A very well-done debut by young Sam Raimi, this is (unlike its jokey sequels) a serious-minded horror film that has fright as its main concern. Five college kids go to a remote cabin, where they find a book and a tape which contain incantations to summon demons. One by one they are possessed by the malevolent evil in and around the cabin, with bloody results. Pencils are stabbed through ankles, body parts are severed, and a woman is raped by an evil tree. The best scenes involve the chilling initial possession during a card game and the attempts by the hideously demonic Ellen Sandweiss to convince star Bruce Campbell to free her from the cellar where she's been locked. Fast-paced and filled with some amazing camerawork, (though the special effects aren't very special and give away the budget) it is a remarkably kinetic film, full of the energy that only independent filmmakers can seem to muster, and has more than its share of scares and chills
This auspicious feature debut from Sam Raimi -- shot on 16mm in the woods of Tennesse for around $350,000 -- secured the young director's cult status as a creative force to be reckoned with. The nominal plot involves five vacationing college kids -- Ash (Bruce Campbell), his girlfriend Linda (Betsy Baker), and their classmates Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss), Scott (Hal Delrich) and Shelly (Sarah York) -- making an unplanned stopover in an abandoned mountain cabin surrounded by impenetrable woods. Before settling in for the night, they come across an ancient-looking occult tome filled with dense hieroglyphics and macabre illustrations, a dagger fashioned from human bones, and a reel-to-reel tape recorder. The taped message, dictated by a professor of archaeology, describes the contents of the Sumerian "Book of the Dead," filled with incantations used to bring otherworldly demons to life, giving them license to possess the living. The message goes on to explain that those possessed by these demons can only be stopped by total bodily dismemberment. When played among the group later that evening, the professor's recorded translations of the ritual chants traumatize the strangely prescient Shelly ... and simultaneously release an ominous presence from the depths of the forest. The evil spirits take to their dirty work with gusto, first assuming control of Shelly and transforming her into a cackling, murderous hag with superhuman strength; the others imprison her in the fruit cellar and chain the trapdoor shut. The spirits then begin to possess the other women, including Linda -- who immediately turns on Ash with a barrage of punches and sadistic taunts. Unable to bring himself to chop up his lover's corpse, Ash gives her a more customary burial in the woods -- which proves to be a big mistake. As the others succumb to demonic influence, Ash's horrific predicament becomes increasingly grim until, when all hope seems lost, he stumbles upon a final, desperate solution to the ghoulish onslaught ... well, maybe not. Despite the shoestring production values, Raimi has fashioned a tight, lightning-paced fever dream of a movie, filled with operatic overacting and outrageously gory effects that give the project a comic-book feel. Based on an earlier 8mm short titled Within the Woods, this feature version was fraught with distribution difficulties before finding its first audience overseas. After considerable word of mouth (and a glowing endorsement from horror author Stephen King), the film became a hit on home video, where it achieved further notoriety thanks to its highly-publicized banning in Britain amid the notorious "Video Nasties" censorship campaign. Raimi, along with producer Robert Tapert, writer Scott Spiegel and much of the same crew, cranked up the story's comic aspects several dozen notches for the rollicking semi-remake
Five Michigan State University students venture into the hills and mountains of Tennessee to spend a weekend in an isolated cabin. There they find the Book of the Dead (a Babylonian and Sumerian text, unrelated to the Egyptian Book of the Dead), otherwise known as the Naturon Demonto (renamed the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis in the sequels).
While searching the basement of the cabin, the students find and play a tape recording of demonic incantations from the book, unwittingly resurrecting the slumbering demons that thirst for revenge. The characters are then possessed one by one, beginning with Cheryl (Sandweiss) after she is lured into the forest by the Evil Force at night. Alone and far from the safety of the cabin, the woods come alive in a snake-like fashion and Cheryl is brutally raped by the evil force in sequences of intense, bloody violence and horrifying voice-overs. Cheryl makes it home to the cabin but nobody believes her. Her brother, Ash, then decides to drive her into town where she can stay the night. They discover that the only road bridge is completely destroyed and the supports are bent into the shape of a hand. Soon thereafter, Cheryl becomes a demon and stabs Linda in the ankle with a pencil. They lock her in the fruit-cellar, but afterward Shelly becomes possessed and attacks Scotty, who dismembers her with an axe. They wrap the dismembered body-parts in a blanket and bury them, after which Scotty leaves to find a trail out of the woods.
Ash goes to check on Linda, but finds her to be possessed also. Scotty returns, but has suffered massive injuries inflicted by the trees. Before losing consciousness he tells Ash there is a trail in the woods. After Linda tricks Ash by (seemingly) returning to normal, Ash drags her outside. He goes back to check on Scotty, but finds that he died from his injuries. Linda later returns and tries to stab Ash, but she is stabbed through the chest by a dagger.
Ash drags her outside to cut her up with a chainsaw, but finds that he cannot bring himself to do it, and simply buries her instead. She rises from the grave and, after a violent struggle, Ash beheads her with a shovel. He returns to find the cellar door flown open. He hears a noise from Shelly and Scott's bedroom. With the shotgun, he goes in to investigate and suspects Cheryl may be in the closet. Cheryl jumps at the window of which a demon had earlier broken through to possess Shelly and tries to take the shotgun from Ash, grabbing at it wildly. Ash shoots her in the chest, but it seems to have no effect. Ash then proceeds to barricade both the front and back doors. He runs back into the cellar to find a box of shotgun shells and experiences a strange series of events including the cellar filling with blood and hearing illusive voice-overs in his mind. Cheryl tries to attack Ash through the door, but he shoots her and then slides a bookshelf in front of the door.
Meanwhile, Scotty's dead body suddenly revives to reveal that the evil spirits have now possessed him as well, only to have his eyes gouged out by Ash after a brief struggle. Ash notices that The Book of the Dead has fallen near the fireplace and is starting to burn. Ash notices that Scotty's body is starting to burn as well, giving an allusion that disposal of the book into the fire will also destroy the demons. Before he can reach it, however, Cheryl successfully breaks in through the front door and easily knocks him to the floor. Scotty then pins Ash to the floor while Cheryl grabs a fireplace poker and repeatedly hits Ash in the back with it. Ash manages to grab the book after several attempts, using the necklace he had given to Linda earlier in the film, and throws it directly into the blazing flames just as Cheryl raises the fireplace poker to hit him again. The demons immediately stop, almost completely inanimate, and begin to rot away as dawn breaks, leaving Ash to be the only survivor. He heads outside and stands there for a while, thinking he has survived the ordeal; but the last remaining demon in the forest behind the cabin speeds through the forest, breaks its way through the cabin doors, and we see Ash turning around, screaming in terror, just as the Evil attacks him.
The credits instantly start to play along with some creepy, yet cheery vaudeville style music that later fades into an echo
