Tags
Ash, Ashley J. Williams, Avatar, Black Moon Rising, Book of the Dead, Brewster's Millions, Bruce Campbell, cabin, cabin in the woods, campy, cgi, childhood, Cinderella, computer generated images, Confessions of a B Movie Actor, cult classic, cult following, Deadite, Def-Con 4, Drag Me to Hell, Dutch angle, Evil Dead, Exterminators of the Year 3000, freddy krueger, Friday the 13th, halloween, horror, horror movie, horror movies, House of Wax, If Chins Could Kill, Jason Voorhees, michael myers, Microwave Massacre, Necronomicon, nightmare on elm street, Paris Hilton, possessed, Sam Raimi, Shaky Cam, Sorority Row, Spiderman, story, The Evil Dead, The Exorcist, The Incredible Melting Man, The Quick and the Dead, trailer, Vas-o-cam, VCR, VHS, wikipedia, Within the Woods, wods, zombies
The year was 1981 and a small movie by the name of The Evil Dead was released to the public. Did I see it on release day? Of course not! I was only 1-year old at the time! Fast forward about five years later and the year is 1986 when I was 5¾ years old. It was June 10th, my older brother’s 7th birthday “bash” and, as my parents would do to ease the anticipations of a horde of 7 & 8 year olds eager to see what gifts my brother received, they suggested we watch a movie.
Like me, my father had a love for movies and in the day of the VCR, he recorded plenty of movies and/or made copies of rented movies from a Mom & Pop video rental store (Blockbuster wasn’t so dominant in those days). He had about three cabinets filled with about 200 VHS cassettes that each consisted of about two or three movies recorded in one (do that math). So yeah, there were a lot of movies to choose from. Being 5¾-years old, I was very unfamiliar with most of them, save for Halloween, which was already a movie very dear to me at that age. But, that’s another story for another time.
We searched and searched through what seemed like hundreds and hundreds of VHS tapes, reading titles and throwing them aside as I hadn’t heard of many (neither did any of the other kids for that matter).
Exterminators of the Year 3000, The Incredible Melting Man, Microwave Massacre, Def-Con 4, Black Moon Rising, etc., etc. Those are just a few that I remember off the top of my head. Of course, being that most of these movies were copied, there was no cover art to judge ‘em by. Never judge a book by its cover, however, I was bordering the age of six and tantalizing cover art certainly helped with the decision-making process.
Then, there it was, snuggled in a corner inside a Scotch brand VHS cover box and holding the weight of fifty other movies. Sure, it was at the bottom of the pile, but who can resist the title, handwritten in red ink by my father, ‘The Evil Dead‘.
“The Evil Dead?“
I turned to ask the impatiently growing mob behind me as if looking for some sort of validation. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was this moment that would introduce me to the cult classic that is known as, The Evil Dead.
There was a kid at the party who we’ll call “Booger”. Why? Because that’s what all the kids used to call him. Why? Because kids can be jerks. Well, “Booger” was an avid horror fan and he was about a year or two older than I was. His eyes lit up and he pleaded with me to put the movie in for his viewing pleasure. Only problem was A. it was my brother’s birthday, not his and B. no one else wanted to watch it. And so, “Booger” did the natural thing for an 8-year old to do… he cried. Kids, being the jerks they can be, laughed at poor “Booger” and ridiculed him for shedding tears. Of course the adults, mainly my father, abided with “Booger’s” request and put the movie on. I don’t know if it was to please the crying boy or to shut him up. Either way, I don’t regret that decision.
Now ever since I was a little kid, I had a thing about not being able to watch a scary movie while the sun was out, unless I was in a darkened room and/or movie theater. Why, you ask? Because I always felt that by doing so is cheating the movie and not giving it the proper chance to scare me properly, even though that rarely happens. Still, to this day, I do the same even though I can almost guarantee that I won’t be scared. Because of this, I didn’t watch the movie with the rest of the party. I did, however, see the opening “credits” of the movie and the creepy silence that is present while the title is displayed on the screen was more than enough for me to want to watch it all by my lonesome later that night. And so, I did.
Now, if you’re reading this, one can only assume that you are familiar with the Evil Dead movies. However, there was someone with whom I spoke with recently that has never seen any of the movies. It shocked me because, for some reason, I was under the impression that everyone has seen The Evil Dead. I was wrong. So, in case you haven’t seen the first Evil Dead, here is a very brief synopsis:
Five friends retreat to a remote cabin in the woods where they find an old recorder in which the former occupant of the cabin has recorded demon resurrection passages and incantations. The recorder is played back and the spoken words unleash hell… literally. The five friends must fend for themselves as a dark force roams the woods and is determined to make it inside the cabin and take their souls before dawn! Sounds like fun, huh?
Ok, I must admit that, for its time, The Evil Dead was a scary film. It’s quite bothersome when I hear someone who is just watching the movie recently say that the movie is laughable! These are the same people who say that The Exorcist was funny!
No, Regan! It's not funny!
Really?
