Five friends go up to a cabin in the woods where they find unspeakable evil lurking in the forest. They find a tome called the Necronomicon Book of the Dead and the taped translation of the text. Once the tape is played the evil is released. One by one the teens are possessed. With only one remaining it is up to him to survive the night and battle the evil dead.
Review
For a film that was made on a budget that would make Steven Spielberg die laughing "Evil Dead" was one for the most interesting pieces of horror cinema Ive ever seen. I watched the series backwards so "Army of Darkness" was the film I saw first then "Evil Dead II." While "Evil Dead II" is probably still my favorite it was interesting to see where it all started.
The camera work is incredibly good and the fast motion sequences showing the demons approach was pretty well done if not completely original. Though also interesting and kinda funny to note is that we see the characters running away but when the camera switches away from the demons view we dont see the demon and that seems like a touch of genius...we know its there but we cant see it and while it probably was a limitation of the budget it actually proved to be a great method of suspense.
The special effects are as laughable as they were in the rest of the series but theres something to be said for a film that takes its chances and goes to the extreme in lieu of lacking resources. People complain about this a lot but I have to say to them "get a sense of humor." The whole point of the "Evil Dead" series was to mock horror films and show how campy they were and that they could get even worse. Its humor is in that the film tries to take itself seriously but the lack of a big budget makes this not only impossible but even funny in spite of the fact that it could conceivable be a serious film.
The acting is also terrible but again in that way that its so obviously bad that its hard to tell were the actors just plain bad or were they doing that deliberately to serve the purpose of mocking the genre. Bruce Campbells introduction into the world of abused heroes is interesting since his character is actually less of a chauvinist in this one than he ultimately became famous for. But it works and the horror on his face when his friend has no reservations about chopping up his possessed girlfriend is actually believable.
Overall this movie is a great piece of cinema. Its humorous but serious as well and its greatest strength is its ability to draw the line between being part of the genre and mocking it. There are plenty of moments of original horror (I dont think anybody could keep their composure during the "Tree Rape" scene which they repeated to lesser effect in "Evil Dead II" but lets face it that movie was supposed to be a rehash and extension). Give the film a chance and dont take it too seriously. Otherwise youre missing the point.