31 Days of Halloween Films #17: The Evil Dead
The Lowdown: Five friends take a trip to a cabin in the woods (natch!) to spend the weekend drunk and disorderly. When uncovering a strange book and its’ accompanying audio recordings, the friends unknowingly unleash some shit that wreaks havoc on them. Soon they learn the demons want nothing more than to murder everyone in the cabin.
The Breakdown: I know what you’re thinking. “Jack, why’d you peak so early in the reviews?” Well, dear readers, sue me but I’m a fan of variety in my horror films, and today seemed like the perfect time to tackle this low-budget masterpiece. With its off-putting comedic timing for some scenes to its’ powerful, albeit slightly cheesy conclusion, The Evil Dead is a clinic in how to do independent horror right. Utilizing a minuscule budget, a cast of unknowns and a young Sam Raimi, Dead is a treat from top to bottom. Its’ cult status has been cemented in recent years, especially since this years’ remake did so well and there’s been talk of giving that one the sequel treatment as well. Evil Dead really is the Casablanca of cult films. It acts as the perfect initiation for anyone looking to explore the genre and it delivers the goods all around.
So much has been said about the film’s legacy and achievement, but I’d like to focus on its’ effective use of what it knows it has. What I mean is this film absolutely screams low budget. Everything from the mostly flat interior lighting to the, admittedly, cheesy performances all around, Evil Dead is a film of a certain mold. You can tell just from the sparse set design, yet solid creature and gore effects, that the focus here was to gross out and scare the audience. The setting, other than the fact that it is in complete isolation, was unimportant. Raimi’s whole purpose was to make people jump, something I could imagine happening while he sits in front of an audience, pointing and laughing while cracking-wise with his brother and Campbell ala Three Stooges.
ED has a sinister undercurrent of black comedy going on as well. The immediate feeling you take away from the flick is one of fear and disgust. However, the gore is SO over the top, SO in your face, that at a certain point it becomes comical, something that was played up in the sequels. While the initial repulsion and disgust of the husks is easy to understand, I, personally, find it hilarious that as the film goes on, the demons seem to get more and more disgusting. Consider, if you will, when Ash has to fight off one of the shemps. After being injured in her wrist, she then chews it off right in Ash’s face. It’s a scene that pushes the envelope in a film full of similar moments, but when viewed under the right circumstances it’s almost like the demon is saying “Show me what ya got!”, taunting the character. While tough to verbalize this is one of my favorite aspects of the film. Its’ rewatch value increases because of the strange tonal-duality.
The Comedown: Viewable, in my opinion, as a horror film OR a comedy, The Evil Dead has plenty of clout on both sides of the fence. Many fans of the original film have gone on to say they didn’t like the sequels as much because they lean so far into the realm of comedy. My argument here suggests that the comedy was there all along, probably most evident in the end credits for this film, when after the carnage a peppy, sketch-comedy-typical score kicks in to send audiences off with. Films as recent as You’re Next have employed similarly effective endings, making a bold statement on the similarity of horror and comedy. Anyone who doesn’t have The Evil Dead on their Halloween watchlist, well, they need to reevaluate their priorities.