Long before Scream came along to simultaneously parody the horror genre while participating in it, there was Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy (the third entry into the series, Army of Darkness, was released in 1993). Equal parts suspense, camp, comedy...

Clipping found in Fort Worth Star-Telegram published in Fort Worth, Texas on 10/26/1984. The Evil Dead / Martin / The Maniac

Clipping found in The Atlanta Constitution published in Atlanta, Georgia on 5/20/1983. The Evil Dead

Clipping found in The Guardian published in London, Greater London, England on 2/24/1983. The Evil Dead / The Verdict / My Favorite year / Frances

Clipping found in Daily News published in New York, New York on 4/20/1983. The Evil Dead

Read the Empire Movie review of The Evil Dead. The punk kids did...

Clipping found in The Philadelphia Inquirer published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 9/26/1983. The Evil Dead

The Evil Dead emerges as the ne plus ultra of low-budget gore and shock effects.

The horror virtuoso’s trailblazing no-budget debut still makes for uneasy viewing – just not always in the way he intended

It’s an old story: A group of young people go out into the forest with the best intentions, and a few hours later, they’re covered in blood and gore, and going for each other’s eyes. By now, The Evil Dead has been so picked apart by fans that it’s sometimes hard to separate the backstory from what happened onscreen.…

Raimi’s film still feels like the punchiest horror flick this side of a Dario Argento giallo.

Clipping found in The Los Angeles Times published in Los Angeles, California on 6/19/1983. The Evil Dead

Clipping found in The Boston Globe published in Boston, Massachusetts on 10/8/1983. The Evil Dead

Raimi's first feature, a sensationally bad-taste effort which narrates the rapid decline into demonic mental and physical possession of a clean-cut, all-Ameri

Clipping found in Detroit Free Press published in Detroit, Michigan on 5/6/1983. The Evil Dead

NC-17 • 1 hour 25 min • 1981

Countless imitators later, The Evil Dead remains a dizzying bloodbath in which gore proves both nasty and amusing. Setting the template for thousands of subsequent followers, Sam Raimi’s debut film charts the saga of two guys and three girls as...