I remember at school, in English class, a pirated copy of The Evil Dead being exchanged between two schoolmates. It’s a memory that has gained more prominence in my mind because I’m still old enough to remember The Evil Dead as a forbidden fruit of cinema in Britain. Still a prohibited item of pleasure. The year the ban was removed (2001) still feels fresh. Not over two decades ago as the cold hand of time shows. Nowadays, in terms of movie consumption, it’s harder to obtain legal copies of certain romantic comedies than a horror film which was once labelled by Stephen King as "The most ferociously original horror film of the year."
Because of its status as one of the more notorious “video nasties” of Britain, it’s little surprise that The Evil Dead is a formative, gateway horror. There is a reason it got passed between blazers and bags by teenagers before their lessons started. Evil Dead was one of the movies I had a VHS recording of in the early 00s, once it was allowed back on British T.V. screens. To see it in some sort of flayed recorded form was a rite of passage because, to a lot of people, it had been contraband for so long. However, when the BBFC shifted along with societal attitudes in the new millennium, The Evil Dead was a DVD that I quickly snatched up. Said disc is the one I viewed for this write-up. That is perhaps two decades old at this point.
There’s beauty in simplicity and perhaps one of the reasons The Evil Dead has endured for as long as it has is down to how elementary it all is. Five friends travel to a cabin in the woods for a vacation. Upon arrival, they discover the Necronomicon a.k.a The Book of the Dead and some recording materials. Once the audio tape is played back, a primal evil is unleashed with the intent to possess each member of the group before the night is over. That’s it. There isn’t much more to it. Due to this, The Evil Dead is an impactful experience as there is no fat to trim. Once the chaos starts, it doesn’t let up. For its characters, they will be tortured. For the audience, they must endure the gruelling experience.
The minuscule budget from which The Evil Dead was created is as startling as its cultural impact. The film’s budget was $375.000. Adjusted for inflation and exchanged into pounds and it’s still not even 10% of Erling Haaland’s annual salary for Manchester City Football Club. It was a budget swiftly dwarfed by other movies, in an era defined by excess. Yet still, it is cited as one of the most successful independent movies ever. The Evil Dead didn’t just launch the careers of its director Sam Rami and main star Bruce Campbell, but when you peer at the film's end credits, you spy the name of Joel Coen in the credits. As editor, it was one of Joel’s first movie jobs. What’s amusing is seeing the dynamic “shaky cam” effect, used to symbolise the rampaging titular evil in this film, being used by the Coen’s to very different effect in both Blood Simple and Raising Arizona. Techniques such as Shaky Cam are not only part of the film’s ramshackle charm but are also the secret spice that elevates Rami’s low-budget horror shenanigans, from other wannabe successful horror fare.
The budget limitations of Evil Dead are clear from the start. Shot on 16mm film stock, the film has the fuzzy vibe of many of the cheaper horror films of its ilk. We are promptly introduced to a scruffy ensemble of youths, with Scotty, acting as the de facto leader. Ash is the only other male. The three women who round up the group are Ash’s sister Cheryl, Scotty’s girlfriend Shelly, and Ash’s girlfriend Linda. Unfortunately, the lean script does little to build up the female characters, with only Cheryl’s stern tone, and Linda’s playfulness with Ash being the only real descriptors. The film’s beginnings suggest that it’s little more than what it’s always been considered: A group of friends decide to go up into the woods and make a movie. Here lies the deception. The Evil Dead is a movie that inspires people to want to make their own movies because filmmaking looks so easy. Just grab a camera and go. Fast forward a few generations to the smartphone age and The Evil Dead looks even more quaint. Just look at what we can do with our mobile phones.
Like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, however, there’s much more going on under the hood. The Evil Dead, the two films have their imitators, but rarely do they compare. Because rarely are these replicants made by filmmakers with such vision as Tobe Hooper or Evil Dead’s Sam Raimi. The Evil Dead’s ferocity perhaps stems from its creator’s single-mindedness. The Evil Dead’s shoot was notoriously troubled. Principal photography featured painfully thick contact lenses, getting lost due to the remote location, and difficulties in securing medical help for injuries. This all seemed par of the course for Raimi, who had no qualms about putting people through the wringer. This becomes more apparent in Evil Dead 2 (1987) when Slapstick and Bruce Campbell finally collide. Raimi seems to be a disciple of an adage many want to dispel: That a little suffering does the art good.
