Attack Of The ZOMBIES!

Shield Your Eyes Children

Recently I went on a quest to unpack all of my old movies from some of my many boxes hidden in my closet. I found a lot of lost tapes like the Halloween movies, Nightmare On Elm Street movies, hell, even a few Mel Brooks films that I cherish (Spaceballs and Top Secret!--I’m talking ‘bout you). Out of those boxes I even uncovered my Evil Dead trilogy--Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn, and Army Of Darkness--and have watched them over and over again. Now it’s my turn to review the first one in the series: Evil Dead.

Five students from Michigan State rent a shack in the middle of the woods in the middle of nowhere for a weekend of partying, but little do they know what lurks around that neck of the woods. They find a book in the basement along with a “boomstick” (a gun), shells, and a tape player. Being curious, they listen to the tape and find that the book they discovered in the basement is called the Necronomicon (also known as The Book of The Dead) and that reading from it will raise the dead and let loose a monster of extreme power and hatred. Being idiots, they keep listening to the tape made by a scientist whom lived in that cabin years and years before who discovered the book first and pretty soon eerie words are chanted and sure enough it unlocks the creature from its slumber. Will the kids get out of the woods…alive? How can the creature be stopped? Find out and buy Evil Dead.

Evil Dead stars Bruce Campbell, who plays Ash, and he returns for the films other two sequels. Evil Dead is an actual horror film unlike the other two films, which are centered on cheesy one-liners, slapstick humor, and puns that are so stupid that they’re funny. Evil Dead is the best film in the series of films because it is actually scary. Okay, so it’s not jump-out-of-your seat scary, but it’s still really creepy. The camera work that Sam Raimi shoots is some of the best and proves that low budget films conquer and rock hard. Evil Dead was made at the same time as other horror franchises like Child’s Play and Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive (probably the goriest movie I have ever seen) so it wasn’t really popular in the sense of mainstream popularity (that’s what I was told), but it was a huge underground success that made Raimi and Campbell a crap load of money. It has remained a cult flick to horror films because it’s so good.

Sort of like in The Blair Witch Project, in this movie you don’t actually see the monster, but you do see the people that it possesses. In other words, you see zombies just not the creature itself. But what you do see is the way that it travels. When the camera is close to the ground and traveling fast knocking down trees in its wake and similar stuff then that means you are seeing what the monster is seeing. This was one of the first flicks to use that technique and it was a nice idea and a great camera movement. The zombies themselves are pretty freaky looking. Their eyes are white and they have rotten, decayed flesh and they are just plain ugly looking and terrifying. There’s one that Ash encounters later in the movie (I won’t tell you who it is for spoiler’s sake) that sits on the floor and laughs an eerie, squeaky laugh that made me chill the first time I watched it when I was a wee little lad.

I have to give props to the make up person because they did a great job with all of the zombie creations, gore, and even the set designer should have won an award for his creation of the cabin. At one point in the movie, the walls are bleeding and blood is running down the light sockets and stuff and it looked just awe-inspiring. Speaking of blood, there is a lot of it, and by a lot, I mean that there is a crap load—no joke. Being a dude who likes seeing gore in movies, I thought it was pretty awesome, but if you are a person who turns their head away if you see a nose bleed then you should avoid Evil Dead at all costs. In fact, kids shouldn’t even watch this movie. Why? In the movie, a zombie female gets chopped up with an axe, a lady gets stabbed deeply (I almost gagged when I saw it for the first time) in the ankle with a pencil, Ash gets scratched repeatedly in the leg by sharp, zombie nails, and a woman gets raped by a tree. Yes, you heard me right. A lady gets raped by a tree. I didn’t remember that part of the movie, but when I watched it again a couple days ago and saw it I was like:

Jay: What’s going on?

(Vines hold the woman’s arms and legs down to the ground)

Jay: Naw, that can’t be.

(Vines that are attached to the woman’s legs spread them apart)

Jay: You have to be joking me!

(A huge branch darts in between the lady’s legs)

Jay: Yucko!
_____________________

In case you are wondering, I’m not joking.

Sam Raimi directed and wrote Evil Dead as well as it’s sequels. His name might sound familiar to you. That’s because he was the one who directed Spiderman. Although I think Spiderman was good, he does a much better job with Evil Dead. He gets bizarre camera angles that add to the tension of the film and when zombies are attacking he just always has to get the creepiest angle like there was one part of the movie when Ash is standing against the door so that a chick zombie can’t get in and the zombie’s arms go through the door and catch him around the throat. It may sound like a cliché angle to you, but it was awesome. Bruce Campbell does a nice job as well playing as Ashley, a next-door-neighbor-type of nice guy who you would easily introduce your parents to. He makes a major transaction as the movie goes on. In the beginning he’s a care-free guy who just wants to spend time with his girlfriend and best friends and have a fun time, but by the time that sh!t starts happening then you can easily see his sanity slipping away slowly, but in large amounts. It was intriguing to watch onscreen.

Night Of The Living Dead It Is Not

I don’t know whether to tell you that Evil Dead is a zombie film or a slasher film because It’s definitely both. All five of the main characters get taken away in slasher form, but they turn into zombies and stuff so you decide, but whether or not it’s one or the other, the results of this film is awesome. Evil Dead is a horror masterpiece that has been cherished since it’s release in the early 80s. Personally, I can watch this movie millions of times because it’s so easy to love, but it really depends on the person who watches it. If you like psychology-mind-bursting films that really play with your head then watch Evil Dead because it’s perfect. Halloween is almost here and Evil Dead is the best film to watch for the holiday so buy it today and although I won’t guarantee that it won’t make you want to go to deserted cabins in the woods anymore, it will certainly entertain you and that’s all that counts…right?

J to the A to the Y


copyright September 2003


Jay’s Technical Corner


Evil Dead

Starring Bruce Campbell and Sarah York

Directed and Written by Sam Raimi

Produced by Robert G. Tapert

Make-Up Effects by Tom Sullivan

Un-Rated For: Being so bloody, gory, and disturbing that it has no other rating except being un-rated. Un-Rated For: Gore, violence, nudity, and gore.

85 Minutes