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The Evil Dead - Ultimate Edition
2 DVDS/APPROX. 82 MINS/1981/USA R18+
2 DVDS/APPROX. 82 MINS/1981/USA R18+
10
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Sam Raimi's Evil Dead (originally to be titled The Book of the Dead) is nowadays the most hardcore selling horror title ever to hit VHS and DVD. Still
to this day I can remember watching this movie at my local Drive Inn with my parents when I was like 8 years old, which my parnets regeted me
watching because it ended up giving me nightmares for several months. When I hit my teen years I was able to rent it out on VHS and relive my
early childhood movie fear, and ever since then my horror lust began to infest. A lot of you kiddies have probably already seen this movie sometime
in your lifetime and have a good idea what this movie is all about. But for those of you who have been hiding under a rock for the last 25 years,
well I would like to introduce you to one of my favourite horror films of all time Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead.
The Evil Dead begins with five young adults travelling to a remote cabin deep in the woods up in the mountains for a weekend getaway. That
following night while Ash toasts his friends for good health at the dinner table, they hear the creaking cellar door opening up in the next room.
Scott (Richard DeManincor) quickly grabs the flash light and decides to go browse around down in the dark, damp, cellar beneath the cabin, to see
who or what opened up the cellar door. Ash (Bruce Campbell) who is concerned for his friend’s well being, calls out to Scott, which he doesn't end
reply back. Ash is given a poorly lit lantern by his girlfriend Linda (Betsy Baker) and made to go down the narrow stairway to see if Scott is ok.
While Ash is searching for Scott, Ash finds several interesting items a old tape recorder, a dagger with a skull on the end of it, a shotgun, and a
dusty old creepy book, which they both collect the gear to take back upstairs. Later on that evening, the tipsy group sit around a fire place and
just out of curiosity Ash plays the tape recorder, they hear a old man's voice (Bob Dorian) who explains that he might of found the Necronomicon -
The Book of the Dead from deep within the Condah Ruins, which is made out of human flesh and inked in human blood. Its not until bored Scott
quickly fast forwards the tape recorder to get to the interesting parts which he stops, and plays once again right in the middle of a incantation that
resurrects ancient demons that can possess the living. Later that stormy night Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) hears that someone creeping around
outside her bedroom window, calling out "JOIN US". Cheryl decides to go outside and into the near by woods to see who was at her window, she
soon begins to hear trees crackling and branches breaking off in the nearby distance and once again hears the words "JOIN US" in the misty fog.
Cheryl is startled and before she can get away, vines and trees slowly begin to come alive, tying themselves around her wrists and ankles making
her unable to move, falling to the ground where she is soon later sodomised by a large branch. As she is able to breaks loose one wrist and
manages to break free, Cheryl is chased back to the cabin by a evil spirit, but is quickly saved by Ash in time. As Cheryl tries to explains to her
friends that the trees raped her, the group don't end up believing her story and Cheryl is soon begging for Ash to take her back into town right
away, which he agrees to do. As Ash and Cheryl drive down the foggy, grassy, muddy dirt trail, Ash stops slams on the breaks of the car and gets
out only to find the bridge is torn down and made to turn back to cabin to their friends. Later that following night the group witness Cheryl being
possessed in the lounge room as she begins to levitates off the ground saying in a demonic voice "Why have you disturbed our sleep, and awaken
us from our ancient slumber. YOU WILL DIE, like the others before you. One by one we will take you". As the night is still young, Ash and his friends
find themselves fighting for their lives while ancient demons surround cabin in the near by woods.
When Sam Raimi firstly tried to get The Evil Dead distributed by the many companies in the US, they never really took much interest to the film. Its
not until Raimi took the film to Europe, which was welcomed with open arms with the Video Nasties label. After Evil Dead started to get positive
reviews and making a killing in the Europe box office nearly grossing over £100,000. For a film that only took $350,000 to make in 1981, US
distributor Renaissance Pictures decided to cash in on the act and release The Evil Dead in the states where it blew the box office out of the
waters by grossing over $2,400,000 in 1983. You honestly cant beat this movie, it shocked its audience throughout the world in the ‘80s and even
to today standards, there isn't too many other film-makers that have ever tried to come as close to Raimi's success on the independent film-maker
level.
Though before Sam Raimi's masterpiece The Evil Dead, their was a short featurette that was called Within the Woods (1978) which starred none
other than the legend Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss who both went on and appeared in The Evil Dead where actor Scott Spiegel played a Fake
Shemp and unfortunately for actress Mary Valenti her career didn't go anywhere after Within the Woods. If it wasn't for Within the Woods, Evil
Dead would of probably never seen the day of light and becoming a today all time horror classic. Its sad to say, but Within the Woods has never
been released on DVD or VHS in the last 30 years since the spawning of The Evil Dead, why they haven't yet released it over the 20 or so releases
of Evil Dead gets me. But don't fear guys Beyond Home Entertainment release has a heap of interesting goodies that will keep any deadite fans
busy and entertained for hours on end. You have not one but two audio commentaries, the first one is with Sam Rami (director) and Rob Tapert
(producer) and the other commentary from Bruce Campbell (actor) on disc 1. Disc 2 has a featurette called Discovering Evil Dead which shows you
how the birth of Evil Dead got off the ground, distributed into theatres around the world and which it has grown to become a cult classic film, a
theatrical trailer, scene out-takes (18mins) and a posters/still gallery. A another featurette I truly enjoyed the most was Fanalysis which is a
personal documentary with Bruce Campbell who shows us how dedicated fans go to impress, annoy or worship him. Treasures from the Cutting
Room Floor runs for about an hour which is basically all your behind the scenes and unedited material from the 1981 footage. Not to mention you
have another cool interview with Bruce Campbell which is done by over the telephone (72mins) with Chris Gore from Film Threat just for us Aussie
deadite fans.
