Friday, July 22, 2011

Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments:#76-The Evil Dead(1982)

By Eric Polk-
The mainstream horror fan. They worship Freddy and Jason, occasionally Michael. And that's fine. But we, the hardcore gore, we love Ash from the Evil Dead. It's not hard to see why.

Five college students(who look middle age)head off for a weekend in a cabin in the woods(what a great name for a movie) where they tucked away in a basement a Book of the Dead along with a tape and a recorder. They play The demons start to isolate and kill off the students, beginning with Cheryl  after she is hypnotized by the song of a demon and lured into the forest at night where the demon proceeds to possess the trees of the forest, which come to life and rape her. Cheryl escapes the trees and is chased by the demon back to the cabin, where no one believes her story. Her brother, Ash(ta-da!) decides to drive her into town where she can stay the night. They discover that the only bridge is completely destroyed and the supports are bent into the shape of a claw-like hand(uh-oh).

One by one the students(except for Ash) turn into cackling, smartass zombies(or deadites in Evil Dead lingo).Soon thereafter, Cheryl, having been infested by a demon during the rape, becomes a deadite and stabs Linda in the ankle with a pencil. Scotty beats her with the blunt end of his axe and kicks her in the cellar and locks it. Afterwards, Shelly  enters her room and is killed and possessed by a demon; now a deadite, she becomes psychotic and attacks Scotty, who dismembers her with an axe. Disturbed by Shelly's death, Scotty proposes that he and Ash leave Linda behind to go find an alternate trail through the woods. Ash refuses to abandon Linda, and Scotty departs into the woods.

Ash goes to check on Linda, but finds that she too has become possessed by a spirit, but she makes no move to attack him and instead taunts him. Scotty returns, but has suffered massive injuries inflicted upon him by the possessed trees, eventually becoming a deadite himself).

What makes this movie great? What doesn't? The acting for a low-budget film is quite good. The atmosphere is creepy after the sun goes down. The deadites are characters in their own right. It's gory, it's funny, and you cheer for Ash because he goes through so much in this film, a film that doesn't have a happy ending which I love.

No comments: