The Evil Dead (also known as Evil Dead, The Book of the Dead, Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead and The Evil Dead: The Ultimate Experience in Grueling Terror) is a 1981 cult classic horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi, and starring Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss and Betsy Baker. The film tells the story of five college students vacationing in an isolated cabin in the woods. Their vacation turns into a nightmare when they find an audiotape that is the key to unlocking evil spirits.

The film was extremely controversial for its graphic violence and gore, being initially turned down by almost all U.S. film distributors until a European company picked it up. It was finally released into theaters on October 15, 1981. Although its budget was just $375,000, the film was a moderate success at the box office, grossing a total of $2,400,000 in the U.S. upon its initial release. Despite getting mixed reviews by critics at the time, it is now widely accepted as a classic of the horror genre and has a dedicated worldwide cult following. The film also spawned two sequels entitled: The Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness.

When the film was submitted for a rating in 1994 the MPAA classified it with an NC-17 rating. When the distribution company Elite Entertainment released the film on DVD in 1999 they retained the NC-17 version. Anchor Bay Entertainment has since acquired the DVD rights to the film, and their subsequent releases have surrendered the rating to allow them to release the film unrated.

Plot

Five Michigan State University students venture into the hills and mountains of Tennessee to spend a weekend in an isolated cabin. There they find the Book of the Dead (a Babylonian and Sumerian text, unrelated to the Egyptian Book of the Dead), otherwise known as the Naturon Demonto (renamed the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis in the sequels).

While searching the basement of the cabin, the students find and play a tape recording of demonic incantations from the book, unwittingly resurrecting the slumbering demons that thirst for revenge. The characters are then possessed one by one, beginning with Cheryl (Sandweiss) after she is lured into the forest by the Evil Force at night. Alone and far from the safety of the cabin, the woods come alive in a snake-like fashion and Cheryl is brutally raped by the evil force in sequences of intense, bloody violence and horrifying voice-overs. Cheryl makes it home to the cabin but nobody believes her. Her brother Ash then decides to drive her into town where she can stay the night. They discover that the only road bridge is completely destroyed and the supports are bent into the shape of a hand. Soon thereafter, Cheryl becomes a demon and stabs Linda in the ankle with a pencil. They lock her in the fruit-cellar, but afterward Shelly becomes possessed and attacks Scotty, who dismembers her with an axe. They wrap the dismembered body-parts in a blanket and bury them, after which Scotty leaves to find a trail out of the woods.