Stephen King called The Evil Dead "...the most ferociously original horror film of the year.."
"In the summer of 1979, Sam, Robert, and I, collected approximately $375,000 from investors in the Detroit area and made our first feature film: "The Evil Dead." I starred as Ash,a witless college
student besieged by demons in a quaint cabin nestled in the Tennessee woods."The Evil Dead"
was highly successful both critically and financially and officially launched our professional careers..."
--- Bruce Campbell
Plot
Five friends go to a cabin in the woods for a vacation. They discover The Book of the Dead and a tape
recorder belonging to a professor, who also owns the cabin. One of them plays back what is recorded
on the tape--which just happens to be Candarian resurrection passages translated from to Necronomicon (Book of the Dead)by the professor -- this unleashes an evil force from the woods.The
people start turning into evil deadites,and the others soon learn from the tape that the only way to kill a person who is turned into a deadite is by total body dismemberment.People are dying left and right;
one girl early in the film looses control and runs off into the woods,only to be raped and killed by the
trees.Ash ends up as the only one alive,with the movie ending with the Evil rushing up to a screaming
Ash. We are left to wonder if his soul has been swallowed, or are we due for a sequel? This film is
a straight bloody horror movie.
Cast and Crew:
Directed by:
Sam Raimi
Writing credits
Sam Raimi
Bruce Campbell....Ashley J. "Ash" Williams
Ellen Sandweiss....Cheryl Williams
Hal Delrich....Scotty
Betsy Baker....Linda
Sarah York....Shelly
Philip A. Gillis....Fake Shemp
Dorothy Tapert....Fake Shemp
Cheryl Guttridge....Fake Shemp
Barbara Carey....Fake Shemp
David Horton....Fake Shemp
Wendall Thomas....Fake Shemp
Don Long....Fake Shemp
Stu Smith....Fake Shemp
Kurt Rauf....Fake Shemp
Ted Raimi....Fake Shemp
Ivan Raimi....Fake Shemp
Bill Vincent....Fake Shemp
Mary Beth Tapert....Fake Shemp
Scott Spiegel....Fake Shemp
John Cameron....Fake Shemp Joanne Kruse....Fake Shemp
Gwen Cochanski....Fake Shemp
Debie Jarczewski....Fake Shemp
Sam Raimi....Fisherman on side of road/Voice of Evil Spirit
Robert G. Tapert....Local Yokel (uncredited)
Produced by:
Bruce Campbell(executive)
Gary Holt(assistant)
Sam Raimi(executive)
Robert G. Tapert(also executive)
and House of Horrors homepage.
