The Evil Dead (1981) - The Wizard Watches

     Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead has been my favorite horror film for a long time and for good reasoning. The film has the power to both keep you up at night and provide a cheesy laugh for the horror skeptics. This horror film is one of the few that can be both incredibly cheesy and cliche and downright horrifying and disturbing at the same time. Matter of fact, this film may have even been the one to START some of the typical cliches found within. The Evil Dead is a classic and a must-watch for every horror fan.

     The film begins with our victims, a group of young college-age adults (Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker, and Teresa Tilly), taking a road trip to a cabin they supposedly rented deep in the woods. When they arrive, the cabin is engulfed in fog and the porch swing is moving on its own. Things seem to be getting spooky before they even settle in. After night falls, the group finds a mysterious dagger with skulls, a recording device with reels of previous recordings, and an old book with a frightening face on it. The group listens to the tape finding out that the cabin's previous resident had accidentally summoned demons from the Necronomicon (the book from the basement) and had to fight for his life. Later that night after a few more brief, foreboding frights, Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) finds her way outside investigating the strange noises and is heavily "attacked" by the forest surrounding her, driving her back to the cabin. After she tells everyone her story and things settle down, Cheryl transforms into a terrifying demon ready-to-kill. From here on out, the spirits begin to pick off and possess the kids one by one, leaving only Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) to fight them all off and survive the night.

     The film's plot is essentially all one could ask for in a stereotypical horror movie plot - we have a cabin in the woods, a bunch of careless college kids, a "Book of the Dead", demon possession, and even a minor love story to ruin. So many well-known horror cliches were either started or made well known by this film - especially having the setting be a cabin in the woods. I mean, they even made a movie with the same title to celebrate these types of classic horror film. Even with the many cliches, watching everything go down is like being the only one of your friends left in a haunted house and you just want to LEAVE ALREADY. No place, person, or object is safe from being used by the demons, making the possibilities endless, stressful, and at times ridiculous, and the demons themselves are pretty f**king terrifying in appearance.

     The two things that make this film the appear as horrifying as it is are the special effects and camera tricks. All of the special effects in this film are 100% real in some way, and after looking at today's horror movie agenda, that's special. The special FX and makeup teams got creative with the low budget that they had and came up with demons who make you feel uncomfortable to look in the eye and gore that looks actually brutal instead of painfully fake. Combine this with the camerawork, and the stage is set. The camerawork is very choppy, naturally lit, and shot in unique angles - inspiring a very unnerving feeling as well as making it all feel realistic. If this were really happening to these people, they wouldn't be standing still or well composed. The camerawork is imperfect, and that's what makes it feel real.

     One of my favorite things about this film and how it used special effects is how they used claymation for almost the entire finishing scene. Personally, I've always loved how claymation animation looks so I am fairly biased. However, the decision to animate the scene in that manner feels unique and fresh and true to the film's gritty atmosphere. I feel it sets this horror apart from all the others in that time that also used a plethora of realistic special effects. The animation is just so well done and brutal.

     The Evil Dead will forever hold its place in horror history as the essential "founder" of many horror cliches we see in modern horror cinema today - especially the cabin-in-the-woods one. The film is brutal, cheesy, disturbing, frightening, gritty, clever, and a wild ride. After a while you start to feel like the madness will never end and our protagonist will never get a moment to breathe. This film has both made me laugh at the dark jokes and cheesy performances and stay awake at night thinking of those demonic eyes and how they looked in the natural light. For that, it gets my full respect.

(10/10)