THE EVIL DEAD (1981)

One of the all time greatest horror movies, I cannot say enough good things about this movie. Directed by Sam Raimi (who has directed a lot of movies and TV in his time after this... including Spiderman, the Hercules TV show in the 90's and most recently Ash vs the Evil Dead amongst many others) and starring Bruce Campbell as Ash the hero of the film..... This is almost the perfect horror movie and definitely falls within my top 10 horror movies of all time.

The movie plot revolves around the plight of a group of young adults (maybe early to mid 20's) who go on a camping weekend away and stumble across an old tape recorder which contains recordings of ancient incantations recited from the fabled "NECRONOMICON" the book of the dead from Sumerian mythology. Upon playing the reel to reel tape player the incantations stir something sinister in the forest surrounding the cabin in which the group are staying in. The said evil that is stirred causes its victims to become possessed by an ancient evil which seeks to destroy the group and turn them to its dark ways

I've seen this movie many times in the past and it never fails to entertain me, as some who've been paying close attention to this blog might know I'm really into the Necronomicon and anything to do with it will pique my interest. This film whilst taking some liberties in regards to the original text ......... was probably the most apt description of the evil that the book describes and was a landmark in terms of gore and special effects for its time. I've seen some describe the movie as a black comedy,,, in my opinion, its not  a comedy.... BUT there are some filming techniques and gore effects which may make it seem a little 'hammy' but I consider it a serious horror film and a right royal gore-fest at that!

The Camera angles are superb, the filming techniques were amazing for the time and the gore stepped it up a level from all films of the time , especially considering the movie was done on a rather small budget (as Sam Raimi was unknown at the time) and with the exception of the Italian gore flicks of the late 70's/early 80's the movie really stepped up the gore level within the horror genre at the time...  the "Tree Rape" scene set about a huge motion of controversy and from what I understand gained the film an "X" rating (tho i can't confirm this) in some countries.

Really all I can do is recommend that you MUST see this film........

MANIAC COP (1988)

Sitting somewhere between action and horror this slice of B grade action is not a bad little watch. A large rogue cop is running around killing random citizens on the streets and basically nobody can figure out who it is.

Starring Bruce Campbell as Jack, a police officer whose marriage is on the rocks, and his wife busts him in bed with another woman and then shows up dead as well... and of course Jack gets nicked for the murders, (to be fair the circumstances did point to him) until of course the killer keeps killing.

On first contact with the killer it appears that the killer maybe something more than human after withstanding a police gunfire attack. Further research points towards a violent ex police officer named "Cordell" who was previously assumed dead, after he was thrown into prison.

Style wise its another 80's action flick and obviously shot on a budget but its pretty well done and keeps the viewer interested while not an all time classic its pretty solid watch and has become something of a cult classic amongst the B grade set


Heres a copy of the film on youtube, it looks to be ripped straight from VHS too for that authentic feel!

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ALIEN APOCALYPSE (2005)

One of horror legend Bruce Campbell's lesser known works. Its a Sci-Fi film firmly rooted in the B Grade Category. It isn't a bad film perse but can't tell if it was serious attempt at science fiction or a parody of the old alien films. (as the aliens look really cheap and fake)

The film centres around a small team of astronauts led by Dr. Hood (Campbell) who were sent on a 40 year space probe mission and on their return to Earth find the planet taken over by insect like aliens. Again It's not that bad a movie ... actually it's quite watchable.... But it makes me wonder why Bruce Campbell agreed to be in the film as I'm sure he could have been doing better things. Even though he did seem to vanish for a while after Evil Dead 3.

Anyway, back to the film... after landing back on Earth the team find themselves promptly captured by the alien overlords that have since taken over Earth to harvest the planet for its wood, to send back their own planet (its apparantly rare on their planet to get wood) . Hood and one of his team manage to escape the alien labour camp and flee to the hills where they meet a few of the last remaining free humans and hatch a plan to free Earth from the space insects.

While its far from being a masterpiece, aside from a few dumb moments it's actually quite watchable and the violence / gore factor is pretty low, so you can watch it with children who are partial to a bit of low level horror

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