To truly succeed in this world you need to have blind ambition and a little luck. Sam Rami, Robert Tapert and their crew of wannabe filmmakers had this in spades. If you’ve ever seen the truly original “Dead” film, “Into the Woods”, ask yourself how much money you would have given them to go out into the backwoods of Morristown, Tennessee to follow their dreams. Pocket change, maybe.

The plot is simple, five friends go ‘into the woods’ for a little R n’ R when they get more than they bargain for. They broke the cardinal rule of horror films, never turn on the tape recorder you find in the basement of an old cabin secluded in the woods. Especially if it contains Candarian resurrection passages translated from the Necronomicon (Book of the Dead) by some professor. Silly rabbit, incantations are for the dead. All hell breaks loose and the fun really begins with the demise of all but our hero, if we can call him that, Ash.

The most impressive aspect of this film was the vision Sam Rami had in how, unknowingly, he was going to revolutionize elements of cinematography. The Vas-O-Cam, Shakey Cam, Ellie-Vator and Ram-O-Cam were McGyver-like solutions to putting what Sam saw in his head on the screen. The opening shot of Evil Dead, which was one of the last filmed, typified the kind of movement Sam wanted to achieve. As well, Rami pushed the limits of liquid splatter. Knowing that too much blood would earn him an X rating they decided to unleash a spectrum of unholy bodily fluids.

What makes this film unique, in comparison to the sequels that followed, is the fact that it was intended to be a serious horror film. The moments that are violently and sexually graphic are disturbing concepts. Budgetary constraints obviously hindered those moments from being frighteningly realistic, but the intention is felt. Looking back, “Evil Dead” is impressive in because it pushed the boundaries of the genre and good taste. I know I’ll never look at vines, reel to reel cassettes, or a shed the same way again.

Review by Garth Thatchuk