THE EVIL DEAD... OR THE STORY OF HOW IT ALL BEGAN...

I try to stick to the tradition of watching a horror film or two on Halloween. Even if I am busy, or ill (or both) that is my way of celebrating the holiday. In my native Turkey we do very little to celebrate this holiday so that is where it stops for me. I mean, I can always do with an excuse for watching horror films and eating candy. The Evil Dead was my second film this Halloween. I actually checked out the trailer at around 2.00 in the morning, in the dark. It gave me the willies so I left it to the morning. Now those of you who know me in real life will know I do not scare that easily so I was surprised at feeling nervy at a trailer. But hey, I had already watched one really spooky film so I cut myself some slack.

I watched this big boy the next day, in broad daylight, with cats and people milling around noisily outside my door. I was TERRIFIED. I am a grown woman and we are talking cringing, pausing the film multiple times, hiding from the screen behind my fingers, the whole nine yards… Sam Raimi, you sick, sick puppy…

Of course horror fans will know that The Evil Dead is now officially one of the archetypes of a specific type of horror film. You know, a group of young people end up in a remote spot in the woods (more often than not they are renting a cabin though God only knows why you would choose to vacation bang in the middle of a weird forest all by yourselves but hey… Suspension of disbelief and all that. ) So yeah, our group of young people come to a remote cabin that they are renting as a relaxing vacation. But the whole thing goes south very quickly when they discover a sinister looking study on demonology left by the previous occupant. Nobody takes the study very seriously and it is read out loud to much hilarity, however…  Unbeknown to them, they have woken a curse… And it is coming straight for them…

The Evil Dead was one of those infamous films that was banned for years in some countries, edited heavily in others and definitely became the stuff of legend very quickly in all. What gets you in the gut is the absolutely brutal savagery of the film combined with a rather masterfully created atmosphere.  And the absolutely savage violence is unrelenting, no holds barred and in a word, not tastefully done at all. It is a complete battery on your senses and after a while you are just reduced to staring at the screen in terror, unable to turn away – pretty much like watching a train crash. The fact that the film was made in 1980 and that some of the effects were very patently achieved with stop motion and play dough is neither here nor there. Raimi seems to know exactly where all your primal fears are and how best to abuse them. You literally have no escape…

And yet, the overkill (literally) on violence does not make you glaze over after a while. The film is intelligent and humorous throughout and keeps you oddly engaged, which is not good news for your nerves if you are basically engaged with a cabin full of murderous and bloodthirsty demons.   Several tropes are noted and turned on their heads as they go along – there is, for example a typical character who would be the –last girl – in normal films. You know how it goes, the couples get plucked off one by one, the last, pure (often white and single) girl survives, thus making the film a hidden ode to the patriarcle system. Well we start off with two couples and the sister of one of the boys –familiar enough. But then the potential last girl is actually the first to be cursed, shortly after being raped by a tree (no that was not a typo) I might add. The film studies student in me wants to also make something of the fact that she gets trapped under the cabin in the cellar for a good part of the film after she is transformed into a demon, you know, repressed female sexuality and all that jazz. Especially since our last boys girlfriend is used quite openly to tempt him into the demonic fold. I did tell you that the film hits you at your most primal – and sex is, as we all know, a large part of all that.

This is not one of those horror films you put on just to giggle at the monsters and the general lack of common sense prevalent in slashers and B – movies. It’s a good, old fashioned corner stone. It’s an actual source. Its future incarnations have diluted it on the way, this is true, but even all these decades later when you re-visit the source, you find that electrifying and truly demonic energy present in all its glory, ready to inspire your dreams – and nightmares…