{"id":70559,"date":"2021-03-15T14:08:39","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T21:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=70559"},"modified":"2021-03-15T14:08:39","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T21:08:39","slug":"evil-dead-the-1981","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=70559","title":{"rendered":"Evil Dead, The (1981)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;But the trees, Ash &#8212; they know! Don&#8217;t you see? They&#8217;re alive!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Poster-193x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"193\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-70560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Poster-193x300.png 193w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Poster-660x1024.png 660w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Poster-83x128.png 83w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Poster-174x270.png 174w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Poster.png 729w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 193px) 100vw, 193px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen a group of five college students &#8212; Ash (Bruce Campbell), his sister Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss), his girlfriend Linda (Betsy Baker), his friend Scott (Hal Delrich), and Scott&#8217;s girlfriend Shelly (Sarah York) &#8212; go out to stay in a ramshackle rural cabin, they make the mistake of opening a book that conjures up evil spirits which soon possess most of the gang.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Horror Films<\/li>\n<li>Possession <\/li>\n<li>Zombies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nIt&#8217;s always a bit quaint to read Peary&#8217;s take on 1980s titles that went on to develop a cult following, given that he wouldn&#8217;t necessarily have known or guessed this back when publishing <em>GFTFF<\/em>. A case in point is his review of <em>The Evil Dead<\/em>, which has since been named one of the <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?page_id=1458\">&#8220;1,001 movies you must see before you die&#8221;<\/a> and spawned <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Evil_Dead\">a fairly massive franchise<\/a>. Peary writes that &#8220;it&#8217;s obvious that the people from Detroit who made this independently produced horror film are not without talent, particularly first-time director Sam Raimi, but it&#8217;s a shame that they wasted it in such a manner&#8221; &#8212; but then he goes on to immediately add in parentheses, &#8220;Of course, it&#8217;s hard lecturing filmmakers about using their film stock wisely and tastefully when their movies earn several million dollars profit.&#8221; He notes that <em>The Evil Dead<\/em> &#8220;starts out creepily, if conventionally&#8221; but quickly &#8220;becomes infuriatingly stupid&#8221;, given that &#8220;everyone&#8217;s getting murdered, yet people are left alone to rest, and women take solo nocturnal walks in the woods.&#8221; He writes that at this point, the &#8220;story goes out the window and [the] onetime movie [!!] turns into [a] gore fest, in which &#8216;possessed&#8217; characters take turns hacking off each other&#8217;s limbs and coming back from the dead.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll admit to not really understanding the next line in Peary&#8217;s review, in which he writes: &#8220;Anyone would love to have the blood-and-spare-parts concession&#8221; (?). And I disagree with Peary that &#8220;It would be fun to trip over the overly mobile cameraman during one of his too frequent tracking shots&#8221; (meaning, I don&#8217;t think this technique is overused for the genre). Peary concludes his review by conceding that this is a &#8220;cult film for the gore generation &#8212; but only the most bloodthirsty wouldn&#8217;t trade in a few splatter effects for some substance.&#8221; While I&#8217;m no fan at all of gore-fests &#8212; and most definitely not an <em>Evil Dead<\/em> devotee &#8212; I think Peary&#8217;s missing the &#8220;bad movie&#8221; element of this film. The dialogue is at times humorously lame (&#8220;You bastards! Why are you torturing me like this? Why?!&#8221;), and I can easily imagine sitting around with a group of friends having fun at this film&#8217;s expense (&#8220;Those creepy white eyes! Those dang possessed bodies that just won&#8217;t stop reviving no matter how much they&#8217;re hacked up! No, don&#8217;t &#8212; don&#8217;t trust the temporarily-human-zombie!!!&#8221;) while simultaneously admiring 22-year-old Raimi&#8217;s clear moviemaking genius. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Consistently creative camera angles<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle1-1024x555.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"347\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-70576\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle1-1024x555.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle1-300x163.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle1-128x69.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle1-768x416.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle1-1536x832.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle1-498x270.png 498w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle1.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle2-1024x555.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"347\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-70577\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle2-1024x555.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle2-300x163.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle2-128x69.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle2-768x416.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle2-1536x832.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle2-498x270.png 498w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle2.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle3-1024x555.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"347\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-70579\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle3-1024x555.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle3-300x163.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle3-128x69.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle3-768x416.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle3-1536x832.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle3-498x270.png 498w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Camera-Angle3.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Creepy special effects and make-up<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Special-Effects.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Special-Effects-1024x555.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"347\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-70580\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Special-Effects-1024x555.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Special-Effects-300x163.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Special-Effects-128x69.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Special-Effects-768x416.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Special-Effects-1536x832.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Special-Effects-498x270.png 498w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Special-Effects.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Makeup.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Makeup-1024x555.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"347\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-70578\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Makeup-1024x555.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Makeup-300x163.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Makeup-128x69.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Makeup-768x416.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Makeup-1536x832.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Makeup-498x270.png 498w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Makeup.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Makeup2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Makeup2-1024x555.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"347\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-70575\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Makeup2-1024x555.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Makeup2-300x163.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Makeup2-128x69.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Makeup2-768x416.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Makeup2-1536x832.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Makeup2-498x270.png 498w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Evil-Dead-Makeup2.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, simply for its historical status as a cult favorite that started Sam Raimi&#8217;s career and an enormous franchise. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cult Movie<\/li>\n<li>Historically Relevant<\/li>\n<li>Important Director<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> (<span style=\"color:red;font-weight:bold;\">Listed in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-static\/1001Movies.htm\"><em>1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die<\/em><\/a><\/span>) <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0083907\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s426evil.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.moriareviews.com\/horror\/evil-dead-1981.htm\">Moria Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.badmovies.org\/movies\/evildead\/index.html\">Bad Movies Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=5379\">Spinning Image Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/bAzuNKsjG3s\">Chris Stuckmann&#8217;s Video Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;But the trees, Ash &#8212; they know! Don&#8217;t you see? They&#8217;re alive!&#8221; Synopsis: When a group of five college students &#8212; Ash (Bruce Campbell), his sister Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss), his girlfriend Linda (Betsy Baker), his friend Scott (Hal Delrich), and Scott&#8217;s girlfriend Shelly (Sarah York) &#8212; go out to stay in a ramshackle rural cabin, they make the mistake of opening a book that conjures up evil spirits which soon possess most of the gang. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=70559\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70559"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70583,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70559\/revisions\/70583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}