Sam Raimi’s 1981 breakout feature remains profoundly unsettling due to the gonzo vigour with which he attacks his subject.

It may not be serious, but it's totally sincere; it never laughs at its own jokes. In fact, I'm not sure it even gets them. And you can't help but respond to Evil Dead at some level beyond the usual horror-movie fright and disgust.

Sam Raimi's technique is equal to his perverse imagination. In his first directorial outing, he's already got a flair for the visual grammar of horror movies that John Carpenter might envy.

Few horror flicks have been as deliriously demented, as insanely radical, as alive, as this so-called "ultimate experience in grueling horror."