Review of Evil Dead, The: Special Edition

Introduction

Firstly I have to say that I`m chuffed to bits after hearing Anchor Bay decided to venture into the U.K market. This was great news for us avid Evil Dead & Bruce Campbell fans, as it`s Anchor who hold the exclusive rights for all three Evil Dead films. So judging by their successful exploits on DVD with this series in the US, we can expect the two sequels, Dead By Dawn & Army Of Darkness, both to turn up prior to christmas. Woo hoo!

In 1982, Evil Dead made its debut in cinemas world-wide and instantly re-defined the horror genre. Not bad considering the project was originated by a group of amateur film-makers. Sam Raimi (now a big shot director in Hollywood) and Bruce Campbell (considered today as the best b-movie actor of all time) were the main instigators of the project. As ambitious college students, together they both produced, then submitted, a 15 minute sample movie, which they had financed & shot all by themselves, to a distribution company known as Renaissance. The concept was liked by the big wigs, and Raimi & Bruce were given a small budget to acquire cast & crew members, to shoot a full-length motion picture based on their own concept.

After a stop-start production period, it opened with much controversy, but it survived mostly un-cut into U.S theatres regardless. However the U.K version suffered from heavy cuts, and were duplicated on each of the many VHS versions that were released. But over two decades on, the BBFC have passed Evil Dead uncut, and ready to be unleashed for the first time for public viewing here in the UK. Can you say woo hoo?

Video

Yeah I like this. Aplaudable work from Anchor here. The Evil Dead comes with an anamorphic widescreen 1.85.1, which wasn`t the original framing, but looks the business regardless. There`s no problems with bleeding or bleaching, and the encoding is consistent for the majority of the duration. This only ever really shows flaws during scenes which involve excessive amounts of fog combined with darkness, but there`s nothing really here that will degrade the enjoyment factor at all.

Audio

There are two soundtracks, being the choice of DD 5.1 or DTS 6.1. Both of these sound great, and really add to the overall atmosphere the movie sets out to generate. Every swipe, punch, kick and chop can be heard with glorious bass, giving the fight scenes an extra dimension.

The music is very corny, and it consists of cheesy anthems stolen from big-time retro horror movies.

Features

After the lengthy wait we`ve suffered for the debut of Evil Dead in region two format, you`d think that we`d be spoilt with a decent amount of extras, wouldn`t you? You`d be wrong then. Other than the two contrasting audio commentaries, there`s just the bog-standard trailer & photo gallery here.

The only meaningful additions are without a doubt the two commentary tracks. One of which consists of Sam Raimi & Robert Tapert (producer), and the other by the star, Mr Bruce Campbell himself. I found Bruce`s audio contribution the best I`ve ever heard, let alone the more favorable on the disc. He gives a humorous and informative talk throughout the entire duration, and never really loses the pace with his verbal antidotes (which are hilarious by the way). The alternative isn`t bad either, but there`s way too many pauses involved for my liking, plus Bruce covers the exact same ground, only much better.

It would have been nice to see the infamous "Within The Woods" 15 minute movie included. Any true Evil Dead fan will know that this was what Sam & Bruce produced to sell the idea of Evil Dead to Renaissance. So far, there`s only been bootleg copies of it touted around, but rumor has it that Anchor are planning to release this in the near-future.

Conclusion

Was it worth the wait? Well, yes and no. Whilst the movie remains as fun as ever, you still can`t help but feeling that this was a missed opportunity for something special from Anchor. This may satisfy first time watchers, but avid fans like myself, would have expected a hell of a lot more in terms of extras, especially when there are already superior alternate region versions out there. But with that said, you really can`t knock the presentation of the film, it`s been enhanced beyond belief, and I`m sure this surpasses any previous release in that aspect.

And with that said, it`s a classic movie, that everyone should own. So I guess what I`m saying is, it`s a recommendation in my book.