{"id":28800,"date":"2025-11-01T21:53:52","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T21:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=28800"},"modified":"2025-11-03T21:02:59","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T21:02:59","slug":"film-review-the-evil-dead-1981","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=28800","title":{"rendered":"FiLM REViEW: The Evil Dead, 1981"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Ash and four friends on vacation travel to a remote cabin. Things quickly go to Hell, when they discover a \u2018Book of The Dead\u2019, and listen to the tape-recordings of a former occupant of the site. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ash, central protagonist of the movie.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By modern horror movie standards this venerable old classic starts off pretty slowly. But it builds nicely. A lost art, perhaps?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cheryl, Ash\u2019s sister.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sam Raimi already has some chops – this is his directorial debut! – visually speaking, with only Into The Woods<\/em> as warm up. Tricks like the wobbly low-to-the-ground camera , scooting over the rather squalid terrain\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cheryl\u2019s not well\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bruce Campbell, and co. are great. Cheryl, his kid sister, is the first victim. In a highly controversial scene she is violated, by the evil spirits of the woods! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From hereon in the pace picks up. And very soon, with Shelley – Scotty\u2019s gal – taken, chaotic carnage ensues\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bruce Campbell is great, as Ash.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ash and Scotty are the last; all three gals get possessed first. But not long after Scotty\u2019s failed solo escape bid, it\u2019s just Ash\u2026 As Scotty fades, and the gore revs up, the movie switches into a more overtly absurd and even morbidly comic mode\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s alternately jaw-droppingly amazing, and utterly preposterous. Scary, then silly. But there are some terrific passages. A favourite for me is the several minutes of Ash\u2019s apparent descent into madness. The camera angles and lighting are, at times, terrific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insane lo-fi gore galore!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And then there\u2019s the whole epic lo-fi gore meltdown, which is extraordinary. Porridge? Plasticine? God knows\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bonkers, and epic\u2026 and the very end? Brilliant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ash and four friends on vacation travel to a remote cabin. Things quickly go to Hell, when they discover a \u2018Book of The Dead\u2019, and listen to the tape-recordings of a former occupant of the site. By modern horror movie standards this venerable old classic starts off pretty slowly. But it builds nicely. A lost … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “FiLM REViEW: The Evil Dead, 1981”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"FiLM REViEW: The Evil Dead, 1981","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-7uw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28800"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28800"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28815,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28800\/revisions\/28815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}