The Bad
This section is sort of difficult to write because I don't have a clear image of what the director wanted to make intentionally bad and what was actually bad. For me, all the characters except for Ash and Scottie were stereotypical: Ash is the normal one which we're supposed to identify with and his friend, Scottie, is the Dumbass Joker who's just fooling around and making bad jokes initially. My gripe is with the women: Ash's sister (Cheryl), his girlfriend (Linda) and Scottie's girlfriend (Shelly) are three different characters, yet they seem to have the same bland, uninteresting personality. Cheryl is serious, but so are the others; Linda is cutesy, but so is Shelly. Cheryl is hysterical and, oh boy, are the others ever!
I don't even want to know what Ash is doing in the fourth one.
Not to mention the fact that the characters (mostly the women) aren't scared/nervous enough sometimes; for example, a character has just gone on a rant about being possessed by demons and killing everyone, and all another character can say is "what's wrong with her?". Even the hero, Ash, is surprisingly not awesome: anytime I see Evil Dead mentioned on the internet, I hear "Ash is the coolest ever!", so I expected more from him; dunno, he's not that great when all he does is sit around and wait for Scottie to handle the demons (well, at least he doesn't get in the way). And when the Douche is cooler than you are, that's a problem; he does get better in the second part of the film, though, and at least his transition from decor to protagonist is not as extreme as characters' today, which would either piss their pants and scream like little girls, or turn into Badasses in 3 seconds.
I found Scottie incredibly annoying in the beginning, but he surprised me by thinking rationally later on and being the only one to actually fight the demons off. If anything, I'd say he's a necessary evil and the evolution of his character was pretty good; nowadays, the Douche is usually killed off pretty soon, so Scottie is unusual for being more like a side character in the grand scheme.
I talked about the cinematography in the Good section, now it's time to harp on it. I repeat, I don't know if this is intentional (though I really want to believe it is), but the lighting is terrible. Let's see if you can spot what's out of place in these:
Yes, big friggin' spotlights on the roof. Every time we see a shot of the house, you also see these. If this is intentional, it's a clever parody of that unusually bright lighting in '80s horror flicks, but the spotlights are shown too often for me not to suspect something, though I can't believe such an error would go past such a careful director. Speaking of which, since the movie takes place mostly during the night, there's the need for a light source (of course, we have to see what's going on), and we have these shots, which look really fake and distracting:
First one is in the middle of a forest, second and third have the living room as a background (with fairly
dim lightbulbs when inside), fourth is outside, most probably near the house.
Never mind the odd lighting, the props are bad; tell me if this doesn't look more like a worn-out doll than a demon:
And is that actually her face underneath the prosthetic/mask?
To be honest, the makeup can be positively creepy when done right, though, but I won't post any pics so as not to spoil any important parts.
The Plain WTF
Alright, this is the spot I debated what to include in. There are at least 3 moments I could name, but one's a stretch and the other's (probably) intentionally hilariously bad, so I'm going to name the claymation near the end. Wow, was it bad. I'm all for using real effects instead of relying on CGI and all, but not when it's this laughable. The monsters literally looked like putty and when one of them disintegrates, it turns into something that looks like mashed potatoes. Really. I get that it was an attempt to gross out the audience, but I didn't find it funny, even for a parody.
Oh, and the demons shoot milk through their noses and mouths when they're defeated.
The Quotes
Ash: You bastards, why are you torturing me like this? Why?
Shelly: Why does she keep making those horrible noises?
Ash: I don't know!
Shelly: Look at her eyes. Look at her eyes! For God's sake, what happened to her eyes?
[character name left out to avoid spoilers]: It's useless! Useless! In time it will come for him and then it will come for you!
Verdict and recommendations
Evil Dead is very, very dated. It certainly doesn't measure up to today's standards in terms of look, special effects and pacing: the colors are muted, the special effects are mostly bad and it seems indecisive about being either a parody or full-blown horror. Some scenes which are meant to be suspenseful work well, while the ones with the demons are highly open to the viewer's judgement: they're either good and funny, or terribly bad and laughable (for different reasons).
It's campy and there are lots of moments that gave it its rightful status as a cult classic. I for one watched it and played a drinking game at the same time. If you're not familiar with how these work, you basically have to take a sip/drink when something particular happens. My game was inspired by The Code Is Zeek, but I left out some portions because I couldn't remember them or I'd have ended up in a coma if I really drank everytime they happened. So, take a sip/drink whenever:
- the door creaks
- the wall clock appears (this may as well put you in the hospital if you're using anything alcoholic)
- the line "Join us" is said
- someone uses a wrong key
All in all, it's definitely entertaining and best watched with friends. There are spooky moments and genuine jump scares that are actually done right. It's worth checking out for just the cult classic aspect alone, since it's an important step in the evolution of horror.
Originality + creativity: 1.6 points
Actors: 1.8 points
Soundtrack: 1.5 points
Special effects/Natural flow: 0.3 points
How much I enjoyed it: 1.5 points
My rating: 
(6.7, rounded to 7 out of 10)
The Evil Dead (1981) on IMDb.com
