The Evil Dead

Five friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons.

I do not think this film is scary but that is not why I like it so it works out. This movie is more cheesy and over the top than a fright fest but I guess it depends on the viewer.

The effects are impressive even if they are low budget. The story is so iconic, it inspired so many copycats, that you get movies like Cabin In The Woods.

Just skimming through the wiki on the movie a modern viewer may be surprised that this was rated X in a number of countries. I do not see it but I guess it was another time. Interesting to see what $375K back in 1980 can get you.

Being the first in the series this has the most straightforward approach to the setup. Young adults are on their way to a cabin in the middle of nowhere and even early on something seems off. More iconic stuff but they way the camera follows the car through the woods just starts to fill you with dread. I get that this was just Sam Raimi’s car but it being yellow with the rest of the colors in the films really works. The banging of the swinging bench hitting the cabin before you see it is another good touch.

This film is a little shlocky so I really enjoy the fact that the cellar door just flies open for no good reason. I imagine they could not agree on a good reason to go down there so they just invented this happening. I mentioned this in the 2013 sudo-remake but I do not care for the events that take place in the woods. This is my biggest problem with this movie.

The deadites throughout are some of the best and I really enjoy their taunting in this film over any of the ones that follow. There are a bunch of tropes established in this film that the others in the franchise build upon. I especially enjoy the deadite fakeout. Which by the sequel Ash has figured out with his line, “It’s a trick. Get an Axe.”

They really beat Ash up in this movie and he is not much like the action hero he becomes by the third. I guess you have to start somewhere.

Harassment of “Join us” is good and creepy from the deadites and “Look at her eyes. For God’s sake, what happened to her yes?!” is a lot of fun. In Burn I do not think they even noticed the eyes have changed. Other films at least reacted to them changing.

In the end when the evil is defeated and the deadites decay into rainbow colors is fantasitc. It is an effective and creepy display even to this day.

A cult-classic for good reason.

This is day 69 of 100 Days To Offload.

This is day 16 of Blaugust 2026.