Sam Raimi's cult classic The EVIL DEAD shrieks to a new level with the tweaked visuals, and decent sound on Anchor Bay's blu ray treatment. This awesome creature of low budget indulgence has been imitated a 100 times, but has yet to be matched. I love this film, because in comparison to the EVIL DEAD 2 and ARMY OF DARKNESS it seems to attempt a horror show, where parts two and three are slapstick comedies with demonic nasties thrown in for good measure. Bruce Campbell deserved a better agent as he definitely would have had a career as a comedic leading man in the vein of Jack Black. Oh well.
Previous Anchor Bay DVD presentations have usually sounded good with a DTS 5.1 mix bringing all that was meant to be heard to the table. I did not hear a remarkable difference between DVD and Blu-ray formatting here. If you are expecting to be blown out of your coffin here with pure sound forget it. What do you want from a 30 year old movie? "Join us" sounds like it is coming from a guttural demonic presence under my condo, and the madness that ensues sounds pretty good overall.
The video presentation is slightly better than standard 480 DVD. I was impressed with the basement/projector scene. The blacks seem a bit murky, and the colors a tad faded. I am not trying to bash a classic, but the question is: Do I buy this film on Blu-Ray when I already own this film on DVD? No. When comparing the two disks, I really do not see a HUGE difference here. If you don't already own this film, for Chrissake buy the thing! What the Hell are you waiting for, this is the EVIL DEAD here!
The extras were actually entertaining as an interview with the entire cast at a horror convention is included. It brings a certain level of nostalgia, but also makes one feel old if you saw this in the 80's.