CJG THE HATCHET MAN Movie Dissection — THE EVIL DEAD, 1981. 45th Anniversary! The Deadite Movie That Made a Believer Out of Me!
Welcome back to CJG THE HATCHET MAN — your ultimate dissector of all things eerie, spooky, and occasionally bloody! Spooky season and Halloween are almost here. 45 years and it took me this long to appreciate what made Sam Raimi…Sam Raimi! Pulling out the Necronomicon to summon my first Deadite Movie Dissection!
Respect If Not Necessarily Reverence
THE EVIL DEAD arrived with little fanfare on a shoestring budget; shot in a remote cabin in Tennessee under harsh conditions and a world of hyperbolic mythos. But what ended up as a kooky horror movie shoot with plenty of wounds and horror stories in of itself, became the launch pad for two horror icons — namely writer/director Sam Raimi and its kind-of star, Bruce Campbell who would become a horror/comedy icon in his later years.
Essentially, never mistake a camera, loud ambition or the willingness to get nasty and dirty as a way not to forge a filmmaking career.
The 45-Year Catch-up — aaand Here Are My Thoughts.
I watched for the first time after avoiding it for 45 years and with my current diet of horror consumption, I will say this. It’s far from a masterpiece, but what it is, is a masterclass of how creativity, next-to-nill micro dollars in a budget and a cast that was about as masochistic as you could get, shared into the madness that was creating an all-time batsh*t horror movie experience — and you have why THE EVIL DEAD is considered an iconic horror movie classic that is still in the zeitgeist to this day.
Why Oh Why Does This Movie Still Work?
THE EVIL DEAD is that rare film that works less like a standalone movie and more like a catalyst — a stone that gets thrown in the water and causes a major ripple effect. It fundamentally changed horror cinema if either for better or worse. When its judged by its own merits, you’ll find flaws worth acknowledging. When its judged by its legacy and influence, you rightfully recognize one of genre cinema’s most important debuts.
The Evil Dead (1981) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers
It’s Humble Origins
Straightforward plot premise — a group of friends go to an isolated cabin for the weekend for what I assume was basic R & R when a tape deck is discovered as well as The Book of the Dead aka the Necronomicon. After playing the tape and reciting the incantations (no matter how many of them object to it) from the ancient text, they open a portal to Hell itself unleashing the Deadites (a name that didn’t arrive until the second film) and evil forces that trap the friends, taunting them and forcing them to self-mutilate. One very key specific event involving a tree is considered iconic if not for good reasons.
This whole setup could be right out of a Hammer, William Castle, Amicus or even a Roger Corman movie in 1981 — isolated house, awakened supernatural forces, a threat picking off the friends one by one etc. etc. But Sam Raimi understood something crucial; execution and commitment were more important than originality. In horror — any/everything’s been done before. Just redo it with conviction and stylistic flair.
With such a microbudget, Raimi and his crew could invent clever ways to create dread and ambience with camera and limited resources (the swamp scene was just Raimi and crew running in the water and camera swerving). Plastic contact lenses with White Out were used for the demon eyes of which the accounts of their use were pretty painful and had to be done in less than minute takes. Raimi incorporated “The Three Stooges” style humor and confusion to levy the tension — however, according to reports, there were also a variety of injuries and incidents that befell the cast and crew. Let’s just say that if 1980’s CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST was an easy shoot — this one, was not.
Documentary- THE EVIL DEAD.- 1981- BEHIND THE SCENES.
The Star We Never Thought We Needed
Ashley “Ash” Williams wasn’t exactly the star of the movie, but it was indeed the first debut film for one Bruce Campbell who brought his height, natural charisma and a willingness to go full Three Stooges throttle when a dime flipped. He’s clearly the hero of this and he would also subvert expectations by becoming a rare ‘Final Boy” or “Final Guy” depending on how fast it rolls off your tongue.
Why Bruce Campbell sold his Ash more than the others? He not once winks at the camera and asks us to be in on the joke. He lets us do the work for ourselves. He’s sincere from start to finish despite inviting us to see just how mad ludicrous it does and will get. He tries to keep sane despite everyone falling apart around him and most importantly, makes us care about him. Raimi and Campbell who are indeed friends since college would be the ultimate discovery in this series and after the first two sequels which we’ll get to (EVIL DEAD 2, which ret-cons much of the first movie and ARMY OF DARKNESS; the franchise’s one studio offering that decided to push more the slapsticky humor and set it in medieval times rather than present day — certainly has its core fans, despite me trying like hell to be one of them) later.
