The Madness Begins with Evil Dead

Sam Raimi started off to make Evil Dead as a serious horror flick. He admits this openly in the director's commentary. He was sooo crushed when the producer said to him "I thought you were making a horror movie. This is a comedy". (I paraphrased). Indeed, it is a comedy. A cult classic. This film will have your sides splitting.

Ash and his friends decide to go spend a few days at a cabin in the woods. They find a book in the cellar. This is a very bad book. Not bad in the ewww what kinda crap is that sense, mind you, but Bad in the oh hell we're all gonna die now sense. You know the type. You probably have one. heh. Made ya go look!

Oddly enough, things do start happening. Mainly, the chicks turn into demons. Now, a friend of mine said this isn't far off the truth, chicks are born demonic. He slept in the shed that night. The first victim was outside and got raped by the woods. No, I don't mean she got raped near the woods; I mean she got raped BY the woods. Figure that one out... This is serious down-home laugh-out-loud hysterical. We're talkin' sides aching, coke-spewing funny.

I am not gonna give you the rest of the plot. I am going to say that it went downhill from there... or got better, depending on your own warped perspective.

Bruce Campbell plays Ashley 'Ash' J. Williams, the unwitting hero in this story, and the sequels. Ash has become an American Icon. I'm serious here! Everyone knows who Ash is, but they'd be hard pressed to name their congressman. Campbell plays this part so campy. Gotta love it. He started off trying to play it straight. Really he did. But man, I mean... even he could see where this was going and gave up. If you don't get enough pain from the movie, watch it again with Campbell's commentary... oh man, Hilarious!

Campbell went on to star in the sequel, Evil Dead II, and then the other sequel, Army of Darkness (my personal fave of the bunch). OK, so he did more than Ash. Whatever. This series is what he's known for. This role is why we adore him.

There are other actors in this, naturally, but they are not even worth mentioning. I mean, even they left the set early to like, be with their family, and go shopping...and stuff.