Beda #29: Evil Dead

I don't really know why, but lately I've found myself enjoying horror movies much more than I ever imagined.  In my younger days, even throughout most of high school, I never felt the need to watch them, even after I'd overcome my fears that while walking home a clown would drag me into a sewer (It) or my car would be possessed (Christine) or I'd make like human lava and spew out of Mt. Cama like Johnny Depp (Nightmare on Elm Street).  However, I suddenly have the urge to watch as many classics as possible, so when my school had an Evil Dead Fest Marathon, complete with guest actors/crew/directors and a display of props, I couldn't resist.  I shall impart to you some information about each and their impression on me below (no worries about spoilers).

The original Evil Dead (1981) is a cabin in the woods during spring break type deal.  A group of college kids accidentally release an evil spirit by playing a tape with a translation of the ancient Book of the Dead.  Craziness and death ensue.  Evil Dead was obviously filmed on a low budget and didn't have much support, but is still very good, despite sometimes losing focus and having crazy looking make-up and special effects.

Evil Dead 2 (1987) is basically a remake of Evil Dead, again starring Bruce Campbell, and is a work of genius.  It's my favorite in the series because it's the perfect balance of scary, gory, and humorous.  The story is much more cohesive, and with a bigger budget, they were able to pull off some cooler effects, and improve the cinematography.  Campbell really shines in this, as it's a one man show for the first half of the movie.  He is extremely entertaining, perfectly executing Three Stooges-esque slapstick humor, and you can tell that the entire cast had an amazing time filming this.

Army of Darkness (1992) continues where Evil Dead 2 left, taking Bruce back to medieval times to face an army of the undead.  This is probably the craziest of the franchise, being composed of 95% percent Bruce Campbell shenanigans almost to the point of hamming it up at a Jim Carrey level, and 5% mega-battle at the end.  It is filled with great one liners and has one of the best posters I've ever seen, so as long as you can get over the major cheeseball factor it is a good movie.

The whole reason for this fest was the premier of the new Evil Dead (2013), so at midnight we finally got to experience the main event, and it was completely terrorizing.  The plot was surprisingly well constructed for a horror movie, and was great to see with a huge, enthusiastic audience (there were many moments filled with large cries of horror/cheers), but it was more gross than anything else.  In the original series, the gore was either incredibly fake or just suggested with silhouettes, making it funny and easier to handle.  The new Evil Dead had access to modern special effects and the budget to pull them off, so everything looked way too life like for comfort.  Although it was very very gruesome, it was still pretty enjoyable, and filled with many throwbacks to the other films, which was nice.

So there, now you know a little bit about the Evil Dead series and will hopefully take the time to watch all or one of the above, it will definitely not be wasted.  If anything, you will learn a valuable life lesson: if you come across a creepy book in a cabin in the woods that is bound in human flesh and written in blood, DO NOT TOUCH IT, DO NOT OPEN IT, AND FOR BRUCE'S SAKE DO NOT READ IT ALOUD.  SERIOUSLY.  C'MON.  WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT???

BEDA Bonus Fact: My favorite little tree smells are jasmin, cinnamon, and applewoods.