| The Evil Dead | |
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Original theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Sam Raimi |
| Produced by | Robert Tapert |
| Written by | Sam Raimi |
| Starring | Bruce Campbell Ellen Sandweiss Richard DeManicor Betsy Baker Theresa Tilly |
| Music by | Joseph LoDuca |
| Cinematography | Tim Philo |
| Editing by | Edna Ruth Paul Joel Coen |
| Studio | Renaissance Pictures |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
| Release date(s) | October 15, 1981 (Premiere) April 15, 1983 (United States) |
| Running time | 85 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $350,000 – $400,000 |
| Box office | $29,400,000 (est.) (As of July 26, 2006) |
The Evil Dead (sometimes shortened to just Evil Dead) is a 1981 horror film[1] written and directed by Sam Raimi, starring Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, and Betsy Baker. The film is a story of five college students vacationing in an isolated cabin in a wooded area. Their vacation becomes gruesome when they find an audiotape that releases evil spirits.
The film was a moderate success at the box office, grossing a total of $2,400,000 in the U.S upon its initial release, against a budget of probably no more than $400,000.[2] Despite getting mixed reviews by critics at the time, it has since developed a cult following.[3] The film has spawned two sequels, Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992), and a stage musical; in 1994 a heavily censored version was shown in US theaters and received an NC-17 rating. Work on a script for a further film has started[4] although it was announced on July 13, 2011 that Raimi and Campbell would now shift focus to a remake of the original film.[5]
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Michigan State students, Ash, Scotty, Linda, Cheryl and Shelly, venture into the hills and mountains of Tennessee to spend a weekend in an isolated cabin. There they find The Book of the Dead (a fictional Sumerian text), otherwise known as "Naturan Demanto" (referred to in the sequels as the "Necronomicon Ex-Mortis"). They also find and play a tape recording of demonic incantations from the book spoken by a scientist (Bob Dorian), unwittingly resurrecting malevolent demons and spirits. The demons start to isolate and kill them off, beginning with Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss). Soon thereafter, Cheryl stabs Linda (Betsy Baker) in the ankle with a pencil. Scotty (Richard DeManicor) fights with the possessed Cheryl and locks her in the basement. Afterwards, Shelly (Theresa Tilly) enters her room and is killed and possessed by a demon; now a deadite, she becomes psychotic and attacks Scotty, who dismembers her with an axe. Disturbed by Shelly's death, Scotty proposes that he and Ash leave Linda behind to go find an alternate trail through the woods (because the bridge leading to the cabin was sabotaged by the evil force). Ash (Bruce Campbell) refuses to abandon Linda, so Scotty departs into the woods alone.
Ash goes to check on Linda, but finds that she too has become possessed and proceeds to taunt him. Scotty returns, but has suffered massive injuries inflicted upon him by the possessed trees. Before losing consciousness he tells Ash there is a trail in the woods. Cheryl and Linda laugh at their predicament, and Ash tries to shoot Linda, but hesitates. Linda suddenly revives from the possession and the same thing appears to happen to Cheryl. Ash almost frees her, but finds that she is still possessed when she attempts to strangle Ash through the cellar door. When Linda reveals she too is still possessed again, Ash drags her outside and locks her out of the cabin. He goes back to check on Scotty, but finds that he died from his injuries. Linda later sneaks in through the backdoor and attacks Ash with a dagger, but Ash manages to kill her with her own dagger. Ash buries Linda outside but she rises from the grave and Ash beheads her with a shovel. Ash returns inside to find that Cheryl broke out of the cellar and enters, to find shotgun ammunition. Hearing a noise from above, Ash goes to investigate. Cheryl appears from the window a demon had broken earlier and tries to take the shotgun from Ash, who shoots her in the shoulder. Cheryl tries to attack Ash through the door, but he shoots her in the face and barricades the door.
Scotty's corpse revives to reveal that he has been possessed and advances on Ash, who tries to stop him by pelting him with furniture but to no avail. Scotty starts to throttle Ash, only to have his eyes gouged out. Ash notices that Scotty's body is starting to burn because the Necronomicon is burning in the fireplace which it fell into. Before he can reach it, Cheryl successfully breaks through the front door and knocks him down. Scotty pins Ash to the floor while Cheryl grabs a fireplace poker and repeatedly hits Ash in the back with it. Ash manages to grab the book after several attempts, using the necklace he had given to Linda earlier in the film, and throws it directly into the blazing flames just as Cheryl raises the fireplace poker to impale him. This prompts demons to leave the bodies of Cheryl and Scotty, and their corpses become inanimate and fall apart. Ash heads outside and stands in front of the cabin as an unseen evil speeds through the forest, breaks its way through the cabin doors, and descends upon Ash, who turns around and screams in terror.
Actors Richard DeManincor (Scott) and Theresa Tilly (Shelly) both went under different "stage names" during the shoot, since they were members of the Screen Actors Guild and wanted to avoid being penalized for participating in a non-union production. They are credited in the credits as "Hal Delrich" for DeManincor and "Sarah York" for Tilly. According to Bruce Campbell's autobiography, If Chins Could Kill, Richard acquired his stage name by combining his short name with his roommates' names, Hal and Del.
