Jeffrey Combs, the actor who played Herbert West in yesterday’s film Re-Animator, is described by Time Out as ‘the thinking man’s Bruce Campbell.’ This had no bearing on The Evil Dead (1981) being today’s choice of film, it was simply (spooky…) coincidence.

The Evil Dead seems to be a bit of a strange film in that The Evil Dead 2 is apparently the better movie and is also less of a sequel than a slight reworking of the original to avoid apparent rights issues. That said, The Evil Dead does manage to get on Time Out’s list. I decided to go for the earlier one which is not quite the paradigm of horror-comedy that the ‘sequel’ is purported to be, but is still well respected as vaguely amusing and gory.

It’s not great. The fairly amateurish, homemade look is apparently part of its charm, but it’s just a bit basic. In many ways it treads a similar path to Re-Animator, with a reliance on gory, shock-filled special effects, but it’s not as satisfyingly wacky or amusing.

Look at her eyes. Look at her eyes! For God’s sake, what happened to her eyes?

What are the best bits (intentionally-vague slight-spoilers)? It’s not the worst film I’ve seen this month. I noticed that Joel Coen (THE Joel Coen) was the assistant film editor. The breadth of special effects used is impressive, even if they’re not particularly realistic. There’s so much fake blood. Some of the camera shots seem truly innovative. The tree special effects, and the woodland sexual assault as a whole, was impressive in its unexpectedness, although I’m not sure you can really describe it as “good.”

What are the worst bits? The sound of the ‘evil dead’ is generally quite annoying, from their screaming to laughing. It’s all a bit jarring, and not in a psychological way. The acting’s not the best, with the Scott character being the truely lowest common denominator. Most of the film is quite predictable. It’s just a bit incoherent and not as fun as it could be. It “goes on a bit” despite being less than 90 minute long.

Do you wish you’d watched The Evil Dead 2 instead? A little bit. Yeah.