The Evil Dead

Sam Raimi’s first directorial effort, The Evil Dead follows five friends (Ellen Sandweiss’ Cheryl, Hal Delrich’s Scott, Betsy Baker’s Linda, Sarah York’s Shelly, and Bruce Campbell’s Ash) as they arrive at a remote cabin in the woods and are soon besieged by flesh-possessing demons. Raimi’s impressive comfort behind the camera is apparent right from the word go, as The Evil Dead kicks off with a captivating (and thoroughly stylish) opening stretch that effectively establishes the characters and the evil force lurking in the woods. And while it’s admittedly difficult not to question the intelligence of these people (ie that cabin is awfully remote), Raimi does a superb job of building tension by emphasizing the many creepy happenings in and around the movie’s central locale. It’s disappointing to note, then, that The Evil Dead does begin to lose its way as it enters its mixed-bag midsection, as Raimi’s screenplay adopts a fairly repetitive structure revolving around aforementioned flesh-possessing demons’ growing incursion on the heroes – with the less-than-captivating feel compounded by a roster of decent yet one-dimensional protagonists (ie Campbell’s Ash is, naturally, the only figure able to make a reasonably strong impact). The film recovers for a splatter-filled third act that is, admittedly, as exhausting as it is fun, and it’s finally clear that The Evil Dead stands as a striking debut from a filmmaker who would go on to much, much better things.

**1/2 out of ****