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: