Evil Dead, The (1981): 45th Anniversary Steelbook (4K UHD Review)
Director
Sam RaimiRelease Date(s)
1981 (July 7, 2026)Studio(s)
Renaissance Pictures/New Line Cinema (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)- Film/Program Grade: B+
- Video Grade: B+
- Audio Grade: B+
- Extras Grade: C+
Review
In a decade when horror films were coming out of every corner of the world with a wide spectrum of qualities, Sam Raimi’s 1981 feature The Evil Dead managed to achieve a kind of imperfect greatness in spite of itself. Made over several years with the cast and crew mostly on location in Tennessee, spending cold nights huddled for warmth and risking life and limb to finish it, it’s a wonder that anything salvageable came out of it at all. Even by today’s standards, it’s still a grueling piece of horror, barely held together with duct tape, Fake Shemps, and raw talent.
Even with its myriad of imitators, as well as advancements in low budget filmmaking, The Evil Dead somehow remains pure, capturing an aesthetic that its contemporaries rarely, if ever, even got close to. Its charm is mostly in its simplicity. At its base, it’s a story about a group of kids staying at a cabin in the woods for a fun weekend and being subsequently possessed by demons, which makes for an unsophisticated viewing experience, but nonetheless an entertaining and well put together one. Sam Raimi’s unusual filmmaking style was evident right away, and many picked up on it. With cameras smashing through car windows and traveling over ceiling beams with the actual sounds of it passing over the beams, never mind the distorted angles and crash zooms, The Evil Dead, as crude as it was, seemed to be in a class all its own. And in many ways, it still is. Even on grainy 16mm film, it holds up remarkably (outside of that pesky demonic tree rape scene that even the filmmakers regret shooting).
The Evil Dead also holds up as a remarkable calling card for Sam Raimi, one of the most respected and beloved filmmakers to come out of the genre. It also made a cult hero out of its star Bruce Campbell, the face, or rather “the chin,” of the franchise. Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, and the Ash vs Evil Dead TV series would cement the Ash character, as well as the Bruce Campbell persona, forever in the minds of fans. Growing from a featherweight young man who’s forced to confront relentlessly chaotic evil to a cocksure blowhard who’s basically an imbecile outside of killing deadites, Ash seemed to have just as much growth as a character as Sam Raimi had as a filmmaker. He may have moved on to Hollywood vehicles like the Spider-Man trilogy (2002-2007) and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, but in between he would create other genre favorites like Darkman, The Quick and the Dead, The Gift, A Simple Plan, and Drag Me to Hell.
The oddest part of the equation is that The Evil Dead birthed a mainstream horror franchise, which is bizarre since so many groups of people wanted to rip the film out of theaters and off of video store shelves when it was released, even being banned briefly in certain areas of the world. The fact that the film was not only remade, but that the remakes have arguably been more gnarly in terms of their bloodletting than the original film could ever hope to be, feels almost like some cosmic joke. But under the guidance of producer Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi, The Evil Dead franchise marches on, with the original film thriving as an 80s horror classic, now in league with many of its contemporaries.
Cinematographer Tim Philo shot The Evil Dead on 16mm film (Eastman 100T 7247) with Arriflex 16BL/16S cameras and spherical lenses. The results were finished photochemically and blown up theatrically to 35mm, framed at the aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment debuts their Ultra HD release of the film, utilizing the 2018 4K restoration from the original 16mm camera negative, previously available in the Lionsgate UHD release. It has been graded for High Dynamic Range in HDR10 and Dolby Vision, and encoded to a dual-layered BD-66 disc. Keeping in mind that this is the version of the film that Sam Raimi wants you to experience, the 2018 restoration of The Evil Dead holds up well. It’s similar in almost every way to the Lionsgate release with a healthy bitrate and high levels of detail. The only noticeable difference is that Sony’s release is just a touch brighter with perhaps slightly tighter detail, which isn’t all that perceptible. Minor speckling and scratches, as well as some slight unevenness in the grain, are all evident, but none of these flaws are necessarily deal breakers. The HDR offers strong blacks, deepening the shadows, while also aiding the film’s color palette without going overboard. A future restoration could iron out some of the minor inconsistencies, but the film still looks surprisingly good in 4K.
The biggest obstacle for long-time fans is the digital tinkering that Sam Raimi has performed on both the first, and second films. The Evil Dead lands somewhere between David Fincher and George Lucas in terms of how much has been altered since it first hit optical disc. These revisions, most of them small, are obvious to those who have been obsessively watching this film since it came to home video in the 1980s. They include the optical shots of the moon being manipulated to make them blend a little better to erasing people from backgrounds. Rest assured, these changes are still present on Sony’s release. For me personally, it takes a little something away from this small group of people getting together and putting on a show, and I would prefer to have an unaltered presentation, warts and all. But these changes are not egregious to the point where they ruin the watching of the film. You just wish they were still there.
Audio is included in English 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio. Sadly, the original mono soundtrack has not been included. These mixes are fairly similar since the stereo track is merely a fold-down, but both tracks anchor dialogue in the center for the most part. They also give music and sound effects some space, especially the 5.1 which boosts the bass and adds some moments for panning and ambience. The previous Lionsgate UHD included a 5.1 Dolby TrueHD track that contained some pitch and other audio errors, all of which appear to have been corrected here, but the fact that the original theatrical audio is still missing in action is a bummer.
Other audio options include French, Italian, and Spanish 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; and German 5.1, 2.0 and 2.0 mono DTS-HD Master Audio. Subtitle options include English, English SDH, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin American), Swedish, and Turkish.
The Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2-Disc 4K Ultra HD Steelbook release of The Evil Dead also includes a 1080p Blu-ray copy of the film, with artwork taken from Sony’s DVD releases of the film outside of the U.S., which itself is a version of the original theatrical poster. There’s also a Digital Code for the film on a paper insert included in the package. The following extras are included on the Blu-ray only:
- Audio Commentary with Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert, and Bruce Campbell
- Picture-in-Picture: Join Us! The Undying Legacy of The Evil Dead
- One by One We Will Take You: The Untold Saga of The Evil Dead (SD – 53:54)
- The Evil Dead: Treasures from the Cutting Room Floor (SD – 59:22)
- At the Drive-In (SD – 12:02)
- Discovering Evil Dead: The Palace Boys Meet The Evil Dead (SD – 13:04)
- Make-Up Test (SD – 1:06)
- Trailer and TV Spots:
- Theatrical Trailer (SD – 1:52)
- TV Spot #1 (SD – :31)
- TV Spot #2 (SD – :31)
- TV Spot #3 (SD – :32)
- TV Spot #4 (SD – :32)
Recorded in 2009, the audio commentary with director Sam Raimi, producer Robert Tapert, and actor Bruce Campbell is more of a tightly-edited discussion between the three men about their memories of not just the production and the arduous time they had making it, but that time in their lives in general. It’s a wonderful track. Oddly enough, it’s only included on the Blu-ray. A new addition is Join Us! The Undying Legacy of The Evil Dead, which is a picture-in-picture option featuring 62 interview snippets with various filmmakers about their exposure to and experiences with The Evil Dead. Subjects include Eric Kripke, David Slade, Mark Verheiden, Brian Yuzna, Alexandre Aja, Stuart Gordon, Dan Myrick, and Scott Spiegel. Once underway, chapter markers are provided to skip to individual segments if you so choose. (Take note that I had issues getting this extra to play correctly on my Oppo, so beware.)
One by One We Will Take You: The Untold Saga of The Evil Dead is a 2007 documentary by Gary Hertz about the film, featuring interviews with Ellen Sandweiss, Theresa Tilly aka Sarah York, Betsy Baker, Robert Tapert, make-up effects artist Tom Sullivan, transportation captain and cook David Goodman, second unit and lighting technician Josh Becker, Joe Bob Briggs, Eli Roth, Edgar Wright, and Greg Nicotero. Treasures from the Cutting Room Floor is nearly an hour of outtakes from the film. At the Drive-In features footage from a Flashback Weekend 2005 drive-in screening introduced by Dann Gire of the Chicago Film Critics Association of the cast handing out DVDs to the crowd, which includes Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker, Theresa Tilly, Ted Raimi, and Tom Sullivan. Discovering The Evil Dead features interviews with Stephen Woolley and Nik Powell of Palace Pictures, and author Bill Warren, who discuss the theatrical and video releases of the film in the U.K., as well as the controversy that arose from it. Make-Up Test shows Tom Sullivan’s make-up and stop-motion effects in their earliest stages. Last is the theatrical trailer and four TV spots.
Released many times over on nearly every home video format the world over, The Evil Dead has had a slew of bonus materials to accompany it, getting bulkier and more spread out over time. Thankfully, Sony has attempted to include some of these and a new one, as well, which is more than what Lionsgate did for their release. However, there’s still a mountain of materials not carried over. Besides the full original theatrical version and the faux “widescreen” version (for those who prefer it), there’s also additional behind-the-scenes footage and outtakes; the 1999 audio commentaries, one featuring Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert, and the other featuring Bruce Campbell; the featurettes Fanalysis, Life After Death: The Ladies of The Evil Dead, Ladies of The Evil Dead Meet Bruce Campbell, Unconventional: The Ultimate Discussion of Grueling Horror, Book of the Dead: The Other Pages, The Living Love the Dead, Dead Good Marketing, and Bruce Campbell: Geek or God?; footage from the 2001 Halloween night screening of the film; 2002 and 2003 Tokyo Festival footage; a 2005 reunion panel; a 2004 Australian telephone interview with Bruce Campbell; an interview with Jim Moll; multiple still galleries; the alternate version of the film’s trailer with opening narration; and the Park Circus re-release trailer. In addition, there’s also the matter of Sam Raimi’s early shorts, including Clockwork and Within the Woods that lead directly to The Evil Dead; the Book of the Dead opening and closing title sequences; Sam’s appearances on The Incredibly Strange Film Show; a 1982 episode of Le Carrousel aux images, as well as a TV interview with Tom Sullivan from the same year; and The Evil Dead-inspired music video Stravinsky Gave Me Nightmares by Antihero. (And I’m sure I’m missing a couple of things.)
While this is certainly not by any means the ultimate final word on The Evil Dead, it takes small steps to correct the errors of its Lionsgate 4K counterpart, which is something. However, long-time fans may want to think twice before picking it up as there isn’t much here worth upgrading for. Then again, those of us who have been buying this film over and over again since it first hit LaserDisc and DVD, will probably want to pick this up too. Newcomers will be pleased though as this is currently the definitive edition of the film on UHD, even if it’s not as complete package as it could be.
- Tim Salmons
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