However, those are the same people who think that movies such as House of Wax with Paris Hilton or Sorority Row are scary! Once again… really? The Evil Dead is one that I would not categorize as a commercial film in that it is not as popular as the Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween and Friday the 13th series. One of the reasons that made those movies so popular was the fact that each of those movies sport their very own horror icons: Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees, respectfully.
The Evil Dead had no anti-hero but a hero that went by the name of Ashley J. Williams, or “Ash”, played by the “superhero-ly” big-chinned Bruce Campbell. Because of the lack of its mainstream notoriety, The Evil Dead has established a cult following. No, not that kind of a cult.
What is a cult following? To make it simpler to explain, I’ll pass the reigns to Wikipedia who I think has a pretty good definition of what it is.
A cult following is a term used to refer to a small or large group of fans that are either somewhat or highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to “have a cult following” when it has a small but very passionate fan-base.
So, yes, there are very few that can appreciate this movie for what it is and look pass the ‘campy’ and low budget feel of it. I mean, come on, it is the year 2010 so people of this generation have seen it all and it takes a hell of a lot more than mashed potatoes gooing out of a Deadite to scare them. Me, I prefer the old fashioned prosthetic effects over CGI (Computer Generated Images, see Avatar).
Not only did I think that The Evil Dead was great in terms of its simplicity as far as storyline is concerned, but many of us were graced with seeing Director Sam Raimi‘s first feature film. Sam who? For those who don’t know who he is: director of Spiderman 1-3, The Quick and the Dead, and the most recent Drag me to Hell. What marvels me about Mr. Raimi is his directorial style and technique which features many dutch angles (which I am a huge fan of) and custom made rigs such as the “Vas-o-Cam” and the “Shaky Cam”! As Illustrated in Bruce Campbell’s book, “If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor“
Still not enough? Hows this for determination? Raimi and company, which consisted of high school friend Bruce Campbell and others, made a short film entitled Within the Woods (which was very hard to come by before the internet) shot on Super 8mm in order to raise money for a feature film version of the same story! Needless to say, they did it. The result was, The Evil Dead in which spawned two more sequels and launched the career of Sam Raimi into Hollywood. Sort of a Cinderella story of the horror community.
The year 1987, one year after I saw The Evil Dead, I saw a teaser trailer that opens with a blooming, yellow flower over the sounds of some weird incantation. Then, the narration begins:
“Four years ago, in this quiet forest, in this cozy cabin…”
The cabin featured in The Evil Dead is revealed at this moment and my heart pounded. I watched, wide-eyed as I saw that Ash was back to fight the deadites! I was excited but I couldn’t help but think to myself… why the hell would he go back to the cabin?! Oh, how young I was, but, I was ready to be Dead by Dawn!
My Evil Dead: Part II – Awake by Dawn HERE….
Want to watch “Within the Woods”? Click HERE
Good reflection!
I remember my first time like it was just yesterday.
Thanks man! Gotta love the series!
I remember not liking The Evil Dead when I first saw it. That may sound REALLY shocking, but it is true. The first Evil Dead flick was actually the last of the series I watched. I thought it was pretty dull compared to the other two movies, but in reality, what dampened my enjoyment of The Evil Dead the first time around was the video quality. My first trip to that cabin in the woods was courtesy of the old-school Thorn/EMI cassette. Back then, I had no idea there was a difference in the quality of film and it’s home video presentation. I remember the picture being so dark and the sound being so gawd-awfully murky, resulting in my initial condemning of The Evil Dead as dull. That changed when I watched the Anchor Bay videotape in 1998. Holy shit, what a completely opposite reaction that I had! After that, I could NOT stop watching it!
Haha I totally get you, but it’s funny how that atrocious VHS transfer is the reason I liked it so much. The quality sort of helped lend to the eerie/creepy atmosphere of the film. To add to that, I saw a copy of a copy so imagine that quality! I can see how you would view it as dull, especially after watching the two sequels which are just full of action and comedy and more importantly, a budget. But, the fact that The Evil Dead virtually had no budget made the filmmakers focus more on the content which I loved! Thanks for the comment!
I just saw Evil Dead for the first time Monday when I was home sick. As an avid movie watcher, most horror films don’t interest me, but I’ve seen Halloween (the music still spooks me), Nightmare, and Friday. Anytime Evil Dead came up there were guffaws or snickers and that turned me away from wanting to see it. A few years ago my best friend and I watched Army of Darkness. I knew it was a sequel and there was a capital ‘C’ for campy.
But Monday afternoon in my mancave I watched and was pleasantly bothered and scared by Evil Dead. The girlfriend sitting there laughing and Scotty’s girlfriend making the god awful squealing noises.
I agree on makeup and prosthetics being better for the movie over CGI, although I think those effects should be used in Sci-fi and Fantasy, not horror movies.
Welcome to the Evil Dead bandwagon! There was a definite transgression of the original into Army and, yes, campy is very dominant with all three films. It is, as I said a cult classic, and I guess requires a acquired taste which does not satisfy the majority of the general public. Still, it is a personal favorite of mine. I am glad you enjoyed it!