Posted on: December 26, 2007 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

The Evil Dead: Ultimate Edition / 2007 Anchor Bay / 85 Mins / http://www.anchorbayentertainment.com /

The Evil Dead is a great movie on its own, and showcased the ability of a very young Sam Raimi. This year marks the 25th anniversary since the film was first released, and Anchor Bay Entertainment has created a commemorative 3-DVD set that provides individuals with everything they could conceivably ever want to know about The Evil Dead. Two of the discs provide individuals with different versions of the film – disc one provides the widescreen version of Evil Dead, while disc two is the full frame edition of the movie. However, this does not leave only one disc worth of extra material; each of the discs in the set provides interesting insights into Evil Dead.

The documentary “One By One We Will Take You” provides the most context for how and why the movie was originally created, while the commentary (Sam Raimi and producer Robert Tapert provide commentary on the widescreen version, while Bruce Campbell provides it on the full frame version) gives individuals a more direct link and what each individual felt and thought should be taken between each shot. There is a lot of agreement between the three individuals on commentary, but there are some noticeable differences that will provide individuals with a few distinct ways to take the action in the movie. The puzzle that is Evil Dead is further completed with the inclusion of “The Evil Dead: Treasures From The Cutting Room Floor”, which as individuals may be able to tease out, deals with the bits and pieces of the film that were cut for varying reasons.

While the original movie may only be 85 minutes, there is enough present in this set to placate even the most material hungry Evil Dead fan. My particular favorite piece on this DVD set would have to be the original trailer that was aired for the film. Any time that an individual or company can dig up something so old and put it onto a disc, its desirability increases exponentially. Sure, Bruce Campbell may be able to talk in 2006 or 2007 about what happened all those years ago in the film, but the trailer allows individuals to get a brief glimpse into what life was like in the early eighties. Why did individuals want to see the movie, how was the trailer style different from films today? Each of those questions are given great answers, and in the end, it provides the last reason why individuals should pick up this anniversary set.

Rating: 7.5/10

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