THE EVIL DEAD
The Evil Dead is the first official movie from the franchise, released in october 15th 1981 in the USA and directed by Sam Raimi.
It was made with a budget of 350,000 USD and distributed by New Line Cinema, cinematography by Tim Philo, music by Joseph LoDuca, produced by Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Robert Tapert.
Protagonized by Bruce Campbell (Ash Williams), Ellen Sandweiss (Cheryl Williams), Richard DeManicor (Scott), Betsy Baker (Linda) and Theresa Tilly (Shelly).
Despite the low budget for the film, it made 2400,000 at the box office.
what is it about?
The first movie follows Ash, Cheryl, Linda, Scott and Shelly, who decide to spend one weekend in a remote cabin in the woods. The trip soons turns around though once they find an old audio recording citing the discovery of an ancient cursed book called ''The Necronomicon'', and one of it's passages. After a piece of the book is read in the audio recording, it awakens the spirits of the dead lying in the woods and they terrorize the five teenagers, one by one.
''The Evil Dead'' Official 1981 movie trailer
Fun fact:
In the credits, there are many people credited as ''Fake Shemps'', most notably Ted Raimi. This is a reference to The Three Stooges, because the actor who played Shemp died so suddenly they had to cast actors to do pickup scenes of him.
Whenever an actor wasn't available for Evil Dead and they had to shoot an scene where their faces weren't seen, you're probably seeing Ted Raimi.
My review for ED1:
It's a horror and cult classic for a reason. The movie is innovative in the camera work and practical effects aswell as the slight combination of horror and comedy present, while keeping the style of a classic 80's horror movie. is something you've never seen before in the best way possible, it builds up tension perfectly, the stopmotion is just creative and astonishing, there's passion, hardwork and so much personality to it-- while still being the ''worst'' one of the original trilogy. it's a great base for the next movies because they just keep getting better and better. 4.0 stars out of five.
