The Evil Dead

 The Evil Dead is the horror classic. Hailed by Stephen King himself as ‘the most ferociously original horror film of the year’ when it was released in 1981, it’s been banned in countries all over the world and is the first feature film from Sam Raimi, director of the Spiderman trilogy, Drag Me To Hell and Darkman.

 The Book of the Dead is where it all begins, the fabled Necronomicon of the Lovecraftian mythos, the ‘Naturan Demanto’, a book so evil that it contains an incantation in an unknown language, which if read out will summon the spirits of the Dead to kill all in sight. So you can imagine what happens, can you not?

 Five college students travel into the wilderness of Tennessee to spend a pleasant holiday in an abandoned cabin. Everything seems great until they hear noises coming from a chained-up trapdoor in the lounge and decide to investigate, but they find nothing except an old tape recorder and a book bound in human flesh and inked in human blood (oh, what could it be?). On playing the tape, they hear a voice reading out some sort of incantation and from that point onwards their holiday is ruined. Completely ruined. The first to become demonically possessed is Cheryl, who issues a Christmas Carol-type warning to her friends: ‘one by one we shall come for you’. She is then locked in the cellar and forced to remain there shouting insults for the remainder of the film.

The best, and probably the most impressive element of The Evil Dead aside from its innovative camera sweeps and demonic voiceovers, is its visual effects, particularly the gore. But this isn’t Saw gore – it’s much more than Saw gore – it’s stop motion gore. It’s hilarious-yet-disgusting, obviously-fake-yet-brilliant gore. Tree branches turn savage, limbs get amputated and monsters disintegrate all over the place – the actual time and effort put into creating effects like these with such a low budget ($350,000) is incredible. The film is well deserving of its Clavell de Plata award for special effects.

 The mass appeal of The Evil Dead and its sequels is probably due to its ability to combine full-on horror with a certain playfulness – for every moment of disgust, there’s a one-liner or a bit of slapstick to match it. And like Stephen King said, it’s just so unique: a simply structured 85 minutes of fun and blood. The film has gone on to inspire countless other horrors, from Braindead (one of Peter Jackson’s earlier efforts that uses the same sort of ‘animated gore’ effects, but to an even greater extent), to the more recent Cabin in the Woods. There’s even a musical based on the Evil Dead trilogy, which at the time of release was named ‘the new Rocky Horror’. Songs include ‘What the Fuck Was That?’ and ‘Do the Necronomicon’.

 Admittedly the acting isn’t the greatest, but this just adds to the film’s slightly mocking tone, as does the fantastic dialogue that the characters are given (“kill her if you can, loverboy”). Each actor has emerged from the series as a cult hero in the horror community, especially Bruce Campbell and his chainsaw antics. Nowadays, aside from sitting at a computer retweeting Evil Dead quotes (@GroovyBruce) and playing a character in USA Network’s Burn Notice, Campbell still holds a strong presence in the world of cinema. His friendship with Raimi continues, having appeared briefly in many of the director’s later films (the boxing announcer in Spiderman, for example) and, in more exciting news, both Raimi and Campbell are producers of the Evil Dead remake, set to be released in 2013, which follows the same storyline and stars Jane Levy (the girl from Suburgatory). It doesn’t even look that terrible.

 Just watch The Evil Dead this Halloween – it’s all on YouTube, so put it on while carving a pumpkin and you’ll have a wonderful time, but whatever you do, don’t take it too seriously. Or go down into the cellar…