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The Evil Dead (1981)
By: J.R. McNamara on August 10, 2005.Share Share  Comments1 Comments
DVD
Big Sky Video (Australia). Region 4, PAL. 1.85:1 (16:9 enhanced). English DD 5.1 English DD 2.0. 81 minutes
The Movie
Cover Art
Credits
Director: Sam Raimi
Starring:Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Hal Delrich, Betsy Baker, Sarah York,
Screenplay: Sam Raimi


Country: USA
Based on Sam Raimi's 1978 short film, Within the Woods, which was made to raise money for its production, Evil Dead is a horror classic. Originally to be titled The Book of the Dead, but changed to The Evil Dead by producer Irwin Shapiro (he was worried the word 'book' gave it too much of a 'literary reference' which would scare kids away), The Evil Dead has become a part of horror lore. Every horror fan that is worth his mettle has experienced either this or one of its two sequels.......repeatedly.

Five twenty something's (Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Hal Deitrich, Betsy Baker and Sarah York) go to an abandoned cabin in the middle of the woods for a holiday. A strange occurrence makes one of the men journey into the cellar where he finds a tape recorder and the 'Necronomicon', an antique book bound in human skin. The tape contains a reading of the book which, when played, releases an ancient evil from the woods onto the unsuspecting group. Soon, one by one, the friends are turned into 'deadites', carnage craving zombies, and it is up to the sole survivor, who must find it within himself to overcome his fear, and defeat the Evil Dead.

The Evil Dead was the one video that every kid in the eighties had to see, and nothing has changed. The Evil Dead is an amazing combination of gore, violence and slapstick that shouldn't work, but somehow does. This Big Sky Video production treats this disc the way it deserves, not as a Video Nasty, but as the piece of cinematic history it is. Not only is Evil Dead an example of excellence in independent filmmaking, but an absolute credit to what can be done to an independent flick of dubious film quality when given a good video and audio re-master.

One thing though, if you are considering purchasing this DVD, make sure to get the 'Collector's Edition'. Big Sky Video has also released this in a 'Widescreen Edition' which is missing the Raimi/ Tapert and Campbell commentaries, the Fantasia Documentary and the Bruce Campbell Phone interview.
Video
The 1:85:1 widescreen transfer is pretty good when you consider the origins of the film. It occasionally gets too dark, but this is due to the original filming, not the recent transfer.
Audio
The Dolby Digital 5.1 is brilliant, every single nuance of this wacky soundtrack is as clear as a bell, from the ridiculous moog to the madcap sound effects. This soundtrack is made even more interesting when you listen to the commentaries which reveal the origins of some of the sounds. The audio menu also contains a small text piece titled 'About the Remix', which is two paragraphs featuring the remixing credits and process.
Extra Features
The two commentaries on this disc are quite good. The first one is done by Sam Raimi (director) and Rob Tapert (producer), while the second one is done by the chin himself, Bruce Campbell (who plays Ash). Both commentaries are interesting, although Campbell's shines through with his self-depreciating humour. They repeat each other a little bit but it's still a treat to hear the same story from different perspectives.

Fanalysis is a documentary by Bruce Campbell about the weird phenomenon that is fandom. It runs for 26 minutes and has, shall we say, people who take their love of things like Star Trek and Xena to somewhat extreme lengths. It not only has interviews with fans but with actors like Ted Raimi (Evil Dead 2) and Tim Thomerson (Trancers aka Future Cop) and of course, Bruce himself.

The Telephone Interview with Bruce Campbell is an hour long audio only interview of average quality but as usual shows Campbell for the entertainer he is.

The Discovering Evil Dead documentary is a 13 minute look at the UK's Palace Pictures who were the first to release The Evil Dead in Britain. These are fairly informative interviews with Nik Powell and Stephen Woolley, about the purchase of The Evil Dead for distribution and about the ridiculousness of the 'Video Nasty' trials during the eighties.

Scene Outtakes are just that, average quality bits and pieces of tape, not your 'goofs and blunders' type of outtakes.

Cast and crew: This is just a text summary of the credits, although the people from the film who were 'Fake Shemps' (stand ins for hands, feet, backs etc) have been credited here incorrectly as 'Fale Shemps'.

The Full Colour Insert is a piece of glossy paper with the chapter headings and liner notes from Bruce Campbell.

One of the highlights of this package is The Evil Dead Journal by Josh Becker (Director of Running Time). This is a 32 page booklet tracing Josh Becker's experiences on the set of The Evil Dead. It reads somewhere between Scott's diary and a drunken confession. It's sometimes funny and at times disturbing in its drunken and drug-fuelled paranoia. The final page of this booklet contains some web links, some of which have gone by the wayside since it was first published in 2002.
The Verdict
Along with films like Friday the 13th, Halloween and Nightmare on Elm St, this is a necessity to every horror fan's collection. It's The Evil Dead, what else is there to say? Buy this now!!
The Rating

User Comments
1 user comments have been posted so far
Comment Script
This movie was filmed full frame originally. Widescreen DVD versions mean that image has been cropped at the tops and bottom. I read a report a few weeks ago that Sam Raimi supervised the new \'widescreen\' image. But it has to be said, that it can\'t be a true widescreen, can it?
Posted by: Will500 on 11/26/2007 @ 10:36
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