The Evil Dead

The Evil Dead has been a favourite of mine for about 10 years since I first bought the DVD when it became available with a host of other horror films in 1999. I've bought several versions on DVD -- I wasn't into horror films when it was out on VHS -- and was overjoyed when a Blu-ray release was announced. Usually for me, I decided to rent before buying and, when I discovered that the UK version only had a 1.85:1 picture, I decided that the only way to watch the film in the form in which it was filmed, I would have to buy the American Region A Special Edition release.

I don't think it was until George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead achieved massive success that filmmakers considered taking their cameras and going out and shooting their own film using their own script and relying on friends and family. Following in Romero's footsteps was young aspiring filmmaker Sam Raimi who, with Rob Tapert, managed to get enough money to finance a short shoot in the Tennessee hills and some post production work. With some friends, they relocated and made a film that is now recognised as a genre classic and spawned two sequels.

The Evil Dead begins when five friends from Michigan University go to a cabin in the woods for a break. Ash and his girlfriend Linda, Scott and his girlfriend Shelly and Ash's sister Cheryl are all slightly creeped out by the place but begin to settle in with Ash hoping for a romantic weekend with Linda. Scott and Ash check out the cellar and find a strange leather-bound book and a tape recorder. By playing the tape they learn that the book is the Morturom Demonto, The Book of the Dead, and the cabin was used by an academic researching Sumerian demons.

It's not long before things go very badly wrong - a voice from the woods keeps saying "Join us", the clock on the wall mysteriously stops and Cheryl appears to be possessed. Thinking she hears someone outside, Cheryl goes to investigate only to find that the trees are alive and have malevolent intent, grabbing her wrists and ankles and raping her!


From here things get even worse with other members of the group becoming inhabited by the evil forces they have accidentally awoken and it's soon up to Ash to put his feelings aside and follow the professor's advice: the only way to 'cure' someone from possession is to dismember them!

There is nothing particularly deep about The Evil Dead, no social commentary or philosophical underpinning - it's a film of its time where young people go to an isolated building and are attacked, being picked off one by one. Unlike something like Friday the 13th however, this isn't a slasher movie but something inspired as much by The Three Stooges as any horror film. There's a great deal of slapstick violence, with Ash being trapped under lightweight bookcases or shelving units twice and now extremely unrealistic effects - if something looks like a rubber glove stuffed with fake blood, that's because it is!


However, the film is an absolute riot and marked Raimi out as a talent in the genre because of his intelligent writing and skilled use of camera angles and editing. The film earned praise from Stephen King, a man who knows a thing or two about horror, describing it as "the most ferociously original horror movie of the year ". The Director of Public Prosecutions famously thought otherwise and banned it in the 'video nasties' campaign along with other genre greats like The Beyond, Inferno and Tenebrae. Thankfully common sense has prevailed and many of the casualties of the 1984 Video Recordings Act are now available and The Evil Dead has been released many times at the cinema and on VHS and DVD.

Though it is really silly, it is undisputedly innovative and exciting and many of the themes and lines, both in this and the sequels have become iconic (Groovy!, Come get some!). It is not an accomplished classic like studio films such as The Exorcist or Rosemary's Baby but is a firm fan favourite and those who like it tend to love it.


The Disc

Extra Features
Preceding the main menu are skippable trailers for Frozen, After.Life, The Crazies (2010) and Pandorum.

The sole extra feature on the BD is a brand-new commentary with Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell, with all previous releases featuring them in separate commentaries with Bruce Campbell going solo and Raimi and Tapert on the other track. This one is different to the other two as Campbell isn't free to just go off on one by himself and Raimi and Tapert can't go into the technical side into much detail otherwise they'd alienate Campbell. What you do have is three very good friends, two of whom have known each other for a long time, who have had many shared experiences with making The Evil Dead as the first and most gruelling. They recount the difficulties with funding, how the five people came to be cast, nights in the freezing Tennessee winter, drinking moonshine and, at the very end, why Bruce Campbell wants to destroy Sam Raimi's 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88.

There was a special edition release with a DVD of special features but this sold out fairly quickly so I was unable to buy a copy.


The Picture
The main reason I bought this disc was because it includes the film in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 as well as the 1.85:1 version which has been 'modified to fit widescreen TVs'. This latter one doesn't include any new material as it merely crops footage from the top and bottom of the picture so that it stretches to fill a widescreen television, but going even further so that there are slight black bars on the top and bottom of the screen.

The quality of the 1080p picture is absolutely superb with deep contrast levels so that when something is black, it is inky black and blends into the black bars at the side of the screen whilst the colours are nice and bright, skin tones are suitably realistic and thankfully it hasn't been DNR'd to death as the picture has been remastered with some of the grain and scratches removed, it doesn't look waxy. I've never seen the film looking so good and, for something that is now 30 years old and originally shot on 16mm, it looks amazing.


The Sound
The only English option is a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack which is wonderfully clear with the dialogue whilst on a superlative job with the score, ambient sounds and atmospherics and really makes something that was already scary even more terrifying as there is the period when Cheryl first becomes possessed to when she is locked in the cellar and the rear speakers have a bassy throbbing that makes the scene so intense that you really want it to stop whilst enjoying being scared at the same time.

There is also a French Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo surround track and English HoH and Spanish subtitles.


Final Thoughts
Looking back now it's hard to see why there was so much fuss over the violence in The Evil Dead, especially considering how far gore elements have progressed, not only in the horror genre, but in war films and dramas. The film is an incredibly accomplished work by a first time director with a predominately novice cast, working for the love of film and friendship. The violence is extreme to begin with but becomes amusing because of the sheer level of it - it's not enough to hit someone five times with a lump of wood, you have to continue bludgeoning them until you're tired and there's very little of them left!

The Evil Dead is one of the most important films of the 1980s and a great independent horror film that deserves all the praise that goes its way. Although this BD does not contain any of the featurettes, behind-the-scenes footage or outtakes that were previous versions, this is a disc to supplement your DVD rather than replace it -- you buy this for the picture and sound and keep your DVD for the other extra features. The thing that really matters is that this comes with the film in its correct aspect ratio in 1080p and with high definition sound.