The short film Within the Woods (1978) was made as a prototype to help convince possible investors to fund The Evil Dead. In it, the filmmakers experimented with techniques they would use in the feature. It shares plot elements with The Evil Dead and also stars Bruce Campbell and Ellen Sandweiss.[6]
Raimi and Co. managed to secure a shooting budget of less than $375,000 and with the cast and crew, headed for a wilderness cabin in the woods near Morristown, Tennessee. The movie was shot over a period of about 1.5 years. Raimi used 'Fake Shemps' or 'stand-ins' to replace the actors who had left. One of the only actors loyal to the project from the beginning was Bruce Campbell (also a producer of the film and Raimi's childhood filmmaking partner), who went through torturous circumstances as the character 'Ash.' According to the Evil Dead DVD commentary, he would often return home after a night of shooting in the back of a pick-up truck, as he was usually covered in fake blood made from a mixture of corn syrup, food coloring, and non-dairy coffee creamer.
Joel Coen served as an assistant editor on the film.
The film premiered on October 15, 1981, and was released in 128 theaters on April 15, 1983. The film was re-released in March 2010[7] as part of The Evil Dead Cross Country Tour,[8] which began in the NuArt Theatre in West Los Angeles.[9]
The Evil Dead received mixed reviews upon its release but over the years its critical reputation has grown considerably. Based on 45 reviews, the film holds a 100% "Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes; the site's consensus states "This classic low budget horror film combines just the right amount of gore and black humor, giving The Evil Dead an equal amount of thrills and laughs."[10] The film was selected by the American Film Institute as one of the 400 candidates for AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills, a list of America's most heart-pounding films.[11]
The tree rape scene has been described by some as being misogynistic.[12] Raimi has since stated he regrets putting it in the film.[13]
Because of its graphic violence and terror, the original version of the movie was banned in several countries, including Finland, Germany, Iceland and Ireland. In Germany, the movie's release was hindered by public authorities for almost 10 years. Original 1982 cinema and video releases of the movie had been seized, making the movie successful on the black market video circuit with pirated copies abounding. Several well-known horror enthusiasts publicly criticized the German ban on the movie, including author Stephen King (who gave it a rave review in the November 1982 issue of Twilight Zone). A heavily edited version was made available legally during 1992. In 2001, an uncut German DVD version was released, but the Berlin-Tiergarten Court ordered seizure of the DVD in April 2002 (Case Number 351 Gs 1749/02). In Finland, The Evil Dead was later released uncut on DVD by Future Film, and rated K-18. In the United Kingdom, the film was one of the first to be labeled a video nasty during the mid-1980s controversy over such movies and was finally released uncut in 2001.
When the film was re-submitted in the US for a rating in 1994, the MPAA classified it with an NC-17 rating. When the distribution company Elite Entertainment released the film on DVD in 1999, they retained the NC-17 version. Anchor Bay Entertainment has since acquired the DVD rights to the film, and their subsequent releases have surrendered the rating to allow them to release the film unrated.
The limited edition Blu-ray with a newly restored picture was released on August 31, 2010 in the United States,[17] featuring two discs with audio commentary with writer/director Sam Raimi, producer Robert Tapert and star Bruce Campbell.[18]
There have been a variety of spin-offs and tie-ins including a musical and comic mini-series. The themes of this movie have become a cult favorite among tattoo clientele. The images and catch phrases adorn a wide range of people from the rank and file to tattoo artists like Dan Henk.
With the approval of both Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, a musical version of the film was staged, enjoying a successful workshop in Toronto and performances at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal in 2004. The New York off-Broadway production started previews on October 2, 2006. The official first performance was November 1, 2006. The show continued with 8 performances per week at the New World Stages until closing February 17, 2007. Evil Dead: The Musical has recently started production in Toronto starting from May 1, 2007 with the run extended from June 23, 2007 to August 4. On August 4, it was announced that the show has now been extended for a final time until September 8, 2007, excepting its further extensions to May 3, June 14, and August 2, 2008.
A production opened at the Campbell Theatre in Martinez, CA on June 13, 2008. A second Canadian production by the Sock 'n Buskin Theatre Company opened on March 12, 2009 for a short run in Ottawa at Kailash Mital Theatre at Carleton University. This version created quite a buzz and was well-received on opening night. Ground Zero Theatre and Hit & Myth Productions will be staging the next production at the Playhouse at Vertigo Theatre Centre in Calgary, Alberta, running May 26, 2009 to June 15, 2009, extended to July 12, 2009.
In January 2008, Dark Horse Comics began releasing a four-part monthly comic book mini-series based on Evil Dead, written by Mark Verheiden, with art by John Bolton, who provided art for the Dark Horse Army of Darkness comic. The comic miniseries has several noticeable differences from the film, such as Cheryl being only a friend of Linda, and not Ash's sister.
Dynamite Entertainment has an ongoing "Army of Darkness" series and several mini-series and cross-over mini-series, featuring horror characters such as Darkman, the Marvel Zombies and Herbert West.
On July 13, 2011 it was announced that The Evil Dead was being remade and it would be written and directed by first-time feature film maker, Fede Alvarez. Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Rob Tapert would produce the film. Screenwriter Diablo Cody was brought in to revise the script. It is set for a April 12, 2013 release date.[19].
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