Rating: 
Summary: A truely frightening film
Review: This is a truely frightening film about Ash (Bruce Campbell) and four friends who decide to escape their busy lives for a weekend away in a cabin deep in the woods. What they don't expect is the hellish nightmare they are about to embark on. What they don't know is that there is something lurking in the woods around them. Something evil. They find a tape recorder that belonged to a man that occupied the cabin before. He reads passages from "The Book of the Dead" which bring the demons to life. This is one of those fims that stays with you for awhile after you watch it. The shocking gore and gruesome terror leaves your heart pumping after the film is over. You have to stop yourself from covering your eyes several times. A cult favorite that is worth checking out. Great suspense and very gruesome. This is one of the only films that I can't watch alone. That's how scary it is. Check it out and you won't be disappointed! -Scott
Rating: 
Summary: Gore... And plenty of it!
Review: Five friends travel to a cabin for their vacation, unknowing the Evil presence that lurks in the woods around them. While on a trip to the cellar, our hero Ash and a companion discover a tape recorder and a book. Playing the tape turned out to be a big mistake, because this same tape contains incantations from the book... The book of the dead! Incantations that were meant to release... The Evil Dead!For gore hounds, this movie is for you! Plenty of gore to be found here. The make-up for the zombies is just excellent! The grainy film quality, as well as the camera movements and camera angles, might be responsible the chilling atmosphere. Not as good as the sequel (Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn) in my opinion, but a lot of die-hard horror fans might disagree with me.
Rating:
Summary: A classic horror film. A must for collectors!
Review: I spent some time trying to find this edition. You can find the Anchor Bay copy all over, but it is VERY lacking in features. This DVD cost me as much as the collectors edition of The Thing, but it is SO worth it. The bonus features include roughly 20 minutes of RAW behind the scenes footage. You can see the markings on the film go past the projector, no music, very basic. But it's very interesting to watch. In fact, many of the actors comments are left in. Also, they include dozens and dozens of pictures. Some are just ok, others are pretty interesting. The theatrical trailer is a little different too. I've never seen that one before. First, my biggest complaint is there is no wide screen version. Maybe wide screen versions didn't exist in 1982, I have no idea. You can select two types of commentary. Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert, or Bruce Campbell. Let me just say that I was very, very disappointed with Sam and Robert. They might as well have not even bothered. During the ENTIRE movie, you could just about fit BOTH of their feedback on a single sheet of paper. Worthless. At times they would go over 5 minutes with no comments. Doesn't that totally defeat the purpose? Both men are very quiet. I wish Elite would have just scrapped them altogether. I am very glad I didn't buy it for their commentary. Bruce, on the other hand, gave EXCELLENT commentary. Just about every single scene he gives detail. He shows you mistakes, tells you how scenes were filmed, how far apart they were, and so much more information. In fact, I learned more about Evil Dead from his commentary than from ALL the fan sites combined. He did an outstanding job telling us how they filmed it. On with the DVD, I can't imagine someone reading these reviews who hasn't seen it. My guess is that most readers will just want to know what the DVD has to offer. If you want selection, get the Elite version. The Anchor Bay version has virtually nothing on it. The special effects look a little more fake on DVD, but I think just about everyone knows they were very low budget. Still, the blood and guts hit home. This is an excellent late night, weekend or whatever horror flick. Not for the weak, even with the low budget special effects. As most readers will know, Evil Dead set a standard for its extreme use of blood and guts, bodily dismemberment, acts of killing, and demonic disfigurement. The Elite version costs more than the Anchor Bay version, but if you are a TRUE Evil Dead fan, get the Elite copy. It is far superior. You will be VERY glad you did. Did you know they shot in at least 3 different locations? Hal and Sarah (actors) were not their real names? Betsy Bakers character had several stand ins? That there was no cellar in the actual cabin? That many of the back to back scenes were actually filmed 6 month (or years) apart? Well, you'll find out.
Rating:
Summary: Does it get any better?
Review: The Evil Dead is a film that reminds us that you DO need gore to make a great horror movie. Sam Raimi is a genius, Bruce Campbell must like the taste of blood, and the movie jut plain rules! If you do not own this then you are a fool! GO GET IT! It is SOOOOO worth it.
Rating:
Summary: The development of the average man into hero
Review: First of all, the DVD transfer is excellent. Obviously somebody here really cared. I did like the development of Ashley the common man into Ash the hero. He is forced by circumstances to become the hero and he finally comes through. However, this is a pretty formulaic horror movie with lots of blood and guts and a splash of humor. A great job with a very low budget to work with and a fantastic 1st effort for people who have gone on to bigger and not necessary better things. For those unfamiliar with the movie, however, I would recommend that you rent it first to see if you really want to buy it.