The Evil Dead is infested with dozens of out standing scenes, one scene that is well known for shocking its audience was the tree rape scene,
where poor actress Ellen Sandweiss is stripped and penetrated by a tree branch. Now you don't actually see any penetrating going on, though the
way Raimi shot that scene, well If that doesn't make you cringe in your seat it WILL make you want to cross you legs. You also have dozens other
jaw-dropping scenes such as a beheading with a shovel, a deep eye gouge with the thumbs effect, shotgun to the face, fingers smashed and
crushed, bashing with a 2x4 and plenty of good old chainsaw scenes. They're plenty more fantastic scenes I don’t want to spoil for those who
haven't yet seen this movie, but if you love 80s gore then this is right up your alleyway. Gore hounds will definitely get their second toppings of
blood and guts with this film.
And how fucking sick is the bloody score and sound effects throughout this movie. The more I honestly watch this movie (54 and counting), I have
picked up little things that you don't quiet hear the time. Maybe its the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound that they have cleaned up which makes
the movie far more enjoyable than the previous releases which were basically only in 2.0.
The main question you are probably saying to yourself while reading this review is "Why the hell, do I want to buy another Evil Dead DVD". Well,
it’s definitely good to see a dominant release to finally arrive on region 4 format and thanks to Beyond Home Entertainment we are now able to
watch Evil Dead in 16:9 wide-screen format, which the picture quality is mint condition and enhanced for those with plasma televisions. Not to
mention the sound is far more crispy than several previous releases that has come out on DVD. But what sells this DVD is the presentation,
artwork and most of all the extras included in this deluxe release. Just when you think you have seen and heard it all, well think again. With this
release you get over 5 hours of entertaining, exclusive facts, so make sure you either take the whole day off work, or lock your bedroom door so
no one will bother you when watching this DVD. We highly recommend this DVD to any horror or Evil Dead fan to go out right and purchase this
baby on DVD, you have no clue what you’re missing.
to this day I can remember watching this movie at my local Drive Inn with my parents when I was like 8 years old, which my parnets regeted me
watching because it ended up giving me nightmares for several months. When I hit my teen years I was able to rent it out on VHS and relive my
early childhood movie fear, and ever since then my horror lust began to infest. A lot of you kiddies have probably already seen this movie sometime
in your lifetime and have a good idea what this movie is all about. But for those of you who have been hiding under a rock for the last 25 years,
well I would like to introduce you to one of my favourite horror films of all time Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead.
The Evil Dead begins with five young adults travelling to a remote cabin deep in the woods up in the mountains for a weekend getaway. That
following night while Ash toasts his friends for good health at the dinner table, they hear the creaking cellar door opening up in the next room.
Scott (Richard DeManincor) quickly grabs the flash light and decides to go browse around down in the dark, damp, cellar beneath the cabin, to see
who or what opened up the cellar door. Ash (Bruce Campbell) who is concerned for his friend’s well being, calls out to Scott, which he doesn't end
reply back. Ash is given a poorly lit lantern by his girlfriend Linda (Betsy Baker) and made to go down the narrow stairway to see if Scott is ok.
While Ash is searching for Scott, Ash finds several interesting items a old tape recorder, a dagger with a skull on the end of it, a shotgun, and a
dusty old creepy book, which they both collect the gear to take back upstairs. Later on that evening, the tipsy group sit around a fire place and
just out of curiosity Ash plays the tape recorder, they hear a old man's voice (Bob Dorian) who explains that he might of found the Necronomicon -
The Book of the Dead from deep within the Condah Ruins, which is made out of human flesh and inked in human blood. Its not until bored Scott
quickly fast forwards the tape recorder to get to the interesting parts which he stops, and plays once again right in the middle of a incantation that
resurrects ancient demons that can possess the living. Later that stormy night Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) hears that someone creeping around
outside her bedroom window, calling out "JOIN US". Cheryl decides to go outside and into the near by woods to see who was at her window, she
soon begins to hear trees crackling and branches breaking off in the nearby distance and once again hears the words "JOIN US" in the misty fog.
