The Evil Dead (1981)

Sam Raimi’s best monster in The Evil Dead is a camera. He sends it racing low through the woods and straight at the cabin, and you never see what’s pushing it. Pure genius. The people are another story. Five friends rent a cabin, find a creepy book and a tape recorder in the cellar, and press play, and most of the cast reads lines like they’re seeing them for the first time. Bruce Campbell isn’t the wisecracking legend yet. Here Ash mostly screams, stumbles and falls down a lot, and you can see the star in how hard he commits. Ellen Sandweiss’s Cheryl, cackling from under the cellar door, is the creepiest voice in the cabin. The effects are homemade and sometimes laughable, and the last stretch tips into a rubbery, gooey mess that’s more silly than scary. It made $2.9 million worldwide on a tiny budget and kicked off a whole franchise. A 7.5 because the camera and the nerve outrun the acting. $3,419 says you book your next getaway somewhere with zero woods within walking distance.

What works: Raimi’s wild, rushing camera and a cabin full of sounds and shadows that make cheap tricks feel huge.

What doesn’t: Most of the acting is stiff, and the homemade effects in the finale get messy and silly instead of scary.

Who it’s for: Older horror fans who love scrappy, inventive filmmaking and don’t mind a little goo.