Evil Dead
| Year: | 1981 |
| Director: | Sam Raimi |
| Writer: | Sam Raimi |
| Cast: | Bruce Campbell |
The prototype for a million DIY moviemakers into the new millennium, this was fanboy filmmaking long before digital video, Tarantino and Blair Witch led the charge 15 years earlier.
Deceptively simple like all classics are; a group of friends hole up in a secluded cabin (no prizes for guessing why films from Blair Witch to Cabin Fever subsequently chilled and delighted us) and stumble upon an ancient book that can raise the dead to demonic life.
Of course, they go and do it, and all hell literally breaks loose. The scenes range from campy shock value (sexual-assault-by-tree-branch) to the genuinely disturbing, such as the first girl-turned-zombie thing's violent escape attempt from the basement, repeatedly crashing its bloodied head against the barely chained down trapdoor.
It defined cult horror before there was such a thing; shoddy no-budget effects, deliriously outrageous idea, gag-reflex execution and buckets of blood, bad taste and nasty scares.
Deceptively simple like all classics are; a group of friends hole up in a secluded cabin (no prizes for guessing why films from Blair Witch to Cabin Fever subsequently chilled and delighted us) and stumble upon an ancient book that can raise the dead to demonic life.
Of course, they go and do it, and all hell literally breaks loose. The scenes range from campy shock value (sexual-assault-by-tree-branch) to the genuinely disturbing, such as the first girl-turned-zombie thing's violent escape attempt from the basement, repeatedly crashing its bloodied head against the barely chained down trapdoor.
It defined cult horror before there was such a thing; shoddy no-budget effects, deliriously outrageous idea, gag-reflex execution and buckets of blood, bad taste and nasty scares.