Evil Dead
The Evil Dead is a 1981 horror film directed by Sam Raimi, starring Bruce Campbell.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
The story is simple: Five college students venture into the wooded mountains of Tennessee to spend a weekend of fun in an isolated cabin. Instead, the teenagers find the "Book of the Dead" (also referred to as "Naturan Demantos" in the film and "Necronomicon Ex Mortis" in the two sequels, although it is not actually related to the book of that name from the Cthulhu Mythos), play a tape recording of demonic incantations from the Book, and unknowingly open a portal to the netherworld. The characters are then killed off in a somewhat disjointed sequence of scenes of extremely intense, bloody and realistic-looking violence, and the film ends with the apparently invisible evil spirit bearing down on the last survivor.
Two sequels were made, Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness, although Army of Darkness was not a horror film. Many consider Evil Dead II to be a remake of the original. This controversy stems from the beginning of the film, where the story of the first movie is summarized, though done so with some changes to the script. The creators, however, have repeatedly stated that Evil Dead II is, in fact, a sequel.
The series is regarded as a cult classic, and a book, The Evil Dead Companion (Bill Warren, ISBN 0312275013), has been written about it.
References to Evil Dead have appeared in several different productions:
Movies:
Television:
Video Games:
