The Evil Dead

Uproarious and hugely influential, Sam Raimi’s cabin-in-the-woods horror comedy fell afoul of the ‘Video Nasty’ farrago.

  • Director

    Sam Raimi

  • With

    Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Betsy Baker

  • USA 1982. 85min

  • Digital

  • Certificate

    18

Holidaying in the Tennessee woods, teenagers unwittingly unleash evil spirits... Raimi’s uproarious debut was the first title acquired by Scala boss Stephen Woolley’s new company Palace Pictures. It would become a hugely influential film. But its release fell foul of the so-called ‘Video Nasty’ farrago, which threatened home-entertainment distributors with historic legislation that was designed to curb obscenity.

Contains scenes that some may find disturbing.

See The Evil Dead with intro by Graham Humphreys, freelance illustrator and designer of the original UK marketing for The Evil Dead, on Friday 5 January.