Dirty Horror Memory Lane: ‘The Evil Dead’ Review From Siskel & Ebert (1981)

Growing up, I would constantly turn on the Siskel & Ebert TV show on Saturday afternoons to see if they were reviewing any horror movies that week.  It’s not a revelation that most horror movies that they did review got trashed (except Carnosaur for some reason), and one of my favorite reviews that they did was for The Evil Dead:

I think I will call horror movies ‘Ghoulies‘ from now on thanks to Gene Siskel.  I had never heard that term before, but I must start using it now.  But anyway, their review for The Evil Dead wasn’t a shock – but I was glad to see that they recognized the effects that were used at the time, even on the shoestring budget that Sam Raimi had.  Part of me kind of wishes that Siskel would have actually barfed while watching the movie though.  It would have been an accomplished mission from Sam and his crew.  Fun fact btw:  Roger Ebert actually gave Evil Dead II a glowing review when it came out in 1987.