The Evil Dead. A-Z Of UK Nasties #4. Re-Evaluation of the Original Uncut version

I will never forget the first time I saw the " The Evil Dead" on VHS tape in 1984, I kept on asking my nurse girlfriend, after the first half hour, "How gory is this gonna be?", all she would say was "I've already seen it once, that was enough for me, keep watching", so I'm going to sleep now", as she sneakily and happily pulled the duvet over her head. I had earlier asked her in our local video library, "let's get a horror movie" and "what was one of the most goriest, strange and funny video's she'd ever seen? she replied, "Definitely, "The Evil Dead", "What's that"? I said. So later on that night, I was left to endure one of the most ferociously gruelling and weirdest horror movie experiences of all time, all on my own ... I can tell you now, it was a landmark movie moment for me.

Up until that point in time I had never really seen a film that went that far with gore before, I had seen John Carpenter's "The Thing", with the dog splitting scenes, on it's first release, before home videotape existed, in a really old style cinema, which sadly has now been converted to a shopping precinct in Exeter. 

Of course, much, much earlier back in the 1970's, I'd seen "The Exorcist", when I was 14 (my school mate's Grandmother used to run both local cinemas in our town and if it was not a "naughty" film, if you know what I mean, I was, allowed in to see the old style, "X certificate movies", as they were known then) including other films like; "Shivers", "The French Connection", "Food of the Gods", before I was old enough, in "The Royal" cinema which has been completely knocked down now and the still there, but renamed, converted and modernised, "The Savoy" cinema, those had all been intense movie-moments and "mile-stones". I had a strange childhood, don't ask.

Sam Raimi's original, "The Evil Dead" film was a breakthrough and landmark horror film which utilises through necessity, many inventive, cost cutting photographic techniques that helped to momentarily elevate "Grind House Cinema" to whole new and mainstream level. Sam, Ivan and Ted Raimi, plus of course Robert Tappert and all the cast and crew plus all the many "doubles" or "Fake Shemps", for re-shoots, should always be remembered for that fact. 
Their "pure imagination and creativity" took a dying "cult" medium and turned it into, even though just for a short time, a "mainstream" one. Millions of people watched "The Evil Dead", who might not of otherwise tried such a film (and still do), mainly through "word of mouth", the word spread fast about this little film. A lot of people were at the time and to this day, "disgusted", some are still, "offended", the rest of us, "Time Keepers" of may I dare to say "Strange Movies",  just had our nerves "rattled", our "sensibilities" tested and our "reserves" stretched for an hour and 25 odd minutes, to write that that a "single stone can send a ripple right across the entire pond", is a film journalistic understatement, so far as the original "The Evil Dead" film is concerned.

Filming the original "Evil Dead" rumours abounded that, Sam and Ted Raimi overcame expensive experimental shots that would have been very costly to perform by building and utilising "home made" and cheaply borrowed equipment, to achieve certain more "big-budget", camera techniques, like "dolly shots", in certain scenes for example, they fix a camera on a plank of wood, then place that on a wheelchair and then start pushing that around filming, through the woods to give the effect of a "Deadite" flying in the air, on through said wood, up to the back door of the log cabin location, through the cabin's interior and out through the front door, this still brings a smile to the face, for if you watch it back, you will plainly see that's how some of those particular low-level flying effect's were achieved.

Much later, years in fact, I discovered, that was actually true to a certain degree, another "The Evil Dead" fact was, that they had made use of a "cherry-picker" or "scissor-lift bucket", to execute the "high-up", "crane shots", because they couldn't afford to get the real thing, also that a larger platform, like a kind of mobile "trebuchet" of some kind had been made and used, pushed also, through the woods, to give the effect off "deadites", flying high-up, following them through the forest, knocking down trees, in fact it was for a certain scene I have just found out it was achieved by fixing the camera to the top of a van.

"The Evil Dead was totally something else, yes of course "Evil Dead" is a pretty gruesome "black comedy" tale of a group of "twenty some-thing friends who go camping, get "possessed" by 5,000 year old "Deadite" spirits from Sumerian folk lore and who then during the course of the story, are subsequently "chop to bits" with an axe by one lone "un-possessed" survivor. For me there was something very intriguing about all this, not so much the gore scenes but by the incredible camera effects and camera angle's, the like of which seemed totally new and ground-breaking to me, that a film with such a low budget, was actually very convincing and more particularly fun to watch.

Initially of course it is the special gore effect scenes that strike you but on second, third and subsequent viewings, it's the "slapstick" style and "black comedy humour" of it all that starts to come through. The tour-de-force climax scenes of "stop-motion" are a pure joy to see and were obviously created by a dedicated "pioneers" of "claymation", they are similar in style to Frank Zappa's, "City of Tiny Lights" animation song/video, if youv'e never heard of that or seen it you should check and you will then know what I'm talking about.

Watching the original "The Evil Dead" again on DVD the other night, even though I have watched it quite a few times now over the years, it still seemed fresh, horrible and funny. After the friends, discover the "Book of the Dead" and listen to the recorded tapes of the professor they find in the basement, some of the scenes that really begin to stand out above others are; "Cheryl's" early signs of "susceptibility" to the "Deadite's". Being a keen pencil artist, her drawings start to "manifest" the "Deadites" as she scratches them out onto her "sketchpad". Then a bit later, "Cheryl's" rape by trees and vines and the reverse-photography effected to show the vines crawling and wrapping themselves around her arms and leg's are pure "movie-magic".

The necklace gift scenes between "Ash" and his girlfriend "Linda", where their eyes avoid each other, still works and was lifted and "borrowed" from a classic film of which I do know but have forgotten momentarily, are used by Sam again, one of the few normal scenes in "The Evil Dead". Also never noticed by me were some elements of the films soundtrack score is very similar to "Suspiria" and the kettle-drum roll used in there, when the "Deadite's are groaning and calling "Join Us", I also noticed.

For me though, the blood chilling horror of the "Deadite's" for real, comes with their first manifestation during the card mind-reading scene that starts off a bit fun but quickly turns into a bone chilling scream by the possessed "Cheryl", this part still freaks me out 30 years later, "Queen of Spades, 4 of Hearts, 8 of Spades, 2 of Spades, Jack of Clubs", she howls and then floats up into the air, writhing, fully possessed after being raped by the trees earlier.

Apparently Sam was very lucky, it was released un-rated and not edited by distributor Bob Shaye from New Line Cinema. A lot of people still think it's the director who makes the film ... not really, the director just guides the actors, crew and films the scenes as he thinks work ... But ultimately it's down to the Producers, Studio's and Distributor's for what film we eventually get.

Oh, at the beginning of "Evil Dead", there is a "movie-mistake", (one of many in the film, which they all own up to), pause the film at 2:59 seconds and there is a girl stood behind the road bridge they drive over, with what looks like an SLR camera over her shoulder, on-set photographer accidentally get's in shot, me thinks?

Also coincidence or not but when Ash's girlfriend "Linda", gets possessed early on, after being stabbed in the Achilles Heal, the puncture wound becomes infected, there is a stop-motion effect to show this of a spider web growing, stretching up her leg to her knee, of course later on Sam went on to direct the first three "Spider man" films, coincidence,or destiny, you decide?