turns a vine into a rapist, but when you watch the film you can't help, but laugh at all this. This is exactly what it was trying to do. The people who took this film so seriously as to request it being banned obviously didn't understand the overtly dark humour that is in almost every frame of this film and makes it a modern masterpiece and not just a cult classic.

Ash (Bruce Campbell) and a couple of friends are going to stay in a cabin in the woods. Here they find a tape that has someone reading his findings from a creepy book The Book of the Dead. Continuing to listen to the tape, it begins to speak the incantations from the book and this result in the resurrection of demons that begin to pick off Ash and his friends one by one. It's a simple story and one that has been heard numerous times, but the way this film was made, the dialogue, the acting, the effects is cranked up so much to eleven that I sat watching this version as if I had never seen it before with a mixture of disgust and mirth. This is exactly what was intended. It's not real and they don't even attempt to make me believe that it is all real, but I cared about all these characters and especially the character of Ash, who has gone on in Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness as one of the best ever heroes I can imagine.

This Blu-ray brought out all the big guns for this set. As well as having a new commentary, which is just as good as the one of the previous set, it also includes a huge amount of behind the scenes footage and documentaries about the creation of the film. Those people who may not want to buy this because they already own the previous boxset may want to think about trading up as this is possibly one of the best versions of Evil Dead I have seen in a long time and with 2 and Army of Darkness on Blu-ray already you may as well get them and enjoy yourself three of the best cult/horror/comedy/gorefests that have ever been created.