85 of 88 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Widescreen & Full-screen, April 23, 2004
By A Customer
This is one of the greatest horror films ever made. Some people may find the special effects work primitive by todays standards, but for a low-budget film as this is they are excellent and charged with a weirdly supernatural energy; something one never sees today in the big production horror films.
However, this review is mainly going to be about the picture format. Evil Dead was filmed in 16mm, which is a full-screen format, not widescreen.
BEWARE of the so called "widescreen" versions: Book of the Dead Limited Edition, and the other editions from Anchor Bay. Nothing has been added to sides of the picture to make it wider; instead the top and bottom of the film have been cut away to make it look like a modern theatre film. Instead of more, you actually gett less. In some parts of the movie this makes an important differance; in the close-ups of faces, parts like the chins are now gone (...); other important details also disappear, like when the trap-door in the floor opens and we look down into the cellar, the lower edge of the opening is gone, so we don't see the entrance in its whole.
The full-screen version is still available, with excellent picture quality, in the Elite Entertainment edition.
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49 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not Yet a Fan of This Cult Flick? "Join Us!", November 14, 2004
Even though it's been more than 20 years since its original release, 1982's THE EVIL DEAD is still an impressive marvel of low-budget filmmaking. It does have its palpable flaws, but this first feature-length directorial effort from SPIDERMAN's (2002) Sam Raimi, produced on a shoestring budget of circa $350,000, offers clever special FX, interesting make-up work, relentless shocks, and brilliant direction and camera work. And of considerable note to genre fans, it highlights Raimi's knack for pushing violence and gore to such an extreme that it becomes comic or farcical, a characteristic that is enhanced by the slapstick talents of actor Bruce Campbell (who would himself become a cult hero due to his work in this and other Raimi films).
The story involves a group of college students who, during a weekend getaway, find a Sumerian Book of the Dead in an old wilderness cabin they've rented. When they unwittingly unleash evil spirits and demons while reading incantations from the book, that's when the real havoc--and the real fun for the audience--begins. As each of the kids, one by one, are possessed by the demons they've loosed, body parts and bodily fluids go a-flying until only one young man is left to face down the Evil Dead. A simple plot with a simple set up, but Raimi and Campbell effectively milk it for all the scares and all the laughs they can get.
There are several editions of THE EVIL DEAD available on DVD, most of which come from the wonderful folks at Anchor Bay. Most are of great quality and offer beautifully restored digital transfers of this cult classic. The best discs also include feature commentaries from Raimi and Campbell.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
THE, "ULTIMATE" EDITION, BUT STILL NOT THE, "PENULTIMATE" EDITION..., December 17, 2007
First off, anyone who loves this film knows, that the now out of print, "Elite" edition, has the best over all picture quality (just compare the scene where Ash gives Linda the necklace, between the two versions, and you'll see that the Anchor Bay version is soft, almost to the point of being out of focus, where as the Elite version is much sharper) and it seems that no matter how many times Anchor Bay, "Remasters" their print of, The Evil Dead, they just can't seem to make it look any better.
So what we have in this new, "Ultimate" edition, is the same old tired transfer of the film, this time in both wide and full screen formats (of which the major consensus is that the full screen version is the director's preferred aspect ratio, which is made even more evident during the commentaries for Anchor Bay's previous, "Evil Dead" edition (the one cropped to widescreen, but with both commentaries on the same disc) during the scenes where things in the picture are referred to, even though the widescreen matting on the top and bottom has covered them up, case in point, white rocks placed at the bottom of the cabin's front porch, which one of the commentaries refer to as looking like teeth, making the cabin look like a skull, are cropped out, in order to get the full shot of the large moon in the top of the frame (we where obviously meant to see both).
And as for the, "New" material, it consists mainly of a 59 minute retrospective, with no Bruce or Raimi participation (although Rob Tapert and the, "Ladies of the Evil Dead", along With the, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz director and the Cabin Fever, Hostel director, to name a few, pipe in through out) which doesn't really tell you any more info then you already know, and also a couple of, "Ladies of the Evil Dead" talk sessions, which although interesting, aren't really all that worthy of an upgrade.
Of Note: one of the, "Ladies of the Evil Dead" mentions at some point, having been at a commentary session with the other two girls, and since this commentary doesn't appear on this, "Ultimate Edition", DVD set, then it can only lead one to believe that another edition is in the works (probably, "The Ladies of the Evil Dead", Edition).
There's also a, "From the Cutting Room Floor" feature, which is really just a cleaned up version of the deleted /alternate scenes, which already appear in both the last Anchor Bay and Elite editions.
So, unless you can't get your hands on the, Elite DVD, to get the full screen version, want to see the, "Soccer Moms of the Evil Dead", are a completest (my particular affliction... lol) or just want to fork over more hard earned cash to the people at Anchor Bay, then this edition can be skipped, and you can begin to save up for the next edition.
Hope this helps :)
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