The beginning of an era

Anyone who has followed the career of one Bruce Campbell knows all about some of his exploits. Well, if someone were to ask me where it all began, I would simply direct them to the 1981 classic Evil Dead. The success of this film not only spawned two sequels that were just as good, but also brought Campbell into the consciousness of many a horror fan, as well as a well documented following.

Evil Dead was shot on a $375,000 budget that was raised by a group of friends from Michigan and was filmed in a small town called Morristown, Tennessee. In the movie, five college friends Shelly, Linda, Scott, Cheryl, and Ash travel to an abandoned cabin in Tennessee where they discover a book of the dead and soon find out the horrible secrets that the cabin held via the recording device. The plot is simple enough, but it the movie begins in earnest when Cheryl gets lost in the woods and raped by trees. Read that last part and tell me if the movie gets any better than that. It gets better, as a now possessed Cheryl is locked in the basement and soon, everyone except Ash is possessed by the spirit that was unleashed from the book of the dead. Comedy moments come in the form of the possessed Cheryl mocking Ash as he tries to tend to an injured Scott, as well as a hacked up Linda still trying to move.

There aren't many people who consider themselves horror fans that haven't seen this movie and if you are one of them, it would be wise to remedy that right away.