The Evil Dead

1981, U.S., 85m, 35mm

Showtimes & Tickets

Screened December 22–31, 2018

Part of the program

While in college, writer/director Raimi bucked the so-called slasher-film trend to make a breakout indie horror movie that made he and Bruce Campbell (debuting in his signature role of Ash) genre heroes. College students on a weekend forest cabin retreat toy with an uncovered Book of the Dead, and experience possession and relentless attacks by demons; the body count may not be high, but the body-part count is…

Bested for the title of the purest, most red-blooded slice of American Independent cinema ever dredged up from the depths of hell by only The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (also in this series), Sam Raimi’s initial Evil Dead film is still the end all be all of ‘Cabin in the Woods’ pictures. At eleven years old, this movie would inevitably curse me as a lifelong genre enthusiast in a mere 81 minutes. Like the titular demonic force, it is eternally lying in wait for whatever unsuspecting young souls stumble across its lo-fi, hyper-real dimension. -Chris Hampson, front of house staff

A film by Sam Raimi