Saturday, October 31, 2009

Halloween Horror Movies: The Evil Dead (1981)

Another film shot by a bunch of college friends in a cottage in the woods, and the location really makes the difference here- their earlier short film "Within the Woods", upon which Evil Dead was based, was shot at someone's mother's house apparently, and is not nearly as effective.

The sound design really stands out in Evil Dead, as does the loopy, over-the-top direction. There's something very cartoonish about the movie, even with all of the cheeesy gore. Stephen King called it the most terrifying film he'd ever seen, and it's really hard to see why. I am generally laughing through half the film.

Eventually, Hollywood realized that Sam Raimi was an unusually talented filmmaker; he was hired to direct the Spiderman trilogy. Horror fans, of course, remember him for the Evil Dead trilogy and the recent Drag Me To Hell.

For Claire, here are scenes from Bach Ke Zara, one of at least two Bollywood Evil Dead rip offs. This one has one of the most entertaining decapitation scenes imaginable.

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