Evil Dead

released by Elite Entertainment

As much a phenomenon as a movie, Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead is a classic of modern horror. "Modern" meaning "not necessarily that scary."

It's the story of five friends who drive up to an isolated cabin in the Tennessee woods for the weekend and discover that the house's previous occupant had left behind a book of spells bound in human skin, and an audio tape of himself reciting its incantations. Before long, the woods are attacking, people are turning into zombies, and Raimi and Co. are getting the very most blood and gore for their buck.

This was a pretty low-budget movie, and it shows in a lot of places. But the sheer originality of a lot of the scare shots-- the lightbulb filling up with blood leaps to mind-- overcame that to make a horror classic.

The video transfer of The Evil Dead was pretty good for the most part, but had a couple of glaring flaws that need to be mentioned. In one scene, where the first female victim is being chased through the woods by the woods, there is a two- or three-frame video glitch where about 30 or so yellow spots appeared all over the frame. Not good. And then, about three-quarters of the way through the film a tiny dot appeared slightly off-center of the screen and stayed there for the rest of the movie. How noticeable it was depended on the scene, but it was always there. The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

The audio track is remastered to Dolby 5.1, and contains no flaws that I noticed.

There have been several versions of this movie released on DVD-- the last was by Anchor Bay Entertainment, and was a no-frills version of the film. This DVD, by Elite Entertainment, features a few other goodies, like two full-length commentary tracks: one by star Bruce Campbell and one by director Sam Raimi and producer Robert Tapert. It also features the original trailer, 20 minutes of alternate takes and "behind-the-scenes" footage, and a still photo gallery with 150 images.

You "Dead" heads out there know who you are. If you've been waiting for the right release of The Evil Dead, this is the one.

Movie: 7
Video: 6
Audio: 8
Extras: 8

Overall: 7

-- reviewed by Alex Castle