Cheryl is startled and before she can get away, vines and trees slowly begin to come alive, tying themselves around her wrists and ankles making
her unable to move, falling to the ground where she is soon later sodomised by a large branch. As she is able to breaks loose one wrist and
manages to break free, Cheryl is chased back to the cabin by a evil spirit, but is quickly saved by Ash in time. As Cheryl tries to explains to her
friends that the trees raped her, the group don't end up believing her story and Cheryl is soon begging for Ash to take her back into town right
away, which he agrees to do. As Ash and Cheryl drive down the foggy, grassy, muddy dirt trail, Ash stops slams on the breaks of the car and gets
out only to find the bridge is torn down and made to turn back to cabin to their friends. Later that following night the group witness Cheryl being
possessed in the lounge room as she begins to levitates off the ground saying in a demonic voice "Why have you disturbed our sleep, and awaken
us from our ancient slumber. YOU WILL DIE, like the others before you. One by one we will take you". As the night is still young, Ash and his friends
find themselves fighting for their lives while ancient demons surround cabin in the near by woods.
When Sam Raimi firstly tried to get The Evil Dead distributed by the many companies in the US, they never really took much interest to the film. Its
not until Raimi took the film to Europe, which was welcomed with open arms with the Video Nasties label. After Evil Dead started to get positive
reviews and making a killing in the Europe box office nearly grossing over £100,000. For a film that only took $350,000 to make in 1981, US
distributor Renaissance Pictures decided to cash in on the act and release The Evil Dead in the states where it blew the box office out of the
waters by grossing over $2,400,000 in 1983. You honestly cant beat this movie, it shocked its audience throughout the world in the ‘80s and even
to today standards, there isn't too many other film-makers that have ever tried to come as close to Raimi's success on the independent film-maker
level.
Though before Sam Raimi's masterpiece The Evil Dead, their was a short featurette that was called Within the Woods (1978) which starred none
other than the legend Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss who both went on and appeared in The Evil Dead where actor Scott Spiegel played a Fake
Shemp and unfortunately for actress Mary Valenti her career didn't go anywhere after Within the Woods. If it wasn't for Within the Woods, Evil
Dead would of probably never seen the day of light and becoming a today all time horror classic. Its sad to say, but Within the Woods has never
been released on DVD or VHS in the last 30 years since the spawning of The Evil Dead, why they haven't yet released it over the 20 or so releases
of Evil Dead gets me. But don't fear guys Beyond Home Entertainment release has a heap of interesting goodies that will keep any deadite fans
busy and entertained for hours on end. You have not one but two audio commentaries, the first one is with Sam Rami (director) and Rob Tapert
(producer) and the other commentary from Bruce Campbell (actor) on disc 1. Disc 2 has a featurette called Discovering Evil Dead which shows you
how the birth of Evil Dead got off the ground, distributed into theatres around the world and which it has grown to become a cult classic film, a
theatrical trailer, scene out-takes (18mins) and a posters/still gallery. A another featurette I truly enjoyed the most was Fanalysis which is a
personal documentary with Bruce Campbell who shows us how dedicated fans go to impress, annoy or worship him. Treasures from the Cutting
Room Floor runs for about an hour which is basically all your behind the scenes and unedited material from the 1981 footage. Not to mention you
have another cool interview with Bruce Campbell which is done by over the telephone (72mins) with Chris Gore from Film Threat just for us Aussie
deadite fans.
The Evil Dead is infested with dozens of out standing scenes, one scene that is well known for shocking its audience was the tree rape scene,
where poor actress Ellen Sandweiss is stripped and penetrated by a tree branch. Now you don't actually see any penetrating going on, though the
way Raimi shot that scene, well If that doesn't make you cringe in your seat it WILL make you want to cross you legs. You also have dozens other
jaw-dropping scenes such as a beheading with a shovel, a deep eye gouge with the thumbs effect, shotgun to the face, fingers smashed and
crushed, bashing with a 2x4 and plenty of good old chainsaw scenes. They're plenty more fantastic scenes I don’t want to spoil for those who
haven't yet seen this movie, but if you love 80s gore then this is right up your alleyway. Gore hounds will definitely get their second toppings of
blood and guts with this film.
And how fucking sick is the bloody score and sound effects throughout this movie. The more I honestly watch this movie (54 and counting), I have
picked up little things that you don't quiet hear the time. Maybe its the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound that they have cleaned up which makes
the movie far more enjoyable than the previous releases which were basically only in 2.0.
The main question you are probably saying to yourself while reading this review is "Why the hell, do I want to buy another Evil Dead DVD". Well,
it’s definitely good to see a dominant release to finally arrive on region 4 format and thanks to Beyond Home Entertainment we are now able to
watch Evil Dead in 16:9 wide-screen format, which the picture quality is mint condition and enhanced for those with plasma televisions. Not to
mention the sound is far more crispy than several previous releases that has come out on DVD. But what sells this DVD is the presentation,
artwork and most of all the extras included in this deluxe release. Just when you think you have seen and heard it all, well think again. With this
release you get over 5 hours of entertaining, exclusive facts, so make sure you either take the whole day off work, or lock your bedroom door so
no one will bother you when watching this DVD. We highly recommend this DVD to any horror or Evil Dead fan to go out right and purchase this
baby on DVD, you have no clue what you’re missing.
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