---
title: "The Evil Dead"
year: 1983
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-evil-dead"
fi1m_id: "the-evil-dead"
imdb_id: "tt0083907"
tmdb_id: 764
wikidata_id: "Q327604"
fi1m_score: 77
critics_reviews: 2
published: "2026-09-26T00:52:04.985085+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-26T00:52:05.361985+00:00"
region: "DE"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Evil Dead (1983)

Directed by Sam Raimi · 1h 25m · FSK 18 · Horror

## Identity

The Evil Dead

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-evil-dead
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** the-evil-dead
- **IMDb ID:** tt0083907
- **TMDB ID:** 764
- **Wikidata ID:** Q327604
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083907/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/764, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q327604

**Fi1m score: 77** · Critics: 2 of 6 reviews so far

*In a sentence:* The woods have opinions about the guests, and a camera at knee height agrees with them

> Sam Raimi’s first film is crude, badly acted and made on almost nothing, and it is still one of the most frightening 85 minutes horror has produced. The camera does things no camera had done before. Not for anyone who dislikes fluids.

## Synopsis

Five college students drive out for a cheap weekend at an isolated cabin in the woods. Ash (Bruce Campbell) has brought his girlfriend Linda (Betsy Baker) and his sister Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss); their friends Scott (Richard DeManincor) and Shelly (Theresa Tilly) make up the party. In the cellar Ash and Scott find a tape recorder, a knife and a book bound in what looks like skin. The tape is a professor reading an incantation from the book, and they play it. Cheryl hears something call her name from the trees and walks out into the dark to see what it wants.

## Review

Five students, a cabin, a cellar and a book you should not read aloud. Sam Raimi, who wrote and directed *The Evil Dead*, did not invent one part of that, and he knew it. What he did was take the oldest set-up in the genre and run at it with a camera as if he were trying to knock it over. The result is rough, relentless and 85 minutes long, and it frightened us far more than a film this cheap has any right to.

The camera is the reason. Tim Philo’s cinematography does not observe the woods; it hunts through them, low and fast, ferns whipping past the lens, some unseen thing closing on the cabin. Inside, it swings up through the trapdoor, crawls along the floor and sits under a bed when a face appears above it. Nobody in horror had moved a camera like this before, and a great many people have tried since. The porch swing knocking against the wall on its own, then stopping the moment Cheryl looks at it, is the first small proof that the house has been given a point of view.

The scene that decides whether you stay comes early, when Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) follows a voice into the trees and the trees take hold of her. We were horrified, and then uneasy about the film for having done it. It is the one passage where Raimi’s glee curdles into something meaner, and it is over quickly, but it sits in the memory longer than anything that follows. We would not argue with anyone who switched off at that point. We would argue with anyone who thought the rest of the film was in the same spirit.

The acting is weak, and there is no point pretending otherwise. Bruce Campbell’s Ash is the hero because he is the last one standing, not because he does anything heroic; Campbell has not yet found the swagger he would later make a career of, and mostly he takes punishment, which he does well. Richard DeManincor’s Scott shouts. Betsy Baker’s Linda has a lovely, blank smile that pays off horribly once she starts giggling. Sandweiss gets the best of it: after Cheryl comes back from the woods her eyes go milk-white and her voice drops into a sing-song that we have not quite shaken.

Joseph LoDuca’s score is scraped strings, a thin tinkling melody and long held notes that stop a half-second before something jumps. Edna Ruth Paul’s editing is fast and unkind, cutting off screams mid-breath and jumping straight to the next face. The effects are latex, porridge and a great deal of liquid in colours blood does not come in. Some of it is laughable and the film knows, because Raimi has already worked out that a laugh and a flinch can arrive in the same breath. The second half is one long siege inside the cabin, and we will describe none of it.

Set against its ancestors, this owes plenty to *Night of the Living Dead* and [*The Texas Chain Saw Massacre*](https://film.one/film/the-texas-chain-saw-massacre): ordinary young people, one building, no help coming. What Raimi adds is speed and a camera with a temper. What he lacks is any interest in his characters as people; nobody here wants anything except to live until morning, and the film does not pretend otherwise. The 18 certificate is fully earned, and the tagline about gruelling terror is, for once, accurate advertising.

Watch it late, with the lights off, and with someone who will laugh at the wrong moments. You will find yourself laughing too, and then checking the cellar door.

