Tonight’s movie, Evil Dead, is the movie that launched two of the greatest film careers of our time. I am talking of course, abut Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell. This movie is a classic, in every sense of the word. I mean, right from the beginning, the mood is set. You know this is going to be something special. I mean, the film has even made appearances in Nightmare on Elm Street & Donnie Darko.



The movie was filmed over the course of a year and a half on a completely shoestring budget of $375,000 dollars. Try doing that nowadays and make something better than The Blair Witch, let alone something that would go on to be considered a classic horror movie.

The movie centers around a group of 5 students from Michigan State taking a vacation to a run-down cabin in the hills of Tennessee. Strange things start happening before the group even reaches the cabin, like losing control of the car and the bridge falling apart while they are driving over it. After they arrive, things start falling apart even more.

While they are sitting down to dinner, the cellar door flings itself open. Ash and Scotty go down to investigate. While they are down there, they find the Book of the Dead, a dagger with a skull handle, a shotgun, and a reel-to-reel tape deck. They bring the items back upstairs, and like any good horror movie subjects, decide to listen to the tape. Of course, by doing so, they unleash the evil spirits.

Cheryl starts to freak out over the tape, and while she is getting ready for bed, she starts hearing voices. Of course, she decides to go outside and check it out. While she is out there, the trees grab her, and RAPE HER. Yes, the first casualty in this movie comes by getting stacked and penetrated by foliage.



She breaks free and runs back to the cabin, narrowly escaping the evil force chasing after her. It doesn’t matter though, because she still becomes possessed anyway, and then attacks one of the other girls with a Number 2 pencil. Between this scene and the Joker’s ”pencil trick” in Dark Knight, it’s looking more and more like pencils should be banned from schools because they make really good weapons.

After this, the people start getting possessed, but it’s at this point that I will stop talking about the plot, because, believe it or not, some people who read this will never have seen this movie. If you haven’t, shame on you! Go! Buy this DVD! Don’t rent it, just go buy it and watch it. You won’t be sorry at all. In fact, the three movies in this series are some of my all-time favorite movies.



This movie, despite having the small budget that it did, still churns out the blood. And it has some pretty solid visual effects. It is a great horror movie, and it would be a great addition to any DVD collection. It doesn’t even matter which of the 200 versions of the DVD you purchase.

Tomorrow night is Evil Dead II, and IMO, as great as this movie is, Evil Dead II eclipses it in every way.