Inspired by the short Within The Woods from 1978, writer/director Sam Raimi set out to do something more ambitious with a supernatural horror movie set in a remote cabin surrounded by spooky woodlands. Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell), his sister Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) and three friends make the unfortunate decision to party at the secluded, rustic shack one weekend. While exploring, they come across the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, an ancient tome of dark, demonic magick and an audio recording of someone trying to decipher its contents.
And for some dumb reason, reading from it — which is recorded on said audio tape. When played back…well, things start going really wrong for the gang. To their credit, a couple of them pretty quickly try to escape the area, but fail, as the entire area is under an evil influence.
The movie very effectively captures the desperation and extreme terror of being in a situation that you don’t fully understand, and what tiny bit of control you feel you have over the situation continues to erode. The feeling of inevitable doom, an inescapable, horrible fate on both a physical and spiritual level. They try to hold on until daylight, but succumb one by one. Will anyone be left by dawn?
Raimi uses every trick in his book to shoot the action in interesting ways within a relatively small space. The Joseph LoDuca score and sound effects perfectly complement the mania, and the jump scares fit the tone. I am not a fan of jump scares in general, I think they are a cheap, overused gimmick but this is exactly the kind of movie where are used exactly right.
