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Growing pains! Hurrah!
This thread will be for discussing Evil Dead (1981).
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OK, right. So:
Not being a fan of horror movies particularly, I don't have lots of context for this film (though I could swear that I saw it on home video like 25 years ago, but apparently remembered nothing about it). However, I think it would be good in a double-bill with Cabin in the Woods (which I've also never seen, though I know it by reputation, and really want to see it now), just because it seems like The Evil Dead could be the beginning of the postmodern, for lack of a better word, trend in horror (with Cabin in the Woods being its culmination).
It's hugely self-conscious and (self-)referential. That's definitely what struck me the most. In the cellar there's what must be a bit of theatrical poster for Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes; Ash does the old mirror gag from Jean Cocteau's Orphée (see also The Matrix); the ridiculously OTT sequence with the projector in the cellar shining on Ash which gradually gets covered in blood. (Geez, how more meta can you get?)
Of the horror/exploitation films that preceded this, I've only seen Romero's two zombie movies and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (and all a long time ago), but I don't remember any of them being explicitly self-regarding in this way. Dawn of the Dead has some comedy and social commentary, for example, but this is something else entirely.
Normally I find all that crap unbelievably annoying (which is largely why I'm not a fan of The Princess Bride), but I actually don't mind it here. Maybe that's partly because I'm not really well-versed in the genre, so it seems fresher, but I'm sure part of it is the the obvious enthusiasm that Sam Raimi brings to the material. I really do get a sense of glee from the direction and the again OTT makeup effects.
I suppose the thing that's the biggest letdown is the script and the characterization. The actors don't seem to be much more than props that move around (maybe not hugely surprising, given where Raimi's interests obviously lie). It's like the script doesn't bother even with the cliched genre-staple characterizations. That's actually another reason why I really now want to see Cabin in the Woods -- to see what Whedon/Goddard do with this idea in terms of the characters (though they apparently have other fish to fry in terms of heading off into the meta-stratosphere).
Ya, re-watching this one, it's really hard to separate out the crazy low-budget thrown-togetherness from the project. Like, on a being-scrappy-with-your-budget level, it's an incredible accomplishment, but the complete lack of any characterization or real story really hurts it, to where for me, it's just super boring to watch outside of admiring some of the effects.
Compared with something like Blair Witch, which you can enjoy without even knowing how it was made, I don't think Evil Dead holds up in the same way.
Part of it too is that I grew up with Army of Darkness (which I love), so it's really hard to go back to the stripped down small-scale version. Unlike 2 and 3, Evil Dead isn't scary enough to work as a horror movie (at least viewed in 2015), and isn't funny or entertaining enough to work as a comedy, so it kinda leaves me cold.
Still an awesome accomplishment though.
Last edited by bullet3 (2015-04-09 08:25:06)
I hoped to rewatch this one to refresh my memory a bit, but when I went to play my copy, I realized that this and it's 2 sequels went to my wife's teenage niece's house, as part of their request for older movies they should watch. They live several hours from us so when I get my copy back I may have thoughts to add here but that will have to wait. So instead of discussing this in the specific, I think generalities will suffice.
I was born in 1980 and didn't grow up watching them, but a few of my friends did, so I was introduced to them at the age of 19 or 20. Somewhere along the way, I already was already aware of Bruce Campbell and really enjoy almost everything he does. Thinking about it closer, it was probably Brisco County Jr. that was my introduction to Bruce. Clearly, we wouldn't have Bruce Campbell without these films. He has been consistently funny since his introduction here, both on screen, in public appearances and in his books. He even managed to make Burn Notice watchable and that's saying something.
Sam Raimi is the more interesting emergence from this series. Clearly he does horror well on the cheap and his addition to the Grindhouse franchise would have been amazing if Tarantino hadn't killed that idea out of the gate. I thought Drag Me to Hell was hilarious and A Simple Plan really felt like a lost Coen Brothers movie. As discussed previously on the commentaries, I don't know what series of events leads to him getting the Spider-man franchise but to me the 1st was Ok, the 2nd was really good and the 3rd was terrible, but now I have no desire to watch any of them again.
Evil Dead II is the prime example of "Just do the 1st one again" but somehow isn't bad for doing that and Army of Darkness is quite the departure from the previous ones, while still fitting entirely in tone. And I can't say that Cabin in the Woods wouldn't have been made without Evil Dead, but it would have been a different film.
That's my basics. Hopefully I can be more specific in the future.
Alright, finally getting a chance to do this.
I...enjoyed... is not the right word. It was interesting, and captivating, because I was entirely confused and flabberghasted by what was happening on a filmmaking level. I definitely agree that the characters were just kinda there so that the action could be happening, but outsides of that Raimi seemed to kinda forget they were like, actual humans.
So just looking at it as a low budget piece of horror filmmaking, I'm still so confused. There was definitely a lot of really cool ideas and things going on, and then it just takes a right turn does a backflip, swings by some tree rape, and lands on a creepy laughing carnival demon girl. The thing, oddly enough, that confused me the most...wasn't the tree rape... although yeah, hello left field, how ya doin. Was the very obvious affectation of all the action and demon movement as this bizarre, jerky, animatronic sort of movement. It felt like everything was trying to feel like a theme park haunted house. Which is just so bizarre.
Cause I forgive the bad make-up and less than stellar action editing and all that stuff because of the low budget nature of it, and Raimi just starting to really experiment as a filmmaker, but that part of it, for whatever just sticks in my head as such a bizarre strong choice to make.
Outside of all that, you can definitely tell that this is a very early work by a filmmaker that is going out of his way to experiment with stuff. But it also suffers because it lacks any really strong central backbone to tie itself too. So you'll get these really bizarrely excellently framed Citizen Kane-y shots, followed immediately by a super hand-held almost shakycam shot in the middle of the group as they casually walk over to look at something.
All in all, it's feels like a INSANELY ambitious student film. Which isn't a bad thing, I can see why Raimi came back to the material later when he had more experience under his belt. It's insanely easy to see why Bruce Cambpell became Bruce Gods-Damned Campbell because he is clearly the best part of the entire movie.
The other really bizarre thing that happened, which I'm still laughing my ass off about. Was about half an hour or so in, I suddenly realized I recognized one of the plot points from...drumroll please...Evil Dead The Musical... a show I have listened to waaaay more times than I ever care to admit too. So every once in a while something would pop up that keyed into one of the songs and I went full Captain America, "I know that reference!!! I KNOW THAT ONE!!", and had the majority of the musical running through my head for the rest of the movie.
So, conclusion, I can see why it falls into the sphere of geekdom and filmmaking history, and I'm really excited to get around to watching the 2nd and third one.
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