On DVD: Evil Dead The Ultimate Edition

Directed By Sam Raimi

Starring Bruce Campbell

Anchor Bay has a stable of films they just seem to keep finding reasons to reissue in slightly updated form.  Some examples are Halloween, Hellraiser, and the Evil Dead films.  We get different boxes and some different bonuses features and on occasion new transfers of the films. Many critics have said that Anchor Bay has taken advantage of the rabid fan base for these films and those critics are probably right.  The question is how is that different than most other distributors?  I will say that there has been a fairly excessive number of versions of the Evil Dead series.  Some fans stopped buying it a while back and have missed out on the new bonus features that have been added over the years.  So, Anchor Bay has finally released The Ultimate Edition, a new version of the film that includes all of the extras that Anchor Bay has put together for the film over the years and even some new ones.

The Movie

What is it that has elevated this little low budget horror film from the 70's to this mega cult status?  It's that there's more to this little film than the limitations of the budget and the expectations of the genre.  If you haven't seen this film where have you been?

The plot is simple; a group of young people take a vacation trip to a remote cabin and they discover "The Book of the Dead".  Of course the guys in the group decide to read from the book and demons are called forth to take over the bodies of the group, everyone except Ash (Campbell).  The film is completely over the top and super gory.  The special effects are cheap but the film is shot in such a way that they work for the most part.

Things get interesting when Ash finds himself fighting against demons that were once his friends.  Campbell carries this film on sheer charisma and quirky humor.  Raimi also shoots the film in a quite innovative ways that are still being emulated today both in low budget films and Hollywood blockbusters.  When you see the low shots of the demons moving through the forest you won't be able to tell me you haven't seen similar scenes in movies that came after.  There's also a classic scene than pans across the group from above inside the cabin and a whooshing noise occurs for no reason every time a rafter passes across the screen.  There's no reason for the noise other than building suspense and it works.

The Evil Dead came at the end of an era of humorless and dark horror such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Exorcist.  As much as I like the humorless atmosphere and sociopolitical commentary that was heavy in 70's and early 80's horror films like Night of the Living Dead I appreciate how The Evil Dead strips all of that away in favor of a completely visceral experience with an infusion of black comedy something that became more popular in the genre after this film was released.

I saw this film on VHS when I was growing up and loved it, and was disgusted by it for one reason; every big gore explosion hit Ash square in the mouth and inevitably his mouth was open.  It was completely gross and hilarious.  Few films have ever been this well made on this low a budget.  It's highly stylized and aggressively directed and paced making it feel extreme and exciting along with funny, scary, and gross.  Some critics have said there's no character development and the plot is nonexistent.  They might be right. but this film happens so quickly it just feels like there was no time to get to know any of the characters.  Usually I would complain about a lack of character development too but for this film it's just unnecessary.  No horror fan should not have this in their collection in some form.

9/10

The Video

Both versions of the film look great here with good detail and solid flesh tones.  Black levels are reproduced solidly if a little soft due to age and the low budget nature of the film.  This isn't a perfect restoration; there is some grain and there are some scratches that still appear in this digital representation of the film but overall the image is consistent and the quality of the image is impressive considering the age of the film and the low budget nature of the source.  Disc one features a widescreen presentation and disc 2 is in full frame, obviously we prefer the widescreen.

8/10

The Audio

There's a DTS 6.1 ES mix and a Dolby Digital EX available on the widescreen version.  Both mixes offer a surprising level immersion considering the original source material is a very basic mono mix.  The surrounds get a good workout and the sub woofer even gets some attention in both mixes.  There are still some issues of muffled dialogue and a bit of dynamic imbalance with the shrill parts coming through too shrill here and there.  Of the two mixes the Dolby Digital ES mix is slightly superior.

8/10

Packaging and Bonus Features

The three disc release comes in a thick fold out cardboard box with the classic poster art on the cover.  I like this packaging, it has a really retro feel to it reminding me of the old bulky VHS boxes.

