Five college kids drive to a remote cabin in the Tennessee woods for some fun and romance. The cabin proves to be quite a dump, but they aim to make the most of it. That is until, during dinner, the cellar trapdoor suddenly opens. Ash and Scott, the two male students, head down to investigate and discover artifacts and research on the Sumerian “The Book of the Dead”. They bring the stuff up, including an old tape recorder, and start listening to the recordings. The recordings include chanting from the book, and that’s when things really start to go south. Ash’s sister Cheryl steps outside to investigate some noises when she is violently attacked by the woods themselves (this is an understatement). Cheryl turns into a “deadite”—a possessed zombie of sorts—and starts attacking the group. In typical horror movie fashion, one by one, the groups gets picked off and possessed while Ash emerges as the strong-willed last man standing.
“The Evil Dead” is known as one of the greatest cult films ever and has spawn an entire career-defining franchise for Sam Raimi and Bruce Cambell—but I didn't get it. I don’t think it’s because I’m squeamish or can’t handle the horror. It was unpleasant, sure, but I’m willing to go to pretty far places for a good story. But this wasn’t one. I was bored. When I later learned that Raimi made a “proof of concept” short film that he expanded into this one, it made sense—this film is ~20 minutes worth of story expanded into 85 minutes. The actors didn’t seem convinced by their lines and the dialogue was weak. There are no clear in-universe rules on how one is possessed, so I never really understood what Ash did to emerge as our hero. And with the exception of a few cool shots (blood on the projector, Ash emerging in daylight), the film wasn’t much to look at. I wonder if people misremember this film based on its sequels. It sounds like the subsequent Evil Dead film were more humorous, which is cool because its exactly what this film needed. I just don’t know if I’m interested enough to get to them.