Long before Jim Carrey would enter the zeitgeist, we had Bruce Campbell who is now semi-retired due to health issues, but one thing will always be the case. Campbell, like Carrey, was able to bring humor, wit, charm and energy to his performances, never willing to pull a punch for his joke or to stick the landing no matter how flat he fell. My heart goes out to Campbell, and I do hope he sticks it out with us for however long our planet houses him. For now, a deep recommendation would be to check out his ASH VS. EVIL DEAD series over on Starz where we get the full-blown best of Ash in his later years.
Why I Wasn’t a Fan — Initially
Bruce Campell’s Fanalysis (2002)
I’ll be honest. Upon my first watch of THE EVIL DEAD, I was not feeling it. It didn’t help that its most famous scene with the tree was its most controversial one — a fact Raimi admitted himself many a time. But in truth, the acting varies from manic to flat, the plot mechanics are pretty all over the place, the gory scenes are sometimes stilted and laughable and yes, even the pacing is felt — hard. It’s horror with camp; even if that wasn’t the goal (or maybe it was).
I also, cue gasp, didn’t find it very scary. It leans very heavy into body horror and even elements of other better movies like the Hammer or Amicus movies, but with its own knee jerk style. Still, I suppose if you are a fan of brutal kamikaze horror filmmaking, where THE EVIL DEAD excels most is it’s practical effects usage where you didn’t need huge dollar signs or even a Tom Savini/Greg Nicotero/Rick Baker/Rob Bottin caliber makeup artist to make some pretty effective and gnarly gore effects.
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The actors and cast all seem capable and willing to take us on a ride to Hell and if we’re lucky — back again. What Raimi is able to do is get us invested in the situation without underlining or even overstating it — that job is left to the practical effects. There’s definitely great craftsmanship in many of the scenes if not the overall film and that also includes some stopmotion used in the later scenes. In short, Raimi, Campbell and company gave me plenty to admire, if not love entirely and the fact was, the best was yet to come.
The Real REAL EVIL DEAD — Part Deux
Whatever limitations Raimi found himself with the first outing, EVIL DEAD 2, 1987, corrected a lot of them. He didn’t just make a sequel, he made the experience he wanted for the first one. Updating the practical effects with more state-of-the-art wizardry of its time and embracing the ludicrousness and the slapstick more outwardly instead of in, not to mention putting Bruce Campbell front and center for all the mayhem this time, EVIL DEAD 2 was a better film than its predecessor because it made some upward decisions about where the action, horror, comedy, even the Deadites were all supposed to go.
For the record, EVIL DEAD 2 doesn’t disregard the first one — but rather, reimagines it. Keeping what made the first one work (cabin, gore, eerie vibe, more gore, Deadites) and throwing out what wasn’t (everything that made the first one too serious). The cast are all in on the joke and there’s even great use of Dutch angles, breakneck camerawork and practical puppet and stopmotion work here that far supersedes the first. Most importantly, Campbell fully commits to Ash recieving every blow, every cut, every bite, every bit of pain and blood spurting he could survive and then some. Campbell is in fact, the best thing about all three Raimi movies. He’s able to navigate through some serious moments to just anarchic comic energy that no one (yes, not even Jim Carrey in all of his MASK-ness, GRINCH-ness and RIDDLER-ness) can imitate or duplicate.
The Legacy: From the Goofy to Just Plain Macabre and Nasty
Army of Darkness Official Trailer #1 — Bruce Campbell Movie (1992) HD
Evil Dead Official Full-Length Red Band Trailer #1 (2013) — Horror Movie HD
EVIL DEAD RISE — Official Trailer — (Redband)
Evil Dead Burn | Official Trailer
Now, Campbell and Raimi’s evolution of the series kept the fire burning with ARMY OF DARKNESS in 1992, which found Ash back in the time of the Dark Ages and where he needed the Necronomicon in order to avoid a full-on Deadite disaster (which of course is a futile moot point). By jacking up the humor and giving us a Ray Harryhausen/Three Stooges goof fest — Raimi was able to keep the fun going and pivot the story into a more mainstream direction. That was where the film went sour for me.
I found ARMY OF DARKNESS to be the weakest one due to the lack of gore and the need to dumb it down (intentional or not), but what remains is Campbell’s unfettered commitment to play Ash as as both clown and action hero. Also, his being a fish-out-of-water in this entry, allowed for Ash to grow as a character, not so much be a prop or a showman. Ash remains a horror/comedy icon for good reason and yes, I acknowledge that the cult fan service ARMY OF DARKNESS received, is partly responsible for that.
New EVIL DEAD — New…Direction…?
