The Evil Dead (1981)

The Evil Dead rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic

IMDb7.3/10· 250K votes

Rotten Tomatoes85%

Metacritic71%

TMDb7.272/10· 4K votes

With 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 7.3/10 on IMDb and 71/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been very positive.

About The Evil Dead

In 1979, a group of college students find a Sumerian Book of the Dead in an old wilderness cabin they've rented for a weekend getaway.

Cast of The Evil Dead

• 

  Bruce Campbell

  as Ash

• 

  Ellen Sandweiss

  as Cheryl

• 

  Richard DeManincor

  as Scott

• 

  Betsy Baker

  as Linda

• 

  Theresa Tilly

  as Shelly

• 

  Philip A. Gillis

  as Fake Shemp

• D

  Dorothy Tapert

  as Fake Shemp

• 

  Cheryl Klam

  as Fake Shemp

• B

  Barbara Carey

  as Fake Shemp

• D

  David Horton

  as Fake Shemp

• W

  Wendall Thomas

  as Fake Shemp

• D

  Don Long

  as Fake Shemp

The Evil Dead facts

Budget

$350K

Box office

$29.6M

Collection

Evil Dead Collection

Our take on The Evil Dead

Sam Raimi's 1981 horror debut sends a group of college students to an isolated wilderness cabin for a weekend, where they uncover a Sumerian Book of the Dead. Raimi turns a threadbare setup into a relentless assault of dread, gore and demented energy, his prowling camera and inventive low-budget effects making the woods feel alive with menace. Raw, gruesome and often blackly funny, it became a template for cabin-in-the-woods horror. It suits viewers who love visceral, unpolished genre filmmaking and don't mind extreme, splattery violence. Anyone seeking restraint or subtlety should look elsewhere; this is a scrappy, feverish original that revels in pushing every limit.