Night 26 of "Attack of the 31 Nights of Halloween"

Welcome to night 26 of "Attack of the 31 Nights of Halloween". Tonight we have a review of the next movie on our Halloween Movie List. Make sure to stop by our GIANT Giveaway and enter to win a goodie bag full of frightfully good treats from 17 different shops! But first lets get to our featured item of the night from Laughing Vixen Lounge.


Tonight's Featured Item - Ultimate Zombie Charm Bracelet

Ultimate Zombie Charm Bracelet $65

Purchase this item from Laughing Vixen Lounge during October and get 10% off. Use code OCTOBER10
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Night 26 - The Evil Dead

Tagline - The Ultimate Experience In Grueling Terror
              Can They Be Stopped?
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Written and directed by Sam Raimi (Darkman, The Gift and Spiderman I,II&III) and released on April 15, 1983 by New Line Cinema (original rating X, 1994 rating NC-17). A group of friends head into the woods to spend the weekend in a "rustic" cabin. After finding a book and tape recorder in the cellar they make the mistake of listening to the recorded tape. Soon they have unleashed a woods full of demons ready to wreak havoc. The only one who seems untouched by the evil is our hero Ash (Bruce Campbell). Can he save his friends and himself from the evil that surrounds them? Hmmmm...it ain't lookin' good!
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The first time I watched this movie it was on SciFi channel and it made little impression on me. I just didn't see what people were making a fuss about. Over the next few years I continued to hear people talk about their love of it and their love of Bruce Campbell. Then I heard an interview with Bruce on a local radio morning show and I decided I needed to give it another shot. Being a huge horror fan I obviously just missed something the first time. So one weekend I went out and rented all three of The Evil Dead movies and watched them in a row. I was immediately under the charm of Bruce Campbell and these movies and well, the rest is history.

If you have never seen this movie before here's what you need to know. This is a low budget movie. The writing is not great nor is the acting. The effects are greatly outdated by today's standards. This is a B horror film. But, if you like your horror with a bit of cheese then I highly suggest you give this one a try. Be warned that there is blood flying, pouring, oozing and gushing all through the movie. It was billed as "The ultimate experience in grueling horror" and it is a very brutal movie. While there is plenty to make you giggle at there is also plenty to turn your stomach. If you make it to the end and feel game there are two more in the series. Evil Dead II (not really a sequel it's more like a remake. A very unique movie!) and Army of Darkness (less gore more silliness).

Not to be missed is the great style of Sam Raimi's filming. Most noticeable in the last 10 - 15 minutes of the film. The tilted camera angles, the rushing camera shots and the framing of shots using the door frames is just beautiful film making.

And Bruce Campbell is just too cute. I became a follower of his from these movies and he has remained one of my favorite. Since he lives here in Oregon, we usually get a stop on his promotional tours. It's always great fun to get to see Bruce and his latest work. Make sure to check him out on USA channel's Burn Notice.
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Some trivia about the movie...
1. After completing principal photography in the winter of 1979-1980, most of the actors left the production. However, there was still much of the film to be completed. Most of the second half of the film features Bruce Campbell and various stand-ins (or "shemps") to replace the actors who left.
2. Director Sam Raimi and star Bruce Campbell were friends from high school, where they made many super-8 films together. They would often collaborate with Sam's brother Ted Raimi. Campbell became the "actor" of the group, as "he was the one that girls wanted to look at." (I've seen some of these super-8 films. Great fun!)
3. The opening sequence of the evil moving over the pond, is actually Bruce Campbell pushing Sam Raimi in a dingy whilst he films the shot.
4. Was one of the first films to be labeled as a "Video Nasty" in the UK.
5. There's a ripped poster of The Hills Have Eyes (1977) visible. Ostensibly, this was in reference to a ripped poster for Jaws (1975) that appeared in that film; Sam Raimi and the others interpreted that as Wes Craven suggesting that "Hills" was much more frightening than "Jaws", thus they showed a ripped "Hills" poster because their film was to be even scarier yet.
6. A closet is opened and a T-shirt with the word "Tamakwa" is visible. Director Sam Raimi went to Camp Tamakwa as a child. The movie "Indian Summer" is a tribute to his summers at Tamakwa and is a movie well worth watching. One of my favorites! Sam plays "Stick" in it and it makes me cry laughing just thinking about the character. 8)
7. The film was given an X rating when it was finished. Not wanting the label of X on their film they went ahead and released it as unrated.
8. In 2006, The Evil Dead (1981) was turned into a Broadway musical.