Back ذا إيفل ديد Arabic ذا ايفل ديد ARZ Qorxunc ölülər (film, 1981) AZ Злите мъртви Bulgarian The Evil Dead BR Possessió infernal (pel·lícula de 1981) Catalan Lesní duch (film, 1981) Czech The Evil Dead Danish Tanz der Teufel German Το Καταραμένο Άσμα Greek

The Evil Dead

This article is about the 1981 film. For the video game, see The Evil Dead (video game). For the franchise, see Evil Dead. For other uses, see The Evil Dead (disambiguation).
"La Casa (film)" redirects here. For the 2024 Spanish film, see La casa (2024 film).

The Evil Dead
1983 theatrical release poster
Directed bySam Raimi
Written bySam Raimi
Produced byRobert G. Tapert
Starring
CinematographyTim Philo
Edited byEdna Ruth Paul
Music byJoe Loduca
Production
company
Renaissance Pictures
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release dates
  • October 15, 1981 (1981-10-15) (Redford Theatre)[1]
  • April 15, 1983 (1983-04-15) (United States)
Running time
85 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$375,000[3]
Box office$2.7 million[4][5] or $29.4 million[6]

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. Four members of the group suffer from demonic possession, forcing the fifth member, Ash Williams (Campbell), to survive an onslaught of increasingly gory mayhem.

Raimi, Campbell, producer Robert G. Tapert, and their friends produced the 1978 short film Within the Woods as a proof of concept to build the interest of potential investors, which secured US$90,000 to begin work on The Evil Dead. 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. The film's extensive prosthetic makeup and stop-motion effects were created by artist Tom Sullivan. The completed film had its world premiere at the Redford Theatre in Detroit on October 15, 1981, and attracted the interest of producer Irvin Shapiro, who helped screen the film at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. 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.

The Evil Dead grossed $2.4 million in the United States and between $2.7 and $29.4 million worldwide. Both early and later critical reception were universally positive; in the years since its release, the film has developed a reputation as one of the most significant cult classics, having been cited among the greatest horror films of all time, and one of the most successful independent films. It launched the careers of Raimi, Tapert, and Campbell, who have continued to collaborate on several films together, such as Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy.

The Evil Dead spawned a media franchise, beginning with two direct sequels written and directed by Raimi, Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992), a fourth film, Evil Dead (2013), which serves as a soft reboot and continuation, a follow-up television series, Ash vs Evil Dead, which aired from 2015 to 2018, and a fifth film, Evil Dead Rise (2023); the franchise also includes video games and comic books. The film's protagonist Ash Williams is considered to be a cultural icon.[7]

  1. ^ Thurman, Trace (October 15, 2016). ""Join Us" in Celebrating the 35th Anniversary of The Evil Dead!". Bloody Disgusting. Archived from the original on August 22, 2018. Retrieved August 21, 2018.
  2. ^ "THE EVIL DEAD (X) (!)". British Board of Film Classification. October 4, 1982. Archived from the original on October 24, 2014. Retrieved March 28, 2013.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference BobbieWygant was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "The Evil Dead (1983)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on March 29, 2019. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  5. ^ "The Evil Dead (1983) – International Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on March 29, 2019. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference TheNumbers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "Empire's The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time". /Film. December 1, 2008. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved October 4, 2020.