Review of Evil Dead, The: Collector`s Edition

Video

This film was originally shot on 16mm film, its full-frame and presented in the glorious aspect ratio the director intended. Its also very old and looks very cheap. But its a ground breaking but low budget horror film, and these sort of visuals are par for the course. The special effects range from pretty convincing in the odd place to totally OTT and extremely cheesy, this is half the charm.

Audio

When I first saw this on VHS years ago, the dubbing was out for the films entirety. This is happily far from the case on what is a newly remixed 5.1 soundtrack. Using the original stereo source, the resulting mix is absolutely brilliant considering the age it was made.

Sound effects are brilliant, the thing in the woods still sounds freaky and probably the only thing in the film which couldn`t be regarded as dated. I still can`t believe this was originally recorded in 1982, they`ve done a great work with the remix.

Features

This is obviously a special edition, clearly containing above and beyond the normal run of the mill features. The two commentary tracks are a must hear, the photo library is a bit dull but the behind-the-scenes footage is very interesting. Its a compilation of complete takes which really helps you to see how much footage is shot compared with that actually used.

The commentary tracks are a fascinating insight into how such a low budget movie gets shot, safety concerns often flying out the window, actors pushed way beyond reasonable suffering, plus continuity errors galore. Well okay, most of it is more Raimi taking cheap shots at Cambell and Bruce doing the same to Raimi.

These two additional tracks are just excellent, Cambell`s is down right hilarious. This man is the king of commentary, he manages to give more detail in a shorter space of time than any director, yet still keep a sharp wit about it.

One minor grumble regarding the director/producer commentary track is they keep referring to obscure stuff which passed fleetingly across the screen. Keep the scan back button handy for watching this when Raimi and Tapert are nattering otherwise many a flippant remark will leave you struggling to keep up.

Conclusion

This isn`t a good horror film, in fact most of the time its a pretty terrible attempt using pace badly and often going for shear shock value over clever direction. But back in its day, it was shocking and ground breaking, making Evil Dead a modern day classic anyone interested in the genre should see.

Yes its full of continuity errors, no its no longer scary, but Raimi has some interesting experiments with the camera work to keep you entertained. The cast are all pretty dire but still amazingly fun to watch. If you are a horror fan, this is a must have addition to your collection.

If you like films and commentary tracks in particular, this is a great insight into the low budget variety. The film on its own makes this an oddball dated horror movie worth a glance if that`s your ball game, but add the commentary tracks and behind-the-scenes footage, and your left with a real gem of a DVD.