Carson has never seen The Evil Dead. Until today!
Genre: Horror
Premise: A group of friends head out to a remote cabin where they inadvertently unleash a series of demons from the woods.
About: This was Sam Raimi’s first film! You know Raimi as the director of the original Spider-Man films, the director of Dr. Strange and the Lame Sidekick, and the guy who insists on wearing a tuxedo while he directs. The Evil Dead was one of the few horror movies before 2000 that actually got good reviews. The film was made for about 300,000 dollars and when it debuted, the master of horror, Stephen King, fell in love with it, becoming a huge advocate for the film. Look down below. They even quoted him in the poster!
Writer: Sam Raimi
Details: about 90 minutes long
I am about to blow your mind.
I’ve never seen The Evil Dead.
I can’t say why. It’s just one of those odd holes in my movie-watching history.
Let me tell you why I chose to watch it today, though. I looked it up online and saw that it wasn’t streaming anywhere. Which is impossible in 2022 – that a popular movie isn’t available for streaming.
I was annoyed but what was I going to do? Make the movie appear out of thin air? So I decided to watch John Carpenter’s “They Live” instead.
Holy moly in a hand-basket full of guacamole is that movie terrible. I’m talking late stage 4 send it to the hospice terrible. It does *not* hold up.
Which brought me back to The Evil Dead. The more I internalized the idea that I couldn’t have it, the more I wanted it. I’m not allowed to watch you?? Oh, we’ll see about that, Mr. Movie! Without going into too much detail, I took a trip into the bowels of the internet, got stuck in a Mongolian server, before shooting back up through the center of the earth holding a copy of Evil Dead autographed by the entire cast.
Which brings me to this moment.
I’ve seen The Evil Dead. Finally. A movie that, for long stretches of time, I believed was the same film as Army of Darkness. It’s time for my ignorance to end!
If you haven’t seen the film, five friends head up to a remote cabin. Ash, Cheryl, Linda, Joke-maker Scott, and Shelly. Ash and Linda are together. Scott and Shelly are together. Poor Cheryl is the fifth wheel. Ironically, she’s the most attractive of the bunch. Go figure!
On the way to the house, they cross a rickety old bridge, and arrive at their destination a few minutes later. They obviously didn’t plan this trip very well because they don’t seem to have anything to do. There’s no lake to swim in. Everyone forgot their cell phones. I don’t even think they brought beer. All they can do is sit in a tiny cabin and talk.
As night sets in, Cheryl thinks she hears something outside. So she goes outside to check on it because that’s what any rational person would do. While she’s out there, she’s attacked by the trees, which wrap her up and, I believe (correct me if I’m wrong), try to impregnate her with tree sap. Maybe in the hopes of creating a little half-human half-tree baby. Luckily, she escapes before this tree malfeasance can happen.
Back at the cabin, she screams at Ash to drive her into town. She’s not staying here. But when the two get to the bridge, it’s collapsed. Cheryl knows why. The demon people want to keep them here all night.
Once back at the cabin, Cheryl turns into a full-on demon and, after an intense scuffle, they’re able to throw her down into the cellar and lock the floor hatch. Unfortunately, Shelly turns next. Then Ash’s girlfriend, Linda. And now it’s on like John and his fawn. Ash grabs an axe and does his best to fend everyone off. Stupid Scott, who ain’t cracking jokes anymore, is too injured to help.
From there, it’s blood city. There is a LOT of blood in this movie, which I guess is one of the reasons it’s famous? No entity dies without gobs and gobs of liquid shooting out of them in every which way. Gobs of blood our man Ash will have to endure if he’s to make it to sunrise!
I just have to say that for a good 20 minutes there, I was ready to unleash my rage upon horror fans everywhere. This movie is so beloved by so many people but if you watched just those first 20 minutes, you would think you were watching a movie directed by your pal, Gerry, who works nights down at the Gas and Pass.
I mean it was baaaaaaaad.
I’ll tell you the moment that changed for me, though.
It was when Cheryl went into the forest and was met with an unrequited romantic pursuit by the trees. I thought to myself, oh, okay, we may have something here.
And, really, the entire movie changed after that. It was like two different films. I don’t know what happened but everything about the production became more confident.
Unfortunately, like a lot of low-budget horror, the screenplay was clearly not a priority. Raimi put more effort into it than those guys over on the Friday the 13th production, but not much. I’m not even sure there was a single plot development, lol. It was just, demon lurks, demon possesses, possessed friend attacks, rinse and repeat.
And you know what? It works!
I can’t imagine trying to keep a narrative like that going for 90 minutes in just four rooms, though. And SMALL rooms, too. That living room was miniature. If you killed someone, their body was basically right next to you on the ground.
The biggest tell about the lack of a screenplay were the characters. It wasn’t clear who the hero was until the final third of the film, when Ash becomes the only un-possessed character left. But, before that, the guy was background noise. He was the least vocal character of the bunch.
It reminded me of “Alien,” in the way that Ripley was non-existent for the majority of the movie until she, essentially, became the last person left and then we had no choice but to anoint her as our main character. Ash was very much cut from the same cloth.
This movie sent me off on an intense journey to find that mythical answer to the question, what makes this movie work and 99% of its imitators fail? Because we’ve all seen the bad versions of Evil Dead. Heck, we saw the bad version OF Evil Dead, in the 2013 remake.
Why does this work and all those other movies not work?
Here’s my unscientific answer. The Evil Dead is infused with a rarefied energy – and that’s the energy of a group of people desperate to break in. They know that this was it for them. Very few people raise 300,000 dollars (over a million in today’s money), make a bad movie, and get another shot at it. You have to get it right.
And this movie feels like that to me. The energy throughout its second act is just as intense as any 300 million dollar Marvel movie you’ll see today. There’s something about desperation that supercharges an artist’s creativity.
I’ve watched so much content lately that has no heartbeat to it. Andor is a good example. It’s lifeless. It’s hard to make something come alive when you don’t have that 180 beats per minute energy pumping away like The Evil Dead did in its veins.
Is this a perfect movie? Definitely not. There were times when the production value was so poor that I was pulled out of the film. But, by and large, the movie works. And for that reason, I think it’s a great entry into the approved Scriptshadow Spooktacular Club!
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[xx] worth the stream (if you can find it!)
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: You have a superpower that everyone working in the business right now does not have. And that’s your desire to succeed and make it in this business. If you can take that energy and place it in the DNA of your script, you can write something that feels way more alive than anything these dead-inside work-for-hire Hollywood writers are churning out right now! I promise you that!
