Monthly Archives: October 2024

The Evil Dead: still the Ultimate Experience in Grueling Terror

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Evil Dead II (and Ash vs Evil Dead) will always be my favorite installment(s) of the Evil Dead franchise, but Jesus fuckin’ Christ the original film is a singular masterpiece of supernatural terror.

Dark forests and dank cellars, soul-crushing isolation, the skin-crawling feeling of being watched, inexplicable paranormal weirdness, disembodied and unfamiliar voices calling to you, demon possession, the undead, warp-speed bodily rot and decay, the iron claw of madness wringing the sanity from your mind, your senses betraying you, unspeakable acts of flesh-shredding violence, inhuman things that look and sound just like your dearest loved ones torturing you physically and emotionally… This movie feasts on every fear in the collective unconscious and burns into your brain forever thanks to Sam Raimi’s visionary story and direction, Bruce Campbell’s vulnerable and authentic performance, and the unflinching, gruesomely spectacular, horrifyingly inventive gore/makeup/special effects.

On the rare occasion I have a nightmare that isn’t a mundane anxiety dream, it looks and feels almost exactly like The Evil Dead. Lo-fi, herky-jerky, cloudy-eyed, gut-splattering, jittering, skittering grimy greasiness that feels real in spite of (or even because of??) its brain-breaking surrealism. Its like the good Dr. Stantz once said:

As deep, furious, and mysterious as the sea itself: 70 Years of Godzilla

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Godzilla, when taken as a single fictional entity over his 70 year career (and especially on rewatching Minus One), I think you could argue is a personification of the ocean itself. Impossibly huge, indestructible, invincible, unthinkably strong, crashing down on anyone caught in its path, washing away everything from the smallest insect to entire landmasses. It can be a savior to humanity or it can be humanity’s cruelest, most bloodthirsty executioner. He defeats all challengers, even if it takes ages for him to wake back up after his last war. Sometimes he wages war on us, other times on things that threaten us.

He is unknowable, his motivations fluid and alien to our landlubbing monkey minds. He will die, resurrect, mutate, and evolve forever: he was here before humanity and will go on for eons after we die out. Human intervention turned a fierce but fair nature spirit into a wrathful, radioactive demon hellbent on decimating the warring, polluting human race.

The humanist themes of Godzilla Minus One are a balm for the bleak, chaotic, violent times we live in. The world is better with you in it, even if you don’t agree or believe it. You can survive disaster and grow again after. Each of us is like Godzilla in that way: when tragedy strikes or when life takes a painful turn, we too can resurrect, evolve, and survive… even if it takes longer than we hope. For all the havok it can wreak, the Earth would be worse without the ocean, and it would be worse without you.