Evil Dead, The : Evil Dead Blu-Ray Review





Title: The Evil Dead
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker
Director: Sam Raimi
Duration: 85 minutes
Certificate: 18
Released: 11th October 2010

Sam Raimi’s 1981 cult horror classic The Evil Dead comes to Blu-ray on 11th October 2010 just ahead of its 20th anniversary. It’s a big day for Evil Dead fans everywhere. No one likes to have to buy something twice but this release is sure to have fans of the chainsaw-welding, shotgun-totting Bruce Campbell lining up to upgrade to Blu-ray so well-loved is the series and the man himself.

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 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. This franchise of three Evil Dead films began here and it was the most horrific of them all, as later instalments were slightly less horrific and more comedic, as the franchise attempted perhaps to gain a wider audience from its cult beginnings. This might be fairly old now 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 picture has been digitally re-mastered for high definition image and sound and there are also hours of new bonus features. This 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. Go on treat your Blu-ray player to a new disc. Buy The Evil Dead and feed it on horror and blood and gore in gloriously restored high-definition content.

Author : Kevin Stanley