‘The Evil Dead’ a Chilling Scare-Fest

* This review is something I put together in October 2020 when the Dietrich was featuring throwback movies.

In 1981, a low budget horror flick named “The Evil Dead” was released in theaters. This terrifying horror feature ended up being a surprise hit and even spawned a franchise.

In the Sam Raimi presentation of “The Evil Dead,” Ashley ‘Ash’ Williams, his girlfriend and three pals hike into the woods to a cabin for a fun night away. There they find an old book, the Necronomicon, whose text reawakens the dead when it’s read aloud. The friends inadvertently release a flood of evil and must fight for their lives or become one of the evil dead.

Ash watches his friends become possessed, and must make a difficult decision before daybreak to save his own life.

This 1981 horror classic is one of the most chilling horror movies to ever come out of the 80s. Throughout the movie, there are several moments that will really give you a good scare. This energetic horror flick can be a little gory at times (okay, maybe more than a little gory). The gory sequences and all the scary moments can be quite effective.

Featuring many, many scares and frightening moments, this horror classic will be right up your alley.

The small cast includes: Bruce Campbell (TVs Ash vs Evil Dead) as Ash Williams, Ellen Sandweiss as Cheryl, Richard DeManicor as Scott, Betsy Baker as Linda and Theresa Tilly as Shelly. “The Evil Dead” is written and directed by Sam Raimi, who has worked on the “Spider-Man” trilogy, the “Evil Dead” trilogy, “Don’t Breathe,” “Crawl,” “The Grudge” and many others.

Filmmaker Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell created a short horror film called “Within the Woods” to show interested investors. The short film actually got things up and running for “The Evil Dead.” Most of the demon POVs that glide across the ground were shot by mounting the camera to a 2x4 while Raimi and Campbell ran along holding either side. “The Evil Dead” also serves as both Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell’s feature debuts.

The horror movie’s final budget ended up being roughly $350,000 to $450,000. “The Evil Dead” premiered at Detroit’s Redford Theatre where audiences responded enthusiastically to the movie. The responses led to Raimi’s idea of “touring” the film to build hype. And, due to the graphic content in the horror movie, it’s actually still banned in some countries.

The horror classic eventually spawned a franchise. Two sequels were eventually released: “Evil Dead II” in 1987 and “Army of Darkness” in 1992. The series was resurrected in 2013 with “Evil Dead,” which served as both a soft reboot and a loose continuation of the series.

There was even a series on STARZ called “Ash vs Evil Dead” which serves as a continuation of the first three “Evil Dead” movies.

During its initial release, “The Evil Dead” has earned $2.6 million domestically.

“The Evil Dead” is rated R for substantial graphic horror violence and gore and has a running time of 85 minutes.