I remember the first time I saw The Evil Dead. My sister had seen it the night before at a slumber party (because slumber parties were all the rage in the 80’s), and came home with the VHS telling me it was the scariest movie she’d ever seen. Being the sceptic that I am, and was as an 8-year-old boy back then, I told her she was full of shit. At which point my Mom stuck a bar of soap in my mouth. So I pushed my skepticism aside and sat down to watch it.
Oh look – five kids in an old cabin. Scotty tells everyone to “Party down!!”. Hey, they found an old tape recorder in the basement with some creepy guy talking about demons and junk like that. Uh oh – a girl just got raped by some trees. And then…….the possession of Cheryl is revealed:
Yikes! This is the moment when I was all in on The Evil Dead. I know, I should been all in at the tree raping, but it was Cheryl’s possession reveal that gave me the creeps – so it wins. The levitation and the voice with her head rolling around back and forth challenged my nerves, but it was actually the somewhat cheesy makeup effects that did it for me. Probably those white eyes. Which are an understandable side effect after being taken against your will by demonic tree branches I guess. Note to self by the way: Don’t leave any unattended pencils lying around if a possessed body collapses near me.