Long before it became a respected cult item and a franchise-starter that would launch sequels, reboots, and a pretty darn good TV series too, The Evil Dead was just a gory splatterfest made for no money by an ambitious kid (barely 20-years-old when he shot it!) and his pals out at a little cabin in the woods. Amazingly, even though all those later efforts have had better production values and more of a focus on dark comedy in addition to their blood and guts, the original film still holds up on its own as a really fun and inventive low-budget horror flick. Also, it gave rise to the immense talent of star Bruce Campbell, and that’d be enough legacy for any movie to stand on.
Pinning down an exact origin year for The Evil Dead is more complicated than most movies. While it’s generally credited as a 1981 film in most sources, and I suppose that’s what I’ll follow here, it really only had one screening in front of an audience that year. The official copyright date in the end credits is 1982, which is also when it played at the Cannes Film Festival, but the movie didn’t get a proper theatrical release by a distributor until April of 1983.
| Title: | The Evil Dead |
| Years of Release: | 1981 – Detroit Redford Theater screening 1982 – Copyright date and Cannes Film Festival 1983 – General theatrical release |
| Director: | Sam Raimi |
| Watched On: | 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray |
| Also Available On: | Blu-ray Various VOD rental and purchase platforms |
The plot setup is simple enough: For reasons that may only make sense to themselves, a group of five friends drive out to the woods in the middle of nowhere, to stay at a cabin they’ve rented for the weekend, sight unseen. Their exact plans for this excursion are never explained, but given their young ages and the era when this movie was made, it’s safe to assume they intend to get a little drunk, smoke a little weed, and generally behave like idiots away from the prying eyes of their families and civilization. With a ratio of more girls to boys, some debauchery may be involved as well, though they never get a chance to go into that.
Upon arriving, the friends find the cabin a run-down derelict, not exactly the cozy little cottage they imagined. Exploring its insides, Scott (Richard DeManicor), heads down to the cellar, where he finds a really creepy book with drawings of monsters and dismembered human bodies all over its pages. The text is written in an unintelligible ancient language, but from an audiotape found next to it, they listen to the voice of a professor of some sort, talking about legends and myths, and reading from the book’s pages.
The words, spoken aloud, awaken evil forces within the woods. Soon enough, the friends are surrounded by scary noises and shadows. The cabin seems to have a life of its own. Freaked out, Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) ventures outside, where she’s attacked by the trees themselves and barely makes it back inside. When Ash (Bruce Campbell) agrees to drive her home, the car of course stalls out, prompting Cheryl to repeatedly scream, “It’s not gonna let us leave!” Her injuries later turn Cheryl into a cackling possessed demon who attacks the others in turn. Despite trying to defend themselves, the survivors are wounded in grisly fashion, turning one by one into demons from Hell, until only Ash is left fighting for his life.
This is not a particularly original premise, and in typical horror movie fashion, the characters (especially jackass Scott) turn really dumb and do things any sensible person wouldn’t. If that was all there were to it, The Evil Dead would be laughed off drive-in screens while couples only half paying attention to it made out in the backseats of their cars. It would then be met with derision by kids renting it on VHS for cheesy movie marathons.
Where The Evil Dead has real energy and personality is the ingenuity of its low-budget filmmaking. Going for broke (literally!) with limited resources, young director Sam Raimi turns his handheld 16mm camera into its own character, racing and swooping through the woods and into the cabin, pushing in for close-ups at canted angles. Scenes cut frantically from shot to shot to build tension, and then Raimi lets loose with copious gross-out gore. Blood and guts comically fly everywhere until the characters (especially Ash) are positively drenched in the stuff. Considering that they were working with practically nothing, Raimi and effects artist Tom Sullivan created some surprisingly effective makeup and prosthetics that still look pretty great.
There’s not much to the movie, and not all of it holds up. Cheryl’s rape by a tree (and make no mistake, that’s exactly what happens, if not fully shown) is really unpleasant in ways the rest of the film never goes to. I get the sense that Raimi, at his age and living in the culture of the late ’70s/early ’80s, probably didn’t give a whole lot of consideration to how traumatizing real sexual assault is, and just thought it’d be another horror gag, no different than chopping a demon into bloody pieces. Fun horror and truly disturbing horror are very different things that don’t mesh well together. I expect that an older and much more experienced Raimi knows better now.
