Quote Originally Posted by Yeargdribble View Post
My wife and I were discussing what made it so different than other stuff and I think it's the fact that it's not full of quick cuts. If something gory is happening, the camera isn't slipping away and only giving you a tiny glimpse. It's all up in the business of the gruesome action.
I agree with everything you said Yearg, and I think this deserves special emphasis since part of the reason I wanted to see it at all was that it looked like it'd be gruesome. And to say it delights in making the audience uncomfortable with gore is an understatement. One of the bigger disappointments with a lot of horror movies these days is that they kind of shy away from going too far with the violence and gore. They'll show bits and pieces of it, but never really focus on it. But Evil Dead doesn't shy away from it, and it doesn't cut away or anything. It's really just right up close and in the thick of it all, refusing to look away when half the audience probably already has. And that they did it all with practical effects instead of CG makes it even more impressive to me since I'm sure the temptation is usually there to make the effects easier to pull off by cutting away quickly.

EDIT: I may as well add something a bit relevant to the topic so some quick reviews:

The Evil Dead: the original one this time. I'd meant to watch them all before seeing the remake but trout happens. It was all right, but not really amazing. It was almost good in spite of itself since the acting, was bad, the effects were bad, the writing was bad. But it was still better than 99% of horror movies at the time. Ash is pretty unremarkable in this movie leading me to believe that he's only in the other movies because Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi are friends.

Evil Dead 2: Much better this time around. Absolutely hilarious, over the top camp/slapstick humour combined with some modest attempt at horror in there. The first half hour or so of the movie is just Ash being slowly driven insane in the cabin and having his hand possessed, try to kill him, then lopping it off with his chainsaw while laughing like a madman the whole time. It works so much better than it sounds when you try and explain the events to someone.

Army of Darkness: So hilarious that I watched it twice yesterday and laughed just as hard the second time. For some reference, when I've seen a movie once I'll rarely watch it a second time for at least a year because I tend to remember everything that happened and don't need to watch movies again. To say that watching a movie twice in one day is not something I normally do is an understatement. 'Nuff said.