While most would like to be entertained without the discomfort factor, it feels safe to say that Raimi’s gleeful torture of his cast and crew mixed with Raimi’s creative flair is what makes Evil Dead stand out. Its budget may not even cover the catering of the larger blockbusters Raimi was able to helm, but few low-budget features manage to meld a visual style of EC comics and Three Stooges-like chaos as Raimi does here. Once the Necronomicon is open and the spirits are let loose, the film delivers an onslaught of demonic abject, with the viewer subjected to an array of beheadings, ankle stabbings and possessed tree rape. Over 40 years on, there’s still little that matches the combination of energy and gore. There are films which may match the frenzied approach. There’s certainly an abundance of gore-fuelled features. However, none ever seem to capture the balance that The Evil Dead has. It’s an organised chaos that one would consider lightning in a bottle if it weren’t for Raimi finessing the frenzy for the film’s sequel. But it’s a testament to the filmmaker who had his signature style dialled in so quickly.
It shouldn’t be any wonder why the Raimi-helmed Spider-Man film series is still held in stronger regard by a film fan than the other two franchise attempts that came after it. The comic book zeal found in Raimi’s Spider-Man films could be seen in the likes of his original comic book style idea Darkman (1990). With that confidence also being seen in 2002 Spider-Man resides in The Evil Dead. Raimi’s kinetic energy overrides the lack of budget. There isn’t a feeling of merely throwing something at the wall and seeing if it sticks. The Evil Dead works because of its conviction. From the gloopy set-pieces to the jump scares, even if the filmmakers weren’t sure something would work, it doesn’t affect the on-screen outcome. The intensity and hilarity shine through.
It's amusing to look at reviews that felt more than indifference to The Evil Dead. The transgressive nature and abject weirdness injected into a typical cabin-in-the-woods story didn’t win everyone over. A 2018 retrospective in The Guardian, written by Steve Rose, compliments its filmmaking but is less fond of the film’s treatment of women. Rose states the punishment inflicted on the women of the film is unsettling, while Bruce Campbell is framed as the “final girl” who gets to “reclaim his masculinity”. Rose brings up a fair point about the underwritten nature of the women in the film. While the feral tactility of the “tree rape” scene still ensures the sequence is more than a little queasy. Yet even with this scene, one can’t say that the film focuses any explicit delight in the so-called punishment of any character, save for Campbell’s Ash who doesn’t regain his masculinity in this first film. This changes in the Evil Dead sequel, in which the first 20 minutes of that film is a remixed rehash of its predecessor. Ash is redrawn as someone with far more defined macho characteristics, while the new character of Annie is given far more to do. Although this may still fall short by 2000s film Twitter standards.
One wonders if Rose looked back at Clive James’ view of the film. Writing in 1984 for The Guardian’s sister paper The Observer, James, delivers a savage beatdown on the film, considering it unscary for anyone but idiots. However, his dry commentary on the women in the film seems rather unfortunate:
“ When the zombie erupts from the prop leaf-mold and comes lurching through the dry ice fumes in search of the vaguely classy girl who would resemble Glenn Close if she were better looking and could keep her clothes on, we decline to be alarmed because we are too busy wondering why the silly cow agreed to stay the night, the surrounding territory being so obviously crammed with recumbent zombies.”
Reading this critique now not only feels retrograde but also glosses over some of the film’s narrative. The Evil Dead’s plotting may be threadbare, but there is detail on why the characters remain at the cabin. James’ famous sardonic brand of wit falls a little flat here. The rest of the review is very funny. Although this writer doesn’t agree with the verdict.
But The Evil Dead is a genre movie which changed the game for horror. In Street Trash (1987), the film pulls Steadicam's move which feels so directly lifted from The Evil Dead’s Shaky Cam that if Raimi sued, no one would object. Evil Dead’s influence would turn up in sitcoms like Spaced (1999), to meta-horror pieces like The Cabin in the Woods (2011). It’s a film that may look as cheap as chips, but its visceral ingenuity makes the film endlessly re-watchable. It’s not just the canted angles and mounds of gore; it’s the balance of tone throughout the chaos. It finds comedic nuggets throughout its running time. Something that many more comedy-minded horrors struggle with. While Ash and his friends aren’t the most complex individuals, they hold more innocence than many protagonists in younger features. There’s a Coen-like streak within The Evil Dead films. While the creators enjoy inflicting misery on the characters, they remain endearing to the film’s audience.
The Evil Dead is currently streaming on various platforms. However, find a bootleg VHS copy for the lolz
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