*Fi1m score 77, published 26 September 2026.*

## Straight answers

**Is The Evil Dead worth watching?**

*The Evil Dead* is worth watching for anyone who wants 85 minutes of relentless, low-budget horror, and we scored it 77. The acting is weak and the effects are latex and porridge, but Sam Raimi's camera hunts through the woods and the cabin in ways nobody had tried before, and it frightened us far more than a film this cheap should.

**How long is The Evil Dead, and what is it rated?**

*The Evil Dead* runs 1h 25m and is rated 18 by the FSK in Germany. It is a horror film.

**Where can I watch The Evil Dead in Germany?**

*The Evil Dead* is streaming on HBO Max in Germany. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is The Evil Dead, and is it suitable for children?**

*The Evil Dead* is extremely violent and frightening, carries an 18 certificate in the UK, and is not suitable for children. The gore is constant and in colours blood does not come in, and an early scene in the woods, in which Cheryl is attacked by the trees, is mean enough that we would not argue with anyone who switched off there.

**How does The Evil Dead compare to Evil Dead II?**

*The Evil Dead* is the rougher and more frightening of the two, while [*Evil Dead II*](https://film.one/film/evil-dead-ii) is the funnier and better made. The first film is a straight siege with a camera that has a temper and no jokes to soften it; the sequel keeps the gore but plays it for laughs, and Bruce Campbell is far more assured. Choose the original for terror, the sequel for horror comedy.

**What should I watch after The Evil Dead?**

After *The Evil Dead*, try [*Evil Dead II*](https://film.one/film/evil-dead-ii) (1987, Fi1m 86): Raimi does it again with more money, more jokes and a chainsaw. Then [*The Texas Chain Saw Massacre*](https://film.one/film/the-texas-chain-saw-massacre) (1974, Fi1m 87): Young people, one house, no help coming; the grim template this one plays with; and [*The Cabin in the Woods*](https://film.one/film/the-cabin-in-the-woods) (2012, Fi1m 80): Takes every rule this film helped write and cheerfully explains them.

### Reviews we read (2)

- **Empire**, William Thomas (80/100, inferred): Thomas regards the film as an iconic, deservedly influential horror classic. He praises Raimi’s kinetic camerawork and effective shocks, while noting the weak acting and rough effects. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/evil-dead-review/)
- **Variety**, Variety Staff (80/100, inferred): The review regards the film as an outstanding example of low-budget gore and shock effects. It praises Raimi’s suspenseful, nightmarish atmosphere and powerful camerawork, alongside the bursts of graphic effects. [Read](https://variety.com/1982/film/reviews/the-evil-dead-1200425402/)

## Details

- **Director:** Sam Raimi
- **Director:** Sam Raimi
- **Writer:** Sam Raimi
- **Cinematography:** Tim Philo
- **Editor:** Edna Ruth Paul
- **Music:** Joseph LoDuca
- **Producer:** Rob Tapert
- **Cast:** Bruce Campbell as Ash; Ellen Sandweiss as Cheryl; Richard DeManincor as Scott; Betsy Baker as Linda; Theresa Tilly as Shelly; Philip A. Gillis as Fake Shemp; Dorothy Tapert as Fake Shemp; Cheryl Klam as Fake Shemp
- **Runtime:** 1h 25m
- **Certificate (FSK):** 18
- **Release (Germany):** 10 February 1984
- **Genres:** Horror
- **Budget:** $350,000
- **Box office:** $29 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cQmKgV0cug

## Where to watch in Germany

- HBO Max: streaming, uhd

*Checked 2026-09-26.*

Also available in: AR, AT, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, DE, EC, GB, IN, MX, PA, PE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Evil Dead II* (1987), Fi1m 86: Raimi does it again with more money, more jokes and a chainsaw. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/evil-dead-ii.md)
- *Braindead* (1992): Peter Jackson’s New Zealand splatter comedy; the lawnmower scene alone repays the evening.
- *The Texas Chain Saw Massacre* (1974), Fi1m 87: Young people, one house, no help coming; the grim template this one plays with. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-texas-chain-saw-massacre.md)
- *Suspiria* (1977): Argento’s Italian nightmare, where colour and music do the frightening.
- *The Cabin in the Woods* (2012), Fi1m 80: Takes every rule this film helped write and cheerfully explains them. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-cabin-in-the-woods.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-evil-dead