EVIL DEAD (1983)

'EVIL DEAD' A HORROR THAT'LL LIVE

Philadelphia Daily News (PA) - September 27, 1983

Author: JOE BALTAKE, Daily News Movie Reviewer

"The Evil Dead." A thriller written and directed by Samuel M. Raimi. Photographed and lighted by Tim Philo. Edited by Edna Ruth Paul. Music by Joe LoDuca. Running time: 90 minutes. A New Line release. In area theaters.

My, my! What we have here is a cunning, sophisticated, incredibly scruffy little horror item that places the genre somewhere in-between The National Enquirer and the National Star in terms of moviemaking.

I mean, I can see the headline now: "FIVE STUDENTS HACK EACH OTHER TO DEATH ON CAMPING TRIP!" (See story Page 5, just below Janice Merriweather's astrological predictions and Mr. Fix-It-Up).

"The Evil Dead" is very much the celluloid incarnate of a lip-smacking tabloid story. It's the handiwork of 21-year-old Samuel Raimi, a filmmaker who's so new and so young that his movie heritage probably revolves around John Carpenter exclusively (Hitchcock? Who he?) and who probably observed the Sun and Enquirer firsthand while dangling behind his mother at the local Shop 'n' Save.

I'm not saying that either Raimi or his film is very good, but there is no doubt that the kid is resourceful and that his movie is an original.

Shot in the back hills of Tennessee and the swamps of Michigan, "The Evil Dead" has something to do with an ancient curse that prompts the spirits of the evil dead to take possession of the living and, for no reason in particular, to go on a killing spree. In this case, a spirit (or spirits) corners a group of college students in the wooded mountains of Tennessee and taunts them into a no-win game.

As each kid becomes possessed, he or she automatically becomes the mortal enemy of the others, and as they soon learn, there is only one grisly way to stop the evil dead. Only total dismemberment can stop a person under its demonic influence.

Not much of a story. What counts in "The Evil Dead" is what's up-front - the young cast's enthusiastic performances and Raimi's ingenious, if somewhat modest, effects - such as his "shaki-cam," a stomach-churning effect which makes this particular nightmare all the more discombobulating.

By making his "beast within" so formidably versatile, Raimi is able to project it into the limbs of a tree, giving the tree just the motivation it needs to commit rape.

Raimi's imagination is as vivid as the red paint (or catsup or whatever) that he uses throughout "The Evil Dead." We'll be seeing a lot more of both him and his film. It's certain to become a perennial horror favorite, a la Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," Brian de Palma's "Carrie" and, of course, John Carpenter's "Halloween."
Parental Guide: Not rated, but definitely not recommened to the young, easily impressed or weak of stomach.