![]() But more than even these admirable moments of inventive craft put forth by the young filmmakers, it’s the specific tone of this first film that demands particular attention. The possession of Ash’s girlfriend-Shelly-stand out as particular highlight, along with the many, many ways the filmmakers figure for buckets of blood, gore, and other gross-out moments to proliferate on-screen. ![]() Raimi’s decision to continually employ POV shots from beneath the cellar works as an especially creative effect-one that would become a favorite choice of the filmmaker throughout the rest of his career.Ī number of other noteworthy moments occur within this first film. They offer not just a repeat of the Romero zombies, nor a cheap imitation of Reagan from The Exorcist, but a very peculiar visual presentation of these Evil Dead. For following Cheryl’s attack, she becomes the first full-fledged deadite to appear-revealing a gruesomely deformed face, eerie voice, and supernatural powers-though the group manages to lock and chain her in the cellar, where she serves as another element of suspense just outside the edge of frame.įor a film with this budget, the effects are beyond commendable. As ridiculous as such an idea sounds in print, the execution of the scene leaves the audience in genuine discomfort-as the visualization of this metaphorical horror of rape situates the audience squarely within the position of being a woman under the control of a cruel and relentless entity beyond her power to overcome.Īlthough the rules remain a bit fuzzy throughout the series as to who becomes infected by the deadites, when, why, etc., the chaotic nature of not having a clearly defined mythology also allows for a unique sense of surprise to be a weapon always within the filmmakers’ grasp-one to be deployed quite often. In the series’ most infamous moments, Cheryl chases a menacing spirit into the surrounding woods, where a tree paralyzes, attacks, then rapes her. For instance, the filmmakers conceived of a camera effect that simulates the effect of a rapidly “whooshing” spirit accelerating toward the cabin that still works to this day-and which would become a hallmark of the series.Īnd while these small hints of horror help raise tension, it does not take long for these supernatural spirits to turn truly mean and nasty. More impressively, and to similar effect as the nonfunctioning shark of Spielberg’s Jaws, these budgetary limitations were often responsible for some of the film’s most creative moments. More importantly, it is their exploration of the cabin’s subterranean cellar that the five find the taped recordings of the Naturom Demonto ( Necronomicon Ex-Mortis in later films)-the Sumerian grimoire capable of unleashing supernatural entities that lie somewhere between the demonically possessed and a zombie-called Deadites.įrom this point forward, the premise essentially serves as a vehicle for Raimi and his cohorts to employ every conceivable gag fueled by their imagination and able to be materialized by their shoestring budget. Having just arrived after the birth of the teen slasher, ( Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Friday the 13 th), The Evil Dead isolates these college students in a remote cabin surrounded by woods, marshes, and a thick atmosphere of menace that seems to saturate every scene. Instead, each film moved just left of center-with each consecutive entry adopting different genre and tonal elements that would separate every film from its predecessor-while still managing to playfully expand upon those larger, recognizable icons of the series that attracted initial audiences.Īs mentioned, the debut film sets itself squarely within the realm of the horror genre-only to magnify certain genre conventions to the extreme while also managing to establish some new ones. For although the first film remained rooted in the horror films from which it was inspired, the successive sequels would never return exactly to that same tone and style. More surprising and noteworthy, however, lies in the gradual phenomena of this first The Evil Dead movie that would spawn a sequel, a trilogy, a remake, a musical, comic books, videogames, and an upcoming TV show-a truly bizarre franchise built from the foundations of its own bizarre style and tone. However, the filmmakers did not merely regurgitate the same clichés and tropes that often populated these predictable pictures but instead, they amplified those conventions to new genre extremes and produced a remarkably distinguished first film as a result. Although having previously made short comedies, the filmmakers were inspired by the success of cheap horror movies found at the local drive-ins and endeavored to make a film found in the same genre. In the summer of 1979, a then-twenty-year-old Sam Raimi-along with friends Bruce Campbell and Robert Tapert-began production on the film intended to initiate his career which would later be titled The Evil Dead.
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