If you can forgive that, as well as its campiness (sometimes deliberate, sometimes not), thin plotting, and weak acting, The Evil Dead is otherwise still great gonzo fun. Bruce Campbell, impossibly fresh-faced, already shows signs of the goofy charisma that would define his career. Some editing assistance was also provided by Raimi’s friend Joel Coen (of the much later Oscar-winning Coen brothers).
Of note to franchise fans, Ash isn’t quite the chainsaw-wielding badass he’d become in the sequels. Nor does the first Evil Dead have much of the mythology about the “Deadites” or “Necronomicon.” Nobody here even uses those terms. Stuff like that wouldn’t get introduced until later installments.
The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
A popular cult film that grew most of its audience through home video, The Evil Dead saw many releases on DVD and Blu-ray over the years. Lionsgate first brought it to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray in 2018, two months before a separate release of the sequel Evil Dead 2. The edition I have is a double-feature SteelBook released in 2020, exclusive to the Best Buy retail chain. Another double-feature set packaged in a regular keepcase later came along in 2022.
The SteelBook has very fun artwork (mostly reflective of Evil Dead 2). When you remove the clear plastic slipcover, you can see more of the art and no titles. The SteelBook edition is a four-disc set with copies of the two movies on both 4K UHD and regular Blu-ray. Unfortunately, the Blu-rays haven’t been remastered. The one for the original film is still labeled with Anchor Bay Entertainment (absorbed by Lionsgate years ago) and is a straight copy of a disc from 2010.
I have to admit that I went into this viewing with a lot of skepticism about the need to release a super-low-budget movie like this in 4K format. That’s especially true given that the Anchor Bay Blu-ray was actually pretty good for its day, following years of grungy-looking DVD releases. Could the 16mm photography even have 4K worth of detail, and if it did, wouldn’t that just expose more of the cheap production values?
Nevertheless, defying all odds, the 4K UHD is indeed a strong improvement that leaves the Blu-ray behind. The transfer is once again framed at a pillarboxed 4:3 aspect ratio, which may not be how the film played theatrically (matted down to 1.85:1), but definitely looks accurate to how the photography was composed when this was expected to be a straight-to-VHS production.
Surprisingly, the 4K image really does have more detail than the Blu-ray, with the caveat that not much can be done about any of the shots obviously photographed out of focus. Colors are richer (that deep red blood looks great), and HDR gives the dark of night more depth. The improved contrast makes a smoother transition to some effective highlights. While heavily grainy at times, notably in early scenes, the grain adds character and isn’t too distracting for the majority of the movie.
All that said, some fans may argue (perhaps rightfully so) that The Evil Dead was always a gritty, low-fi movie made by a bunch of kids who had little idea what they were doing. The improved transfer may actually defeat the purpose of the picture’s grindhouse aesthetic. That’s a fair point, and previous DVD or Blu-ray releases might reflect that better. Those discs are still available for those who prefer them.
However, even in 4K, the movie still looks really cheap and frankly amateurish, in an endearing way. The better technical qualities of this transfer don’t change the fundamental nature of the film. Most reassuring of all, the majority of gore and splatter effects hold up pretty well to the greater clarity of the extra resolution.
Even though the movie’s original sound mix was monaural, the 4K Ultra HD has no other audio option except a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track. I believe the 5.1 remix was created for DVD years ago, and I think it’s highly likely that some of the original sound effects were replaced at that time. That part, at least, may not be a bad thing. The Evil Dead was such a low-budget production that Sam Raimi couldn’t afford a professional sound design and had to get by with the crudest effects he could manage.Still, it would be nice if the disc provided some representation of the original soundtrack for purists.
Those presumably new effects are much clearer, and louder, than the dialogue, which is highly variable in recording quality from scene to scene. The remix also moves the effects around the room in a gimmicky fashion, and boosts the bass. It doesn’t sound bad, but nor does it sound natural to what we’re seeing on screen.
The only bonus feature offered on either the 4K disc or the Blu-ray in the case is a fun and lively audio commentary delivered by director Sam Raimi, producer Rob Tapert, and star Bruce Campbell. Other previous DVD and Blu-ray releases contained a lot more content absent here.
Related
- Sam Raimi (director)
Note: Screenshots on this page were taken from the Blu-ray edition of the film and are used for illustration purposes only.
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