Shanala Emory

The Evil Dead

It took me a very long time to consider which movie out of all my favorites to write about, but after some thought and a commercial from the amc channel, I had an epiphany to write about one of my favorite horror classics the Evil Dead. I know, cliché right? But the movie carries a lot of sentimental value to me, I still remember the very first time I watched the original when I was a little girl. It gave me nightmares for days! My mother used to have the VHS tape of it and one day I remember popping it in out of curiosity. My mom started my love for horror young, we used to stay up late at night and watched something scary on the SCI-FI channel or something we would pick out on redbox together for Halloween. It was our way of bonding. She had a box of old VHS tapes circa de 2005, 2006. (Sailor moon, Pokémon to name a few!) including my now top five favorites, the Evil Dead. I could never get past a certain scene, the part where Ash was standing near a window and the witch came in and stabbed him in the ankle with a pencil, I would always turn off the tv and run to my room shaking! I felt as if the witch were coming to get me next and snatch me out of my bedroom. I stayed awake watching the darkness of my bedroom for hours until I passed out from exhaustion. Sometimes I would try to rewatch it all the way through but I never could, until I got older. It gave me chilling nightmares for years! I will always remember the witch’s horrible tormented face.But then that’s the fun and the joy of horror movies, the fear, the anxiety, the adrenaline rush, the feeling of not knowing what’s going to happen next, the plot twists and turns, the horrible, demonic evil looking people and creatures along with the blood and gore of course! So as you can imagine I was delighted to learn of an Evil Dead remake, I made it my priority to watch it as soon as I could. My sister and I went to the AMC theater to watch it as soon as it came out. I love horror movies, but I can be a huge baby when I see a really scary one for the first time and I’ll watch it through half shut eyes the entire time! So I only remember the second time watching it. The second time was one of my favorite memories because I remember inviting my best friend over to watch it with me gushing about it to her telling her how great it was! So one day after school, her my sister and I all watched the movie together. It was the best, even better than the first time I watched because I could see things from a different perspective, notice the things I didn’t see before the first time I watched. By the end of the movie we all had our favorite scenes and lines that made us laugh or scared us the most. One of our favorite insider jokes stems from a scene where the demon traps the main character’s girlfriend in the trap door and to this day we’ll all randomly say “HE’S NOT GOING TO LET YOU LEAVE!”. And we’ll all giggle in secrecy. But more than anything I enjoyed just the pure violence throughout the movie, I loved how the producer made me feel as if I were the one being bludgeoned to death! The part that really made my teeth grind and my palms sweat was when Ash’s best friend Eric was being tortured to death by Ash’s now zombified girlfriend Natalie. He was shot several times with a nail gun in his hand and hit with a crow bar a couple of times and I swear I felt every blow. To this day I still can’t watch that scene without turning my head or watching through closed eyes. My third favorite scenes was when Mia fought the Devil. My god I could feel when the rusty blade ran through her thigh as he stabbed through the wall trying to kill her. I felt her fear and panic as she tried to escape, I was never more terrified, especially the part where she had to rip off her own hand getting stuck under the car, it made me root for Mia even more. Because who wants Satan to actually rise up and ruin life as we know it? The Evil Dead will forever have a special place in my heart.