Quick recap: A group of friends  stay in a cabin for a weekend and have a lovely time. They learn about themselves, each other and most of all the evil demons that surround and inhabit them. Literally.

I appreciate a title that just cuts to the chase!

Fun (?) fact: During filming, Bruce Campbell had several of his teeth knocked out as well as suffered a twisted ankle. Things of that nature are bound to happen when you make a film with your best friend as director and have next to no money in your budget.

evil Homer, evil dead…shut up and let me enjoy this gif. It’s mesmerizing.

My thoughts: Hey, Bruce Campbell is in this movie! If I had to choose one takeaway from Evil Dead, it would be that. He starred in another low budget film, Bubba Ho-Tep,  and at one point visited my college town. My husband interviewed him for the paper since he always had a thing for him or something. I,however,knew nothing of him and didn’t understand the hype. Now I get it! Well, not really because this is the only movie I’ve seen of his but I at least have a point of reference in case he ever comes up in conversation. It’s the little things, you know.

how is Ash still alive?? HOW?

Evil Dead is not the sort of movie I would seek out normally. Gross out, buckets of blood kind of horror isn’t my thing mostly because too much of it desensitizes me to the scary parts and I just become bored. This movie was different because I already knew the insane amounts of blood and gore beforehand so I couldn’t be disappointed later on. Plus, the title Evil Dead just screams B-movie horror film, which are usually full of that sort of thing. What surprised me was that there were some legitimately scary scenes mixed in with all of the gross stuff. The first time one of the girls is possessed was creepy, really creepy. In fact, all of the demons freaked me out, I think because of the voices changing. They stopped being so scary once the blood starting pouring  but it was still impressive for quite awhile.

One thing that dawned on me while watching the movie was how insignificant the characters were to the ‘monster’. I’ve never really thought about it but that’s true for most horror films. The 5 friends in this particular movie have little to no personality which made it easier to watch them be mutilated in various ways. The beginning of Evil Dead was SO SLOW that by the time the horror started, I was ready. Bruce Campbell’s character Ash survived longer than anyone but I cheered him on much like I would watching a random marathon on tv.

Final review: 4/5. Scary in some parts and doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Up next: I’m nearing the end of Horrorfest, but I still have a few left!

Quick recap: Years afters burning to death from a mob, Fred Kruger haunts the dreams of teenagers and murders them while they sleep.

Freddy’s here…..for hugs

Fun (?) fact: The idea of Nightmare on Elm Street comes from a real story in which 3 men from Cambodia had a nightmare and then refused to sleep. When they did finally sleep from exhaustion, the men simply died. The phenomenon is now called Asian Death Syndrome, which also sounds like a cool band name. 

SO 80s

My thoughts: I find it fascinating how, in the horror genre, it is the monster who people end up rooting for instead of the victim. Whether it be Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, or Freddy Krueger, they all have some sort of a fan base. Based solely off the first Nightmare on Elm Street, I can sort of see the allure although not that much because he’s a child murderer and basically spends his time popping out and slashing teens. Busty teens, I might add.The final scene where everyone is back alive and piled into the car (which turns out to be Krueger) was the perfect amount of dark humor that made me begin to understand why so many people gravitate towards this movie.

Comparing it to Halloween, which I do because it was also about murdering teenagers, there were more scenes that creeped me out during Nightmare on Elm Street. The ‘scariest’ for me was probably when Nancy fell asleep in school and dreamed that she followed a trail of blood to the boiler room. Seeing her friend in the body bag was also sufficiently creepy. The actual murder scenes weren’t scary so much as gross. Once again, buckets of blood just doesn’t do much for me, horror wise.  I also felt a little more threatened than I did watching Halloween because everyone has nightmares so I could certainly relate to that. Luckily they don’t happen as much anymore because my mind is usually occupied with something else…….

Final review: 4/5. Also worth watching if you are into nostalgia because this movie screams 1980s!

Up next: Horrorfest…..