The Evil Dead Ultimate Edition (1981)
Review by the Fiend of Grue
Five young adults descend into the hills of Tennessee to a cabin for a weekend getaway. They reach the isolated cabin by way of a lone bridge and after unpacking they find a tape recorder. Sitting around the tape player, they listen to the tape that talks of incantations, demon possession and bodily dismemberment. Soon after, all hell breaks loose as one by one they are possessed by demons until only Ash (Bruce Campbell) is left alive. Can he survive the night, or will he also become one of the evil dead?
I could talk for days about my love for The Evil Dead. For years and years this has been my all time favorite movie and I have literally seen it over 100 times. The way this movie was made, and that it was even completed at all, is such a fascinating thing to me. I grew up with this movie from it’s early VHS days and it use to scare the living shit out of me, but I would still watch it again and again. Today, it doesn’t scare me anymore but rather intrigues me for it’s sheer brilliance. Sam and the boys were onto something that was bigger than they could have ever imagined with their inventive effects and camera angles that were done in ways never attempted before. They simply set out to make a horror film that could play alongside the ones they were seeing in drive in’s across America and in the process they created a trend setting, landmark horror film that would go down as a fan favorite and spawn two profitable sequels.
Sure it’s chock full of continuity errors and a lot of the effects are laughable by today’s standards, but that is also the charm of The Evil Dead. This may not be the most proficient of the Evil Dead films, but it’s most certainly the scariest and I think one of the reasons I still like this one the most is because of it’s serious tone, something that was lost in the sequels. Don’t get me wrong, I still like both sequels but the comedy side weighed them down a little.
Over the years The Evil Dead has thrived in the home video format. From it’s earliest years on VHS, it gained a cult following that grew and grew. In 1997, The Evil Dead was released on DVD for the first time and with that, a whole new generation of fans was born that has seen the movie get bigger than ever because many people never had the chance to even see this movie until its DVD release. Although it’s not entirely true, it seems as though The Evil Dead has been re-released every year since then with the last release making fan boys such as myself salivate by releasing The Book Of The Dead edition which featured the movie in a latex book that looked exactly like the one featured in the movie.
Now Anchor Bay has just released yet another version that they are dubbing the “Ultimate Edition” which comes packed full with three DVD’s. I’m not one to double dip on a movie that I’ve already bought, but hey, that what Christmas is for, right! So, for Christmas, Santa somehow found me on the good list this year and gave me The Evil Dead: Ultimate Edition and boy am I jumping for joy because this is a true treat for us fans. I still wouldn’t call this the Ultimate Edition because for some reason Sam Raimi STILL refuses to put the “Within The Woods” short that they made to raise money for the film, on the disc as an extra for whatever reason (you can actually go on YouTube and watch it though), but on every other level…this DVD kills all! Here’s a look at all the set has to offer…
DISC 1 :
WIDESCREEN version of the film (for the first time ever!)
“One By One We Will Take You: The Untold Saga Of The Evil Dead“: In this 60 minute documentary the entire story of how the movie came to be is told through the cast and crew, along with some perspectives from genre favorites, one of which is Greg Nicotero. In one segment, Nicotero says it all when he states “If they would have had more of a budget for effects, this movie would have been as scary as The Exorcist.” This is a very insightful documentary, especially for people who don’t know much about the movie, but want to learn more. Despite most of the cast and crew showing up here, sadly Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Hal Delrich (Scotty in the movie) are absent.
Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Sam Raimi and Producer Robert Tapert (this is the same commentary that was used on the Book Of The Dead edition)
DISC 2:
FULLSCREEN version of the film
“The Evil Dead: Treasures From The Cutting Room Floor”: For those who love the movie and want to see more, here you go. Some of this footage was seen on the last release, but much of it here is new. This is another expansive and all encompassing documentary that runs nearly 60 minutes also. This featurette focuses on covering behind the scenes footage, along with deleted scenes and alternate takes. None of the running time is taken up with interviews either, which I thought was great. It a solid hour of left over footage with no interruptions. In this unprocessed and raw footage you really get to see how much hell the actors and actresses had to go through while making this movie, especially Ellen Sandweiss who is often seen falling down in awkward positions or banging her head on something, cussing all the while. Of course you also get to witness a lot of what Bruce Campbell had to go through also, whose suffering on this film is legendary at this point.
Audio Commentary with star Bruce Campbell (also the same commentary from the Book Of The Dead edition)
DISC 3:
“Life After Death: The Ladies Of The Evil Dead“: This featurette show how the three women of the movie, Ellen Sandweiss, Betsy Baker and Theresa Tilly managed to get ahold of one another once again to reunite and tour around to horror movie conventions together.
“The Ladies Of The Evil Dead Meet Bruce Campbell”: This time we see the ladies of the film in a sit down panel/ interview with Bruce Campbell talking about all things Evil Dead. There’s really nothing new revealed here that hasn’t already been discussed before at one point or another, but it’s entertaining as hell seeing the three of them talk about things concerning the movie.
“Unconventional”: On this featurette, the ladies of film along with Bruce Campbell, Ted Raimi and even Hal Delrich sit down to talk about everything to do with conventions. This featurette is another one that will have you laughing as they tell stories of signing peoples items with the wrong name to talking about how nervous some fans are and their overall experience with doing convention appearances. Very good stuff that should have went on longer than 20 minutes.
“At The Drive In”: This shows the cast handing out a slew of Evil Dead DVD’s to fans who answer their questions about the movie correctly.
“Convention Panel”: This featurette, along with the previous two was shot in July 2005 at the Flashback Weekend convention in Chicago. This time the fans get to ask the entire cast questions about the filming of the movie for about 30 minutes.
“Discovering The Evil Dead“: This featurette shows candid interviews with the Palace Pictures crew talking about how they came to find out about the movie and sign it to a distribution deal. Simultaneously releasing the movie in theaters and on home video is unheard of even today, but is attributed to the film’s initial success.
TV Spots
Still Gallery
Make-Up Test
Poster and Memorabilia Gallery
Trailer
That wraps up this version of “The Ultimate Experience In Grueling Terror” and it’s safe to say that this is the best version to come out yet, but come Sam, come off the “Within The Woods” short next time.
Available from Amazon
Popularity: 2% [?]
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