The Original

THE EVIL DEAD-1981-Ash (Bruce Campbell) and 4 jerky friends (1 guy, 3 girls) go to a secluded cabin. There's a lot of strange noises and there seems to be something in the woods. In the basement (where there's a THE HILLS HAVE EYES poster) they find some ancient books, artifacts and a tape recorder. The tape has a doctor talking about Sumeria, The Book of The Dead and resurrecting the deceased. The taped chanting of the doctor seems to bring up some force and a tree crashes through a window. At night one of the women Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) is attacked by tree branches then chased through the forest by an unseen force. On the tape the doctor says his wife is possessed. Cheryl becomes a ghoul and threatens the rest, stabbing Ash's girlfriend Linda (Betsy Baker) with a pencil. They lock her in the basement. The third girl Shelly (Sarah York) becomes possessed and attacks Scott (Richard Manincor), the other guy. Shelly gets partially burned, has her hand cut off, then dies after being dismembered in a very gory scene. Then Linda becomes a giggling demon. Ash yells: “You bastards! Why are you torturing me like this?!”. When Scotty dies, Ash is left alone to fight the demons. 

There's a lot of bloody effects, decapitation, demon attacks and of course poor Ash is beaten, stabbed and generally terrorized but manages to destroy the demon and survive....or does he? 

This was director Sam Raimi's first feature film (he'd only made short films before this) and seems to be influenced the low budget horror film EQUINOX (1970). It still packs a wallop today. Followed by two sequels and a cable TV show many years later.

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It's A Drag!

DRAG ME TO HELL-2009-After the commercial success of the Spider-Man series director Sam Raimi returns to EVIL DEAD territory. It was a big hit. 


Christine Brown, a loan officer at a bank (Alison Lohman) denies a  decrepit old woman an extension on the house she is going to be evicted from. The woman puts a curse on her. She spends the rest of the film trying to figure it out. There's a lot of slamming doors, 
laughing, a crazy nosebleed and even a talking goat. Lohman's character gets thrown around a lot but always gets up unharmed. A demon called a "lamia" is coming for her soul. She offers her pet 
kitten as a sacrifice but it doesn't seem to work. The ending is ridiculous. Also with David Paymer, Justin Long and Ted Raimi.


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