Evil Dead

By now, most of you splatter hounds have already given this beauty a viewing. For those of you that have been living outside the trailer park confines run, don't walk, to your local video hell and rent this bad boy. Heck, give 'em a fake credit card number cause cousin, this film is a keeper.

I gotta tell you that this flick holds a special place in my heart. The first time I had the privilege of seeing this flick, I was living back in Dallas, and was well into my 25th hour of non-sleep during Joe-Bob's third annual drive-in movie festival (which was held in a sit down theater, for some reason). It was midnight, and I had a choice of sitting through Bloodsucking Freaks in the upstairs theater, or taking a gander at Evil Dead in the theater which I was currently parked. I knew pretty much zip about either flick, so I opted for the path of least resistance, and kept my keister parked in the seat which I currently occupied.

The lights dimmed, and the celluloid was rolling. It didn't take too damn long before old Sam Raimi had the audience jumping. For those of you who don't know Sam, he's directed a bunch of films now (Army of Darkness, Darkman, The Quick and the Dead), and he has this groovin' habit of goosing the old ticker. I'm pretty sure that Evil Dead was his first full length feature, and to this day, it's my favorite.

The plot goes something like this: our hero "Ash" heads up to a deserted cabin with a handful of his friends to do a little partying. All's well until these folks dive down into the basement, dust off an old tape recorder, and start playing what was on there. "What was on tape" you ask? Ozzy Ozborne? Somebody's mammy trying to get them to say their first words? Unfortunately not; it's some egghead who's been boning up on Candarian demons and such. And when the tape recorder gets played, some real nasty critters get summoned up.

This "undead" thingys start screwing with party in a big way. The way they work is that they somehow injure the unfortunate victim, and eventually the victim becomes one of them. And can you guess the only way to stop these bastards? Bullet in the head? Nah. Exorcism? Not even close. TOTAL BODILY DISMEMBERMENT!! You gotta love it!

What ensues is total mayhem, with Ash battling the bad-asses, and generally getting heaped upon with tons of abuse.

Now for the technical stuff: since Sam probably had to beg, borrow, and steal to breath life into this masterpiece, don't be expecting crystal clear audio and high definition video, cause you ain't gonna get it. The audio is pretty muddy, and very uneven throughout the whole flick. The video is acceptable, but slightly grainy in some of the night scenes. And the camera work is a bit wobbly, but I think a lot of that pretty much enhances the movie, not detracts from it.

But if you like horror flicks, you gotta check this one out. I can't say enough about it: one of my favorites of all times. But when showing it to friends, you might want to keep a chunder bucket handy for those weak in the guts.

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