The Evil Dead

The Evil Dead (1981), directed by Sam Raimi, full frame remaster, encoded in 10 bit HEVC with AAC sound, including original theatrical mono, 5.1 remaster, three commentary tracks, and English and Spanish subtitles.

IMDb : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083907/

Video encoded in two-pass 11.0 Mbps x265 10bit with the veryslow preset for archive quality image.

English SDH subtitles OCRed, proofed and corrected. Spanish subtitles converted to VobSub and repositioned.

Note : Sam Raimi's "Ultimate experience in grueling terror" hardly needs an introduction, but I hadn't seen this full frame (1.33:1) version before, and it's kind of a revelation. Compared to the widescreen 1.85:1 version, it's pretty obvious that this is the intended aspect ratio, where framing makes a lot more sense. It also feels a bit less grainy and more sharp, since everything's zoomed out. My other takeaway from watching it again after a few years is that I didn't remember how intense and scary it was, people tend to remember the more humorous sequels more, and this is much more straight up horror (with a few goofy moments). The card-guessing scene is probably my favorite, but there are many tight, intense horror standouts. Bruce Campbell is deservedly the star of the show, of course, but the other performances aren't bad either. A definite must in any horror collection

A group of five friends travel to a remote cabin in the woods for a weekend, but are plagued by strange occurrences that may have something to do with past events at the site. When they recover an ancient book and a tape recorder from the basement and realize the previous occupant was doing research into ancient Sumerian demonology and necromancy, and the tape contains ritual chants for allowing spirits to possess the living, things quickly go sideways, and attempts to contain the problem by locking the possessed in the basement or burying the dead don't seem to help much, as they keep coming back...

This is a good-looking, if a bit grainy remaster, with nice contrast, quite dark, but that's likely intentional. I've left the original mono mix as default, because it seems to be what most people prefer, while the 5.1 remix is not as dynamic, has more weird reverb and other changes, and in general sounds less interesting. All the three commentary tracks are well worth your time, especially if you're a Raimi or Campbell fan.

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