Evil Dead, The : DVD Review




THE EVIL DEAD


AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME ON
4K ULTRA HD ON NOVEMBER 16


Title: The Evil Dead
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker
Director: Sam Raimi
Duration: 86 minutes
Certificate: 18
Released: 16th November 2020

Evil Dead DVD
Sam Raimi’s horror classic THE EVIL DEAD is available on 4k Ultra HD for the first time on November 16 courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Writer/Director Raimi’s (Spider-Man, Drag Me to Hell) relentless, gore-spattered debut is a landmark in horror cinema, a no-holds-barred onslaught of gruesome terror and nightmarish effects which has earned its rightful status as a legendary cult classic.


Starring Bruce Campbell (TV’s Ash vs Evil Dead) and Ellen Sandweiss (TV’s Ash vs Evil Dead), The Evil Dead follows five college students who travel to a remote cabin in the woods and unwittingly unleash a monstrous evil hellbent on their total destruction. The Evil Dead is truly the ultimate experience in grueling horror.


Sam Raimi’s 1981 cult horror classic The Evil Dead comes to 4k Ultra HD on its 30th anniversary. It’s a big day for Evil Dead fans everywhere.

Between 1984–1990 The Evil Dead was actually banned in the UK and even when cuts of the film were allowed they were heavily edited. In other countries the film remains on the banned list. Now rated 18 and uncut the film has been available on DVD and Blu-ray for several years, but don’t be fooled, there are reasons why it was edited.


Despite this many believe that with his The Evil Dead film, writer/director Sam Raimi changed the face of horror. His spine-tingling tale of a group of college students facing off against forces of evil at an isolated cabin has become legendary. It has been copied many times but never bettered.

In the film the group of students find an ancient Sumerian book, known as the "Morturom Demonto" which roughly translated means "The Book of the Dead". They read out the demonic incantations from the book and unwittingly resurrect slumbering flesh-possessing demons that are hungry for revenge. The students in turn are possessed and it all turns a little nasty. Indeed there are certainly several moments of gross-out horror, the like of which you would rarely expect to see in today's films.


The franchise of three Evil Dead films and a TV series all began here and it was the most horrific of them all. Later instalments were slightly less horrific and more comedic, as the franchise attempted perhaps to gain a wider audience from its cult beginnings.

The Evil Dead as mentioned is now 30 years old but prepare to be shocked and revolted none-the-less. Sam Raimi may well have gone on to make the hugely successful teen-friendly Spiderman series but The Evil Dead is true gory horror at it’s most disgusting finest.


The movie is beautifully presented in 4K resolution with High Dynamic Range in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and it looks out of this world! The blacks are the deepest blacks from the depths of Hell. The image is as sharp as Lucifer's pitchfork, and the sound is as crystal clear as you've ever experienced allowing viewers to hear the creaking trees in the forest and the howls and snarls of the demonic nasties conjured up by Ash and his friends in haunting high fidelity. This truly is the way Bruce Campbell wanted to be seen and heard!


The Evil Dead is visceral, immediate and in terms of setting the template for horror films, extremely influential.

It has a host of special bonus features (see below) including interviews, rare behind the scene footage and commentary by Sam Raimi.


So give your 4K disc spinner a (belated) Halloween treat... it may not be too long before physical media discs die out altogether), give Netflix a break for the evening. Buy The Evil Dead and feed your 4K player on horror, and blood, and gore, all presented in gloriously restored super high-definition.

BLU-RAY™ BONUS FEATURES:


  • One By One We Will Take You: The Untold Saga of The Evil Dead

  • Treasures from the Cutting Room Floor documentary

  • At the Drive-In

  • Discovering Evil Dead

  • Make-Up Test

  • Ellen and Drama Teacher

  • On-Stage Interview

  • Commentary with Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Bruce Campbell

  • Featurettes:


    • The Ladies of the Evil Dead meet Bruce Campbell

    • The Other Pages

    • One by One We will Take you: The Untold Saga of The Evil Dead

    • Unconventional: The Ultimate Discussion of Grueling Horror



  • Picture-in-Picture: Join us! The Undying Legacy of The Evil Dead

Author : Kevin Stanley