Monday, October 20, 2014

MadCap's Reel Thoughts - "The Evil Dead" (1981)

A cabin in the woods...a few unsuspecting college students...a book of pure and simple evil...and no escape.  The directorial debut of Sam Raimi (know to most now as the man who destroyed all of Spider-Man's credibility before Marc Webb salvaged it), as well as the film that shot the awesome Bruce Campbell into B-List stardom. Even to this day, it is considered one of the greatest cult classics of horror.  It's even endorsed by Stephen King himself! See? It says so on the poster!

But is it as good as everyone remembers? Does this film really deserve its place as a horror cult classic?

I'll go ahead and start by saying this is not a film that wastes our time.  We're quickly introduced to our meat suits for the evening who are all to be chopped up, flayed, and flame broiled by the forces of Hell. A group of college kids, the most prolific of most is a young Ashley "Ash" Williams, played by Bruce Campbell in his breakout performance.  I think I can get away here with saying it's very strange to see Bruce Campbell playing a character other than Bruce Campbell.  Really, it's bizarre to watch him not being awesomely over the top as he is in so many productions he's in.

However, this film is before the Raimi-induced madness that developed the character had most become known for (and subverted and deconstructed in My Name is Bruce), so we can definitely give him a pass on that in this instance. Also this is skipping ahead a bit, but as far as the last bit of the film plays out with Ash doing his damnedest to survive against the demonic forces stacked against him...well...Jamie Lee Curtis, eat your heart out.

Back to hitting up the plot chronologically, Ash and his friends head out to a cabin in the woods for spring break.  In the cabin, crazy things begin to happen, leading up to the sudden opening of a trapdoor to the basement, wherein Ash and company find the Naturon Demonto, the Sumerian Book of the Dead, and the recordings of a professor who studied in, including some incantations that - despite one of the group insisting that they don't - they play and the shit quickly begins to hit the fan in a great volume.

Immediately here, giving credit where it's due, I have to give awesome credit to the make up effects for the demonically possessed.  Even with picking out the Ted Raimi cameos, all the effects look really good, massively creepy, and way better than they would have look done up in CGI.  Not that CGI was really that much of an option in 1981, even for big name productions, but the fact was that Sam Raimi knew very well where to put his somewhere between 90,000 and 400,000 dollar budget (as is estimated).

This also pours into the environment, of which there is one.  The cabin.  And before someone gets in touch to tell me how wrong I am for mocking the choice of one venue, believe me I am not.  The direction of the scenes and the effects used once the film gets going build an amazing atmosphere.  None of the real clichés that are used to imply the feeling of being unable to leave the woods, but so many factors from the set direction to the lighting build up the atmosphere to the point where it almost crushes you as you watch, and you just know there is no possible way for them to escape the evil that seeks to drag them to Hell.

Also, yes, the Tree Rape scene is actually genuinely unnerving and frightening. Nothing that hasn't already been said about it.

Heavy handed words are no substitute for the simple statement that this is a good film.  There's a reason why Sam Raimi is considered a master of horror alongside his contemporaries such as Tobe Hooper and John Carpenter.  He took a relatively small budget, put it to excellent use, had actors who were actually pretty awesome (including, again, Bruce freaking Campbell), and created an ideal atmosphere for a film about Lovecraftian madness taking hold.  For Halloween, what's not to love?

The Evil Dead is now available on DVD.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.


October's Reel Thoughts will conclude next week with...


"Halloween"

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