Nessman’s Favorite Nightmares #1: “The Evil Dead” Series [VIDEO]
I've got ongoing blogs about "Must See Comedies" and "The Ultimate Album Collection" . It then occurred to me that I'm not writing about my favorite topic of all, horror films. I've reviewed a couple of horror films, but I'd like to give you a heads up on my favorite ones of all time. In this particular case, it makes more sense to write about the entire series of films then it does to write about just one.
In this particular series, I think it's important to rate the movie as well. I always rate my horror movies on a scale of one to five "Nightmare's". In this particular case, I'm going this entire series, including the new remake "Five Nightmares". There may have been a dip here and there, but where you might see a dip in quality in one area, you'll see a strong comeback in another.
The first Evil Dead movie was a revelation. There were actually people who thought that some people might lose their minds if they saw it. A group of friends head to a secluded cabin in the woods. When one reads the words of the book of the dead aloud, invisible demons descend upon the house. This movie introduced the iconic character of "Ash".
Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn featured Ash revisiting the house even though it really came off as a better made, more mass appeal version of the first movie. This version also started to include some dark humor.
Evil Dead 3, which is really known as Army Of Darkness really amps up the slapstick comedy with some moments that wouldn't be out of place in a Three Stooges skit. Some wouldn't qualify this as a "horror" movie, but since it's a continuation of the series, I don't have a real problem labeling it as such.
The new Evil Dead movie is a great re imagining. It basically uses the set up of "What if a new group of people made the same mistake as the people in the first movie did". It included many familiar elements as the original movie, but it stands on it's own and it's a violent, bloody, modern day classic.
One thing I realized from writing this, you literally could "jump in" anywhere in the Evil Dead series and you'd be fine. You don't have to have seen the previous film ina the series to enjoy the one after it and watching one of the later ones wouldn't really keep you from enjoying on of the early ones.
Some people are a little hesitant to check out old or older movies. I'm telling you as a horror fan, you wouldn't be disappointed with time spent watching ANY of these flicks.
Here's some trailers, and do keep in mind the earlier trailers are MUCH cheesier than the actual movies.