DVD Reviews

The Evil Dead – Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Sep 3, 2010, 13:57 GMT

The Evil Dead, director Sam Raimi\'s (Darkman, Quick & The Dead, Army Of Darkness) first feature film, is a true cult classic in every sense of the word. Originally released in 1982, The Evil Dead tells the tale of a group of friends who go to a cabin in the woods, where they find an unspeakable evil lurking in the forest. They find the Necronomicon, the Book Of The Dead, ...more

The king has come to high definition and hail to him baby.  Ash and company have gone back to the woods and found them full of demons that have swallowed up some of the film’s previous special features.  However, that shouldn’t keep the devoted from adding this to their collections.  

A group of teenage friends, Ash (Bruce Campbell), Scott (Richard DeManincor), Shelly (Theresa Tilly), Linda (Betsy Baker), and Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss), are going to a remote cabin to get away for a weekend.  Their arrival forebodes of things to come when they nearly crash through a rickety bridge on the way up the mountain.

The cabin is pretty ramshackle but the teens find an old book and some reel-to-reel tapes.  When they play the tapes the translation of the “Book of the Dead” brings something to life in the creepy woods and soon the teens are fighting for their lives.  

A group of college pals want to break into the movie business so they decide to make a horror movie in the hills of Tennessee.  That project would be sold with a short called “Within the Woods” shown to potential investors (that fabled film STILL doesn’t show up in the extras section) but the final product would expose the world to the Evil Dead and a fellow called Bruce Campbell. Some of the effects may not have aged well (the pencil to ankle scene is still pretty effective), but it’s the “little film that could” as the investors in Evil Dead still get a check that shows the film is making a profit (though it took a time for those to start coming).

It would also mark the beginnings of a genre star as Bruce Campbell would come to the attention of fans everywhere, as well as establishing Sam Raimi and others.  Unlike its sequel, which relied heavily on comedy, the original film, Evil Dead has some genuine chills and horror that are still effective no matter the age and old-school effects onscreen. 

The film still packs a punch and now it looks even better in high definition.  This increase in picture quality will be enough for any Dead-head to justify the purchase.    

The Evil Dead is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer.  You can watch the film in the preferred ratio of 1.33:1 or a 1.85:1 enhanced version.  The fullscreen cut is preferable since it actually looks better.  Blowing up the image to 1.85:1 shows more of the imperfections, but it’s never going to look great since it was shot on a shoestring budget.  However, this may be the best that the film has ever looked on home video. 

Disc one’s lone special features is a newly recorded commentary with director Sam Raimi, star Bruce Campbell, and producer Bob Tapert.  To a degree, that might be a bit disappointing to many Dead-heads since many commentaries have been recorded over the years and none of those show up.  Disc two is a DVD and houses the rest of the special features. 

They include a bevy of stuff from older releases, including the 53 minute making of “One by One we will Take You,” 60 minutes of “Treasures from the Cutting Room Floor, the 28 minute “Ladies of the Evil Dead meet Bruce Campbell” where he interviews his co-stars, the 13 minute “Discovering the Evil Dead” looks at how the film played in England, the 19 minute “Unconventional” discusses con appearances, the 12 minute “At the Drive-in” is a screening at a Chicago convention, the 31 minute “Reunion Panel” also comes from the same convention, a 1 minute “Make-up Test,” 2 minutes of other pages from the Book of the Dead, the 2 minute theatrical trailer, TV spots, and a still gallery. 

Again, the stuff found is very nice but other releases had stuff that is missing here (I think Campbell did a docu called “Fanalysis” on another release) so you may want to hold on to your other discs.  

Evil Dead still is an effective film and now looks better than ever (especially in the fullscreen version).  Don’t let the missing special features deter you; it would have been nice to have a definitive disc that had it all, as the disc is a solid purchase.

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