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The Evil Dead, a review by Dragonfire

The Evil Dead



In the summer of 1979, a group of Detroit friends with $375,000 raised from local investors headed for a cabin outside of Morristown, Tennessee to make a film about five college students possessed by an ancient 'Book of the Dead.' The filmmakers' goal was to create 'The Ultimate Experience in Grueling Terror,' a movie so relentless that it would stand forever as a landmark in modern horror history. When it was released in 1982, it was immediately recognized worldwide as one of the most ferociously original horror films ever made. Twenty years later, this is THE EVIL DEAD like you've never seen or heard it before.

THE EVIL DEAD is now more grueling than ever, featuring newly restored state-of-the-art digitally remastered picture and sound, and loaded with incredible new extras, all personally supervised by director Sam Raimi. This is the Ultimate Edition of the legendary film that launched the careers of Raimi, producer Robert Tapert and star Bruce Campbell, unleashed an unprecedented army of primitive screwheads upon the world and changed the face of horror forever.

My Thoughts

I've heard things about this movie for a few years, but I had never seen it before.  Things do start off a little slow, but that just allows for setting up the characters and the situation.  A decent amount of tension is built up by the time things start happening.  I think the plot is interesting, and more unique than the plots of many other horror movies.  It does have a low budget look, but that manages to work with what is happening.  The effects are very effective, especially the makeup for certain characters.  The violence isn't too bad really, though the movie does get gory at times.  The movie really doesn't have much in the way of mystery, though I did feel like several scenes were suspenseful and I was frequently unsure of what was going to happen next. 

Overall I really enjoyed this movie.  I want to try to get the 2 sequels at some point.



I did get a review posted on Epinions.

The Evil Dead

(From Dragonfire's Halloween/Horror Marathon 2009 on October 11th, 2009)

Rope, a review by Tom

Title: Rope
Year: 1948
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: PG
Length: 77 Min.
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Mono, German: Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Norwegian, Swedish

Stars:
Dick Hogan
John Dall
Farley Granger
Edith Evanson
Douglas Dick

Plot:
James Stewart stars with Farley Granger and John Dall in a highly-charged thriller inspired by the real-life Leopold-Loeb murder case. Granger and Dall give riveting performances as two friends who strangle a classmate for intellectual thrills, then proceed to throw a party for the victim's family and friends - with the body stuffed inside the trunk they use for a buffet table. As the killers turn the conversation to committing the "perfect murder", their former teacher (Stewart) becomes increasingly suspicious. Before the night is over, the professor will discover how brutally his students have turned his academic theories into chilling reality in Hitchcock's spellbinding excursion into the macabre.

Extras:
Featurettes
Photo Gallery
Scene Access
Trailers

Technically a fun film to watch. Playing it like a stage play with long shots. Great camera work switching between the different parts of the set. Great acting. The conceiled cuts are very obvious but for its time a good achievement.
But I didn't really like the story. Two men who think have done the perfect crime, but make the stupidest mistakes. I know it's part of the characters presumptuousness, but it didn't work for me.

And is this plays in real-time, the party was awfully short. Probably about 40 minutes long. Those poor guests who probably were longer on the road then the party took.

And did one of the lead characters also remind you of Ben Affleck?

Rating:

(From Alfred Hitchcock Marathon on July 4th, 2009)

Pete's Pilots, a review by addicted2dvd

C.S.I.
It's all here. All the cases. All the evidence. All the solutions. All 23 episodes of the Golden Globe nominated first season of CSI. Now available in this special edition DVD set, containing special features and behind-the-scenes extras.

Pilot
Gil Grissom is the supervisor of the graveyard shift of Las Vegas' elite crime scene investigators. Holly Gribbs, fresh out of the academy, joins the team. Jim Brass is head of the unit and is trying to scare Gribbs from CSI. Catherine Willows, mother of a young daughter, is the number two CSI on this shift. Warrick Brown and Nick Stokes are competing to solve their 100th case to earn a promotion to CSI 3. Grissom investigates a murder staged to look like a suicide with precious little evidence. Warrick and Catherine take the case of a drunk who breaks into the house where he had been staying and is shot to death. Nick talks to a man who picked up a woman who drugged and robbed him.

My Thoughts:
This is an excellent series. The whole cast is great and the stories are very engrossing. I was glued to the set from the opening to the ending of the episode... and still wanted more. If you never checked out this series I highly recommend it. I really don't think you will be sorry.

My Rating:

(From Pete's Pilots on November 16th, 2009)