The Evil Dead is a 1981 American independent supernatural horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi (in his feature directorial debut).

The film stars Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker, and Theresa Tilly as five college students vacationing in an isolated cabin in the woods, where they find an audio tape that, when played, releases a legion of demons and spirits.

Principal photography took place on location in a remote cabin in Morristown, Tennessee, in a filming process that proved extremely uncomfortable for the cast and crew.

Horror author Stephen King gave a rave review of the film, which resulted in New Line Cinema acquiring its distribution rights and giving it a wide theatrical release on April 15, 1983.

They find the Naturom Demonto, a Sumerian version of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, along with archaeologist Raymond Knowby's tape recorder.

Later that evening, an agitated Cheryl goes into the woods to investigate strange noises, and she is attacked and raped by the vines and branches of demonically possessed trees.

As Linda and Shelly play spades, Cheryl correctly calls out the cards without looking at them, turns into a white-eyed zombie known as a “Deadite,” and begins levitating.

The crew initially attempted to shoot the film in Raimi's hometown of Royal Oak, Michigan, but instead chose Morristown, Tennessee, as it was the only state that expressed enthusiasm for the project.

[21] Because of the low budget, contact lenses as thick as glass[clarification needed] had to be applied to the actors to achieve the "demonic eyes" effect.

One involved the "vas-o-cam", which relied on a mounted camera that was slid down long wooden platforms to create a more fluid sense of motion.

[28] The film's final scene was shot with the camera mounted to a bike, while it was quickly driven through the cabin to create a seamless long take.

Campbell later described the filming process as nearly "twelve weeks of mirthless exercise in agony", though he allowed that he did manage to have fun while on set.

[35] Summing up the production decades later, Campbell remarked: "It's low-budget, it's got rough edges," but even so, "there are parts of that movie that are visually stunning.

The cut scenes were to focus on the main character's lamentation of not being able to save the victims from their deaths, but was edited down to make the film less "grim and depressing" and to be a more marketable 85 minutes.

[37] Raimi was inspired by the fact that Brian De Palma was editing his own film Blow Out with John Travolta at the same sound facility.

[43] Eventually Raimi came across Irvin Shapiro, the man who was responsible for the distribution of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead and other famous horror films.

[43] Shapiro also advised distributing the film worldwide to garner a larger income, though it required a further financial investment by Raimi, who managed to scrape together what little money he had.

[57] Early critical reception at the time was very positive, and along with Fangoria, King and Shapiro's approval, the film generated an impressive amount of interest before its commercial premiere.

Writer Bruce Kawin described The Evil Dead as one of the most notorious splatter films of its day, along with Cannibal Holocaust and I Spit on Your Grave.

"[50][78] In a 1982 review, staff from Variety wrote that the film "emerges as the ne plus ultra of low-budget gore and shock effect", commenting that the "powerful" and inventive camerawork was key to creating a sense of dread.

[78] Cook described the camera work by Raimi as "audacious", stating that the film's visceral nature was greatly helped by the style of direction.

The website's consensus reads: "So scrappy that it feels as illicit as a book found in the woods, The Evil Dead is a stomach-churning achievement in bad taste that marks a startling debut for wunderkind Sam Raimi.

He commented that the film successfully blended the "bizarre" combination of Night of the Living Dead, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Three Stooges.

[82] A reviewer for Film4 rated The Evil Dead four-and-a-half stars out of five, musing that the film was "energetic, original and icky" and concluding that Raimi's "splat-stick debut is a tight little horror classic that deserves its cult reputation, despite the best efforts of the censors.

He mused that Raimi possessed an "almost unreal ability to suggest the presence of intangible evil", which was what prevented the movie from being "B-movie schlock".

"[85] Filmcritic.com's Christopher Null gave the film the same rating as Glanville, writing that "Raimi's biggest grossout is schlock horror done the right way" and comparing it to Romero's Night of the Living Dead in its ability to create stark atmosphere.

[86] Chicago Reader writer Pat Graham commented that the film featured several "clever" turns on the standard horror formula, adding that Raimi's "anything-for-an-effect enthusiasm pays off in lots of formally inventive bits.

It started as a disastrous failure to obtain a big break with a too long, too perilous shoot (note Campbell's changing hairstyle in the various scenes of the one-day plot).

The film went through name changes and bannings only to survive as not only 'the ultimate experience in grueling horror' but as an oft-imitated and cashed-in-on classic, with 30 years of positive reviews to prove it.

[97] After any additional installments suffered through development hell, a supernatural-horror soft reboot/legacy sequel titled Evil Dead was released in 2013, featuring Jane Levy as the main character Mia Allen.