Betsy Baker – We Are Movie Geeks

THE EVIL DEAD (1981) Arrives on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack (plus Blu-ray and Digital) October 9th

“Kill her if you can, loverboy!”

Celebrate the original beginning of the cult classic series when The Evil Dead arrives on 4K Ultra HD™ Combo Pack (plus Blu-ray™ and Digital) October 9 from Lionsgate. Written and directed by Sam Raimi, and starring Bruce Campbell in the role that made him a cult icon, this film follows five college friends who accidentally release a legion of demons and spirits. Experience four times the resolution of Full HD with 4K, as well as Dolby Vision™ HDR, to bring to life the stunning cinematography of this supernatural horror film. When compared to a standard picture, Dolby Vision can deliver spectacular colors never before seen on a screen, highlights that are up to 40 times brighter, and blacks that are 10 times darker. Available for the very first time in this absolutely stunning format, The Evil Dead 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack will be available for the suggested retail price of $22.99.

More than 35 years ago, a low-budget horror movie roared across movie screens and changed the velocity of fear forever — and made a cult legend out of Bruce Campbell in his iconic role as the lethal, wisecracking Ash Williams. Now, for the first time, you can experience the ferocious ingenuity, relentless shocks, and gore-gushing havoc of the original Sam Raimi masterpiece in 4K!

CAST

Bruce Campbell Army of Darkness, TV’s “Ash vs Evil Dead,” “Burn Notice”

Ellen Sandweiss Evil Dead (2013), TV’s “Ash vs Evil Dead”

Richard DeManincor Crimewave, Morrow Road, Bong Fly

and Betsy Baker Sharp Objects, Hand of God, Oz the Great and Powerful

SPECIAL FEATURES

Audio Commentary with writer-director Sam Raimi, producer Robert Tapert, and star Bruce Campbell

The Original THE EVIL DEAD at The Tivoli Midnights This Weekend

“I’m all right now, Ashley! Come unlock this chain and let me out! I’m all right now! It’s your sister Cheryl!”

The original THE EVIL DEAD plays midnights this weekend (June 29th and 30th) at the Tivoli (6350 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis, MO) as part of their Reel Late at the Tivoli Midnight series.

Low budget horror does not get much better than the original THE EVIL DEAD from 1981. In fact no other low budget horror film even looks like THE EVIL DEAD thanks to Sam Raimi. So if you want to see how a future major director starts from the real bottom end of film making and works his way up then you need to watch THE EVIL DEAD at all costs. Besides, Raimi was just a young kid when he made it (using a school’s 16mm film camera)….. and so were his friends who acted in it…. The movie was filmed in 1979 and released in 1982 where it hit the video market just at the right time. It was one of the very first cult classics promoted by the advent of video tape.

THE EVIL DEAD still is one of the nastiest films ever made. It contains extreme violence, blood, tree rape, torture, beheadings, dismemberments, mutilations, gore, violence towards women, chain saws – all in full view of the camera. The camera work is used unusual and skillful, the editing is dramatic and the low budget special effects beat the pants out of some of the neutered CGI we’re subjected to these days.

The premise of THE EVIL DEAD is simple. Five young kids go to a cabin in the woods for a short vacation. In the house they find a tape recording which manages to invoke an incantation which wakes up the evil in the woods. It comes after them – turning some of them into the undead, demons, zombies and flesh eating ghouls. Cue lots of household items being used as weapons, an initially sissy anti-hero (Bruce Campbell) who became, thanks to this film and its two sequels, the god of millions of adoring horror fans Copied by a hundred other horror films, exploited by a million uncensored bootleg copies – THE EVIL DEAD is still the low budget horror king. And that is a hard act to beat! Now you can catch it again on the big screen when it plays midnights this weekend (June 29th and 30th) at The Tivoli Theater.

A Facebook invite for the screening can be found HERE

https://www.facebook.com/events/1273711006094438/

The Tivoli’s located at 6350 Delmar Blvd., University City, MO. Admission is a mere $8!

The Tivoli’s website can be found HERE

http://www.landmarktheatres.com/market/st.louis/tivolitheatre.htm

Here’s the Reel Late at the Tivoli Line-up for the next few weeks:

July 6-7 ROBOCOP (1987)

July 13-14 AKIRA

July 20-21 YELLOW SUBMARINE

THE EVIL DEAD Screening Midnights This Weekend at The Moolah

“Thank you. I don’t know what I would have done if I had remained on those hot coals, burning my pretty flesh!”

THE EVIL DEAD screens midnights this weekend (October 9th and 10th) at The Moolah Theater (3821 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, MO). Admission is only $5. Come early for great drink specials, cool trivia with even cooler prizes.

Sam Raimi’s classic horror-comedy THE EVIL DEAD still holds up after almost 35 years. Even though the plot may now sound very clichéd, and it probably did in 1981 too, it never hinders the fun of horror: A group of five friends, Ash, Cheryl, Scotty, Linda and Shelly (played by Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker and Theresa Tilly respectively) drive to a remote forest cabin for a fun weekend but their plans are quickly put on hold by the presence of sinister forces from the unknown. After having inadvertently summoned the evil entities with the help of a strange book and audio tape found in the cellar, everything turns against them: the forest won’t allow them to leave and starts assaulting them in gruesome ways, turning them into zombie-like freaks one after another. Ultimately only one of the friends remains human, intent on making it out alive…

THE EVIL DEAD starts as an atmospheric suspense-driven horror film: the camera crawls near the ground like a preying animal, there’s focus on creepy little details like a swing banging against a wall, a clock pendulum stopping by itself, a bridge ominously falling apart even before anything out of the ordinary has happened. Once the gore starts after about 30 minutes, it keeps escalating to ridiculous levels, conveniently shifting the tone towards comedy without awkward mood changes. The infamous vine rape scene looks genuinely nasty, providing maybe the most horrific moment in the story, and while the wild dismemberments in the latter half of the film are intentionally over the top, the tone maintains a feel of tragedy throughout – the freaks were once human beings, more than fodder for axes, bullets and chainsaws. Despite the excessiveness of the gore, the suspense is never allowed to fade away even at the very end, thanks to Raimi’s skillful direction and the frequently oblique camera-work.

The effects still look excellent for the most part; only the stop-motion transformations of the climactic scenes at the end have dated notably, but I think their old-fashioned cartoon-like quality is really charming in a way. The screen-presence of the pus-oozing plastic monsters is on a wholly different plane of existence than the obviously non-existent CGI creations of many modern action movies.

Don’t miss THE EVIL DEAD when it screens midnights this weekend (October 9th and 10th) at The Moolah Theater (3821 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, MO).

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