The Evil Dead

Knowing the low budget of The Evil Dead adds another layer of appreciation for what these guys did with their meager funds. That homemade feel was enhanced by some pretty awesome practical effects, there’s nothing like seeing blood hit stuff, bodies flying through the air, things tearing apart, breaking, exploding etc. CGI doesn’t have that effect on me. It’s also impossible not to mention Bruce Campbell when talking about The Evil Dead. While Ash isn’t the iteration of the character that fans are familiar with thanks to subsequent films, it’s easy to understand how Bruce Campbell got so involved with the role. He pours everything into his roles. That cabin, meanwhile, would drive me completely mad, at least I’d hope that would be my response anyway, if it were real and I was sitting in there right now, and yet it was obviously too tempting for someone to go and find the weird book and start listening to that strange recording. Well, you know what they did next. Incredibly inventive stuff with the cameras here. Not only do we get some seriously impressive stunts happening on screen but the way the camera ‘chases’ people (and presumably whatever is behind the scenes) down through the woods adds to an incredible sense of tension. I doubt even many of the things seen in big Hollywood productions over the past few decades could top some of the images captured here. And finally, as ever, the thing is rough round the edges. But again, that’s half the reason why we love these things, isn’t it? It feels like all of the efforts have gone into making sure the crazy things worked well enough to capture the viewer’s imagination. Once you get past this point though, it’s kinda funny how bad it gets, by which I mean disgusting, as it comes up with more and more ideas for being gross. It may well have been messy, cheap looking at times and crazy, but what it lacked in technical prowess it made up in imagination. And who wants something technically perfect but boring? Groovy!