First up for extras are the old commentaries done for previous releases of the film.  The widescreen presentation features director Sam Raimi and producer Rob Tapert.  The full screen version features actor/producer Bruce Campbell.  Both commentaries are fun, energetic, and full of information.  These commentaries should go in your list of filmmaking 101 commentaries.  It's interesting to hear the level of enthusiasm Campbell had for the film at the time of the recording of these commentaries and compare it to now where he'll barely talk about the franchise.

Disc one features an all new 54 minute documentary called One by One We Will Take You: The Untold Saga of The Evil Dead.  This is the highly detailed documentary that this film ahs deserved for years.  All of the actors that appeared in the film other than the star Bruce Campbell appear in the documentary to discuss the film as does the producer and nearly every crew member.  Just about anything you want to know about the film is revealed in this documentary.  The only questions I had were: why Tennessee and how did they find the cabin?  One of those questions gets answered.  This documentary makes it worth upgrading to this new version of the film.  Why wouldn't Campbell participate in this doc?  I interviewed him a while back for his direct-to-SCIFI Channel films and he was a pretty grumpy dude when it came to all things Evil Dead.  It was a pleasure to see new generation filmmakers Eli Roth (Hostel) and Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) sharing their stories about seeing Evil Dead and discussing how the film ahs influenced them.

Disc two features an hour of extended scenes, behind the scenes footages, and outtakes called From the Cutting Room Floor.  The scenes are tied together and just put out there with no interruption for fans to watch.  I loved seeing the behind the scenes stuff because you really get a feel for what the working conditions were like during the making of this film.

Disc three starts off with an extensive interview with The Ladies of The Evil Dead which is all of the female stars of the film.  They discuss what they did right after making the film and how they discovered just how popular the film had become.  Somewhere along the way they came up with the idea of going to conventions together.  They really seem to enjoy the fans and the popularity of the film more than Bruce Campbell does.  These interviews are tied into two separate featurettes; Life After Death: The Ladies of The Evil Dead and a second one called The Ladies of Evil Dead Meet Bruce Campbell.  In the second featurette Campbell just hangs out with the ladies answering questions and swapping stories.

Unconventional is a 20 minute interview session with all of the cast of the film and Ted Raimi who actually is a stunt double in the film and the young age of 14.  The interview actually happens in a ball room at a horror convention, probably after they all did a panel together.  There is Evil Dead discussion but the focus is more on convention experiences.  Again Campbell seems the most jaded about the convention circuit.

At the Drive-In is an odd featurette that runs around 13 minutes and features the cast at a special drive-in screening of the film giving away an early DVD release of the film.  There's really not much to this other than watching the cast give away DVD's.

There's a 30 minute recording of a panel discussion from a convention called Reunion that features most of the cast.  The actors don't really seem to take the fans to seriously in this panel, which in a way is understandable but hey these people did pay to come to this event.  There's nothing here that we didn't already learn from the other featurettes.

Discovering The Evil Dead is a brief but surprisingly interesting discussion of the bumpy distribution history of the film.  I found it really intriguing to hear what Raimi and Co. went through to get this film out to the public.

Make Up Test is so short if you blink you'll miss it running just over a minute.  It shows some very brief special effects footage.

There are a couple of photo galleries featuring behind the scenes images and memorabilia shots.  Other than that there's a trailer and some TV spots.

This is the definitive collection of bonus features on this film.  How many other low budget little cult classic films get this much love.  Not many.  There's nothing else that I can think of that could be added here.

10/10

I know if you've bought this film a couple of times already you make instinctively want to bypass this one but I recommend making this your final purchase (unless of course you've already moved to hi def).

Overall (Not an Average) 9/10

The Review

The Movie 9/10

The Video 8/10

The Audio 8/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features 10/10

Overall (Not an Average) 9/10

-Stephen Lackey