CAN THEY BE STOPPED?

Five college students are headed to an isolated cabin in Tennessee for spring break, but when they find a mysterious book and a tape recorder there, evil forces are unleashed…

Sam Raimi’s breakthrough is a now classic, low-budget horror movie that Stephen King helped promote. It became a sensation thanks to its hilariously and horrifyingly gory effects (involving masks, animation and buckets of fake blood), creepy atmosphere in the Tennessee woods, and a sense of humor that was partly inspired by The Three Stooges (!).

Very simple, but inventive, lively and (unlike the sequels) scary.

1983-U.S. 85 min. Color. Written and directed by Sam Raimi. Cast: Bruce Campbell (Ash Williams), Ellen Sandweiss (Cheryl Williams), Betsy Baker (Linda), Hal Delrich, Sarah York. 

Trivia: Co-executive produced by Raimi and Campbell. Inspired by a short that Raimi, Campbell and Sandweiss made in 1978. Raimi also plays a fisherman and provides the voice of the evil dead. First shown in a Detroit theater in 1981; a wider release took place two years later. Followed by four sequels, starting with Evil Dead II (1987), and a TV series, Ash vs Evil Dead (2015-2018). Remade as Evil Dead (2013). Later a stage musical.