Rating:
Summary: The first, so don't compare it to 'Army of Darkness'
Review: Sam Raimi, an amazing movie considering on the low budget it was made. The effects Raimi creates are amazing like in the first scene when the 5 teenagers arrive at the cabin and the porch swing is hitting rhymically against the cabin and stops when Tom puts his hand on the door, really creepy and effective, but now with the "Scream" movies, I doubt it would scare anyone. For those who are Ash fans (myself included), you will be dissapointed, the "Ash attitude" as I like to call it (one-liners, guns, chainsaws for hands, and always getting the girl), doesn't really gel till the end of the movie and into "Evil Dead 2". Ash's real name is Ashely and he is pretty much Ashely till the end of the movie where his character becomes Ash. Not to down play on Bruce Campbell who does a great job, this is how it is in this movie. An example of this is when some zombie girls attack Tom and Ashely is standing in the background looking horrified, and those who have seen "Evil Dead 2" or "Army of Darkness" will be standing up and screaming at Ash to do something. I would say it is unfair to compare "Evil Dead" to "Army of Darkness" because the movies get better as they go along and, of course, have higher budgets... "Evil Dead 2" is not as strong plot wise and "Evil Dead" because basically it's a remake of "Evil Dead"... "Evil Dead" could also be considered to have a weak plot that a 5-year old can follow, but horror films are much more subtle and create more suspence now so that screenwriters don't have to hit the plot over the audience's head to get it across. If this movie was shown today, it would get bad reviews as a horror movie, but "Evil Dead" is more of a cult classic and if you can step back and realize that "Evil Dead" even though it's a low-budget movie, it's a satire on low-budget movies and does a lot of sterotypical things on purpose. This humour is carried on in "Evil Dead 2" and "Army of Darkness" Bottom Line: You love Raimi, Campbell, or "Army of Darkness", you won't be dissapointed, but you might want to rent it before you own it.
Rating: 
Summary: The first of the trilogy, but dispensable
Review: It seems that Evil Dead II was effectively an improved remake of Evil Dead 1. Nothing in the story line is lost by skipping Evil Dead 1 altogether. For example, Ash discovers the same taperecorder (for the first time) in both movies, as if the events in ED1 never happened. Yes, ED1 is creative, for a low budget movie, but EDII is much better. The combination of EDII and Army of Darkness can't lose as a slapstick comedy horror double-feature. Save money and skip ED1.
Rating:
Summary: High on violence, low on plot
Review: This is a great movie for fans of blood and guts. But if you are looking for plot development, look elsewhere. The plot is simple: 5 friends go into the woods and only 1 comes out alive. Excellent make-up and blood sequences mixed in with some humor make this an enjoyable film.
Rating:
Summary: great
Review: The film was a good horror movie, in its own way. The first time I saw it I thougt it was too much, but as the time passed I thougt it was greater and greater... I recommend this movie for people that enjoy horror movies.
Rating:
Summary: Big fan, but won't praise
Review: Now don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of Sam Raimi (especially his DarkMan), but this movie didn't seem to cut it. I think a good, quality horror movie must always begin with a lot of charactor developement, in which the audience can relate to the "victims". This way, when trouble arrives, the siduation becomes more believable. This was not so in Evil Dead. The movie almost emmediately started with a set of eery twitches and sequences, as if Sam Raimi wanted just to skip the "borring stuff" and jump right into the "scary stuff". This was a very bad move, but at least the charactors weren't bad actors. As a matter of fact, I thought the acting was unusually good. But lets just forget about the sentimental part, any true horror fan will just focus mainly on the gore factors. In this case, Evil Dead is a masterpiece of horrific disfigurement and unconcerned cannibalism. Its not a non-stop blood-fest, but when the heat is up, the fire starts burning. There's even a very creepy and distastefully sexual encounter with a monster tree, but lets not get into that. My main point is, that Evil Dead can only be reveled at, not experienced. The storyline is so choppy that tension development will rarely occur. If you're looking for a good time, buy the sequal: Evil Dead 2; if you're looking for a scare, go to a haunted house or something, cause this one won't delivere the goods. I'd buy it for the special effects though; its cheap, but very explicit. I give this movie credit strictly based on its ability to deliver massive amounts of gore, not its emotional effectiveness.
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