Fast forward to 2013 where Raimi and director Fede Alvarez (DON’T BREATHE and ALIEN: ROMULUS) decided to strip away the humor and go bare bones this time (cabin, Necronomicon, tape, evil forces, angrier Deadites and blood, blood, blood, blood — lots and lots of blood). EVIL DEAD 2013 featured a new cast and the same concept with a few minor changes — friends helping a friend go cold turkey off drugs and yeah, no problem there. Where I did object was making the gore and kills the only thing that required spectacle. No character development, no humor whatsoever and about the most wooden, lifeless acting I’ve seen this side of PET SEMATARY. But, if credit should be given, it’s to Jane Levy for carrying all the weight of the work and giving us a decent enough performance that made even myself notice. It was beloved enough to relaunch a new franchise which — oh well, so be it.
Then, came EVIL DEAD RISE 2023, the second of the new franchise films and written/directed by Lee Cronin — who gave us his unofficial sequel this year, LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY (Boris Karloff and Brendan Fraser were sorely missed this time around), actually, surprisingly, gave us the best one of the entire franchise. This time, it’s Alyssa Sutherland as the Bruce Campbell this time as a mother in a now condemned apartment skyrise where her DJ son discovers a library beneath the ravages of an earthquake and of course, the dreaded Necronomicon. Sutherland was clearly the star of the movie and the opening titles made its way into horror movie history.
We then had EVIL DEAD BURN this year and while I did admire the willingness to try a new approach to the material (DV, familial strife, and even animal Deadite transformations); I didn’t find it as effective as RISE and even felt much of the acting was leaden and two-dimensional at best. I almost believe this was a rejected PET SEMATARY script that somehow got rewritten to suit the trilogy. But, in fairness to Sébastien Vaniček, the film’s director who gave us the superior French spider horror movie, VERMINES or INFESTED in English — there was a lot of solid gore effects and a willingness to go full gross-up when needed. Also, some morbidly dark humor was added to the mix — but not quite as grisly fun as RISE. Still, stay past post-credits for a fun tack on. EVIL DEAD WRATH is next, whenever the slate is open for that one.
Raimi Sent Us More This Year and a Tribute to an Influential Master
In 2026, Sam Raimi would give us SEND HELP, his belated horror movie since DRAG ME TO HELL in 2009, and yes, Virginia, it was an R-rated film; not a PG-13 like the previous. A welcome return to his style of grand guignol horror peppered with his robust dark humor, was an early year hit. It starred Rachel McAdams (MEAN GIRLS, DOCTOR STRANGE) as a put-upon strategic and planning employee who goes toe-to-toe with her nasty boss played with absolute relish by Dylan O’ Brien (CADDO LAKE) after a plane crash maroons them on a remote island, proved Raimi hasn’t lost his touch and isn’t stopping anytime soon. It certainly tries to outdo MISERY in it’s infliction of harm on a certain body part (see next Movie Dissection at the end, folks).
His work with the MCU starting with 2002’s SPIDER-MAN, 2004’s SPIDER-MAN 2 and 2007’s SPIDER-MAN 3 (not a fave considering it was to be a banger trilogy the first time out), proved he could tackle comic book IP, but most forget he established himself successfully with 1990’s DARKMAN, a curio-horror comic book movie that starred Liam Neeson in the title role and Frances McDormand as his love interest as well as Larry Drake as the main villain. His excellent dramas, A SIMPLE PLAN 1998 and THE GIFT 2000, with Cate Blanchett, proved he could pivot to real stories with weight and depth. He tackled rom-coms (FOR LOVE OF THE GAME with Kevin Costner and Kelly Preston) and even a western with THE QUICK AND THE DEAD with Sharon Stone and an up-and-comer by the name of Russell Crowe who would entertain us years later with GLADIATOR and win so far, his one Oscar.
Conclusion: Like a Horror Virgin
Sam Raimi started somewhere like we all do and we’re all the better for it. I will admit that bingeing all of the EVIL DEAD Universe movies were a good way to acquaint myself with the work of Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell. A fun sidenote fact is that he has acted occasionally in other people’s movies like INNOCENT BLOOD, a mob vampire comedy from director John Landis from 1992 and in 1989, collaborated with his longtime friend, the late Scott Spiegel on INTRUDER.
Sam Raimi gave us THE EVIL DEAD, his first movie and without it, I wouldn’t be able to grow my brain’s horror encyclopedia. I guess that is worth something. Groovy indeed!
NEXT MOVIE DISSECTION: MISERY, 1990. Rob Reiner’s Only Horror Masterpiece.
