| | | Can They Be Stopped?
Features: DVD
More than 25 years ago, a low-budget movie its young producers called "The Ultimate Experience In Grueling Terror" roared across movie screens and changed the velocity of fear forever. Today, its ferocious ingenuity, relentless shocks and gore-gushing havoc remain an absolute standard of modern horror. Now celebrate the original Sam Raimi masterpiece like never before with two versions of the movie, six new featurettes that revisit the film's cast, crew, biggest fans and undying legacy, plus a jaw-dropping torrent of never-before-seen production footage, outtakes and deleted scenes, reconstructed and restored for the first time ever. This is truly the Ultimate Edition of The Evil Dead.
"One of the best low-budget horror flicks ever created!" Alex Sandell, Juicy Cerebellum
"Raimi's biggest grossout is schlock horror done the right way..." Christopher Null, FilmCritic.com
"Wildly stylish...one of the grossest horror films ever...provides a deliriously imaginative roller coaster ride for those with strong stomachs." Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
"...easily surpasses other notorious horror debuts such as The Last House On The Left or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Martyn Glanville, BBC Online
"One of the scariest horror films ever made." Shannon J. Harvey, Sunday Times
Editor's Note
Director Sam Raimi's first film has achieved legendary status since its 1982 release, and for good reason. Though perhaps not as widely seen as its two sequels, EVIL DEAD 2 and ARMY OF DARKNESS, THE EVIL DEAD is arguably the best of the three. It is the story of five college-age friends who travel to a cabin in rural Tennessee where the stumble upon the Book of the Dead, an ancient tome bound in human flesh and inked in blood. After unwittingly awakening the unspeakable terror told of in the book, each of the friends is transformed into the evil dead, one by one, except for Ash (Bruce Campbell). So, Ash is left with no other way to survive than to dismember the living corpses of his sister, girlfriend, and two of his friends. Shot on a shoestring budget, the film boasts some impressive camera work and extremely over-the-top gore effects as well as a sense of humor much more subtle than the tongue-in-cheek aesthetic of the two sequels.
| Features | Audio Commentary With Star Bruce Campbell | | Audio Commentary With Writer/Director Sam Raimi & Producer Robert Tapert | | Audio: English DTS ES 6.1 Surround Sound, Dolby Digital EX Surround Sound, Dolby Digital Stereo | | Featurettes: One By One We Will Take You - The Untold Saga Of The Evil Dead, The Evil Dead - Treasures From The Cutting Room Floor, Life After Death - The Ladies Of The Evil Dead, The Ladies Of The Evil Dead Meet Bruce Campbell, Discovering The Evil Dead, Unconventional, & At The Drive-In | | Interactive Menus | | Make-Up Test | | Original Theatrical Trailer | | Poster & Memorabilia Gallery | | Reunion Panel | | Scene Selection | | Still Gallery | | TV Spots |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: STARZ/SPHE |
| Release Date: 12/18/2007 |
| Running Time: 85 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1979 | | Catalog ID: 13214 | | UPC: 00013131321494 | | Number of Discs: 3 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen/Standard 1.85:1/1.33:1 [4:3] |
| Cast & Crew
| Memorable Quotes| "We can't bury Shelly, she's our friend."|(Ash, to Scott, after watching him hack off the limbs of his possessed girlfriend and then suggest that they bury the remaining parts) |
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| | Professional Reviews | Variety
"...Raimi maintains suspense and a nightmarish mood..." 02/09/1983Sight and Sound
"...[A] tongue-in-cheek cult favourite..." 05/01/2002 p.59 Sight and Sound
"[H]ighly effective as a tense horror -- its scares balanced by plenty of tongue-in-cheek humour." 11/01/2005 p.88 ReelViews 8 of 10
Equal parts suspense, camp, comedy, and over-the-top gore, the first two Evil Dead movies didn't take long to attain the status of cult classics. Today, while relatively few mainstream movie viewers have heard of these movies (not to mention having seen them), they have garnered a small but loyal gathering of fans who can recite every one liner delivered by the ultra-cool hero, Ash...To say that the Evil Dead movies are not for everyone is an understatement. A strong stomach is required. If you can't take copious amounts of blood and gore, this is not your movie. Both The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II have enough vile colored liquids to fill a small swimming pool...One of the most remarkable things about The Evil Dead is how much it was able to accomplish on such a small budget (reportedly around $50K). Of course, it could be argued that many of the best horror films, including Halloween and The Blair Witch Project, have come cheaply, with the lack of funding forcing the filmmakers to rely more on innovation than special effects. The Evil Dead is at times genuinely creepy, due in no small part to the imaginative camerawork devised by Raimi and cinematographer Tim Philo. - James Berardinelli
Reel.com 9 of 10
Evil Dead tells the story of five college kids whose weekend fun is disrupted when they discover an ancient Sumerian Book of the Dead in their remote mountain cabin. Before too long, the cabin is the scene of murder, mayhem, and possessed coeds. Evil Dead is exactly the type of movie for which Joe Bob Briggs' drive-in movie reviews were designed: Three breasts. Pencil fu. Hatchet fu. Aardvarking woods. Check it out...Evil Dead is one low-budget movie that makes the viewer regret that high budgets even exist. Raimi worked with a cheap fog machine, Karo syrup blood, plastic hands, dummies, a wheel chair dolly, and lots of friends and family to play various dismembered body parts. He notes in his DVD audio commentary that he set out to make one of the scariest horror films ever. He comes admirably close to that goal -- Evil Dead is scary and gory...It's also extremely funny. And in Bruce Campbell, Raimi finds the perfect leading man. Big, handsome, and dumb on the outside, Campbell has a knowing, maniacal humor lurking just beneath the surface. Raimi's high school buddy, he went on to play the character Ash in two subsequent Evil Dead sequels. - Pam Grady
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