Stephen King
"When I met Sam Raimi at the Cannes Film Festival in May of 1982, my first thought was that this fellow was one of three things: a busboy, a runaway American high school student, or a genius. He wasn't a busboy, and Raimi finished high school some time ago, although he has the sort of ageless sophormore looks that are going to keep bartenders asking to see his driver's license or state liquor card until he's at least thirt-five. That he is a genius is yet unproven; that he has made the most ferociously original horror film of 1982 seems to me beyond doubt.
Raimi, a Michigan native now quartered near Detroit, was twenty when he directed and wrote Evil Dead. (He was also one of the cameramen, assisted in the first half by Tim Philo). His producer, Rob Tapert, was twenty-six. The gruesome special effects were achieved in tandem by Tom Sullivan, twenty-four, and Bart Pierce, who is all of thirty. The five stars were college kids. The film was shot on sixteen millimeters and blown up to thirty-five for theatrical release. The resulting effect is grainy but oddly apt; the film has a weirdly convincing documentary look that no one has seen since Geaorge Romeros's Night of the Living Dead, a film Raimi admits was a strong influence.
The Evil Dead has the simple, stupid power of a goof campfire story - but its simplicity is not a side effect. It is something carefully crafted by Raimi, who is anything but stupid. Five college students on holiday, two boys and three girls, find a deserted cabin and an ancient book - a Lovecraftian Book of the Dead - that turns them into unkillable zombies, one by one, until only the film's star, Bruce Campbell is left. The only way to get rid of these zombies - the evil dead - is by dismemberment. Luckily a chainsaw is handy , and........
And it doesn't sound like much.
Well, neither does Hansel and Gretel nor Bluebeard in the hands of an untalented teller. What Raimi achieves in Evil Dead is a black rainbow of horror."
This transcript first appeared as a cover note or introduction on the inside front cover of the Evil Dead soundtrack CD released by Varese Sarabande in 1984.