Five friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons.Five friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons.Five friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons.
- Awards
- 5 wins & 1 nomination
Richard DeManincor
- Scott
- (as Hal Delrich)
Theresa Tilly
- Shelly
- (as Sarah York)
Philip A. Gillis
- Fake Shemp
- (as Phil Gillis)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe cabin used as the film's set was also lodging for the 13 crew members, with several people sleeping in the same room. Living conditions were terrible, and the crew frequently argued. The cabin didn't have plumbing, so the actors went days without showering, and fell ill frequently in the freezing weather. By the end of production, they were burning furniture to stay warm.
- GoofsCharacters' hairstyles, as well as the amount of blood on them, change drastically from shot to shot - a result of shooting the film sporadically over several years. Note that seconds after Ash is completely covered in Linda's blood, he is clean again.
- Quotes
[repeated line]
Voice of Evil Force: Join us...
- Crazy creditsThe swing music from the old Victrola in the cabin's cellar plays during the closing credits, only to wind down and grind to a stop leaving the sound of the wind to accompany the rest of the credits. The final sound heard as the closing credits end is the fly buzzing - the first sound heard in the opening of the film.
- Alternate versionsWhen originally released to theaters in Britain, the UK censors removed 49 seconds of footage including an ankle stabbing, Shelley chewing off her own hand, an eye gouging, Shelley's body being dismembered, body blows with a poker and a wooden post, and shots of blood spurts, and it was this version that was released on video originally. Despite the cuts, it became one of the most notorious of the UK video nasties and was subject to many obscenity trials before being withdrawn on video in 1984, when mandatory video censorship was introduced to the UK. It was not until 1990 that the film surfaced on video in the UK again, due to wrangles between the distributors and the BBFC over how much footage should be cut from a legal video release. In the end, a further 1m 6s was removed, in addition to the previous theatrical version cuts. Most of the scenes depicting excessive gore were shortened or removed, with the tree rape scene being particularly targeted for cuts. The fully uncut version was finally released on DVD in 2001.
- ConnectionsEdited into Bhayam (2007)
Featured review
The whole thing is a tad overrated, but this is still an atmospheric creeper
I'm sure by this point nobody cares what somebody like me has to say about this movie, or indeed, this *franchise*, but I'll do it anyway. I saw the next two instalments (the remake given the name Dead by Dawn and the loose sequel), and I was glad to finally come to this one. I thought all three movies were somewhat entertaining, but also given an undue amount of cultural weight. This is my favourite of the bunch because it really does contain a weird, morbid atmosphere, and is not played for laughs.
Those only familiar with the other films (and I think there are a surprising lot of you) might be surprised at how hard Sam Reimy works to create an atmosphere of genuine dread and hopelessness. It works well, up to a point. The problem is that the characters are non-entities except for Ash, and the story feels like it was written by a nine-year-old. Of course, we are all only really in this for the mayhem, and it does start pretty quickly. I like how this movie really pushes the case for the environment itself being malefic; that it's not just the playing of a tape waking the dead (or demons as the case may be), but the entire woodland they are in being riddled with evil and malignant spiritualities. It added an unexpected almost folk-horror element to proceedings, even though it was rather understated. Not much dialogue of interest in the film at all, so really not a lot to think about.
The demons seem to be able to possess whomever they want, whenever they want, so the rules of the world are nebulous and don't seem to make sense. Why'd they go back to sleep after the professor made the tape and spoke the incantations? Look, I'm fine with ambiguity in horror; in fact it's largely preferred to having everything explained, but here it just seemed like none of that stuff really mattered, and that's a bit iinsulting.
But hey, this is a really well-made movie with some nice quirks that was created by people who clearly really enjoyed what they were doing. Everyone plays it up to the hilt and I appreciate that. It's a lot creepier than the other instalments and does contain one or two genuinely disturbing scenes involving trees. it's also just over 80 minutes long, so the time will fly by. JOIN US!
Those only familiar with the other films (and I think there are a surprising lot of you) might be surprised at how hard Sam Reimy works to create an atmosphere of genuine dread and hopelessness. It works well, up to a point. The problem is that the characters are non-entities except for Ash, and the story feels like it was written by a nine-year-old. Of course, we are all only really in this for the mayhem, and it does start pretty quickly. I like how this movie really pushes the case for the environment itself being malefic; that it's not just the playing of a tape waking the dead (or demons as the case may be), but the entire woodland they are in being riddled with evil and malignant spiritualities. It added an unexpected almost folk-horror element to proceedings, even though it was rather understated. Not much dialogue of interest in the film at all, so really not a lot to think about.
The demons seem to be able to possess whomever they want, whenever they want, so the rules of the world are nebulous and don't seem to make sense. Why'd they go back to sleep after the professor made the tape and spoke the incantations? Look, I'm fine with ambiguity in horror; in fact it's largely preferred to having everything explained, but here it just seemed like none of that stuff really mattered, and that's a bit iinsulting.
But hey, this is a really well-made movie with some nice quirks that was created by people who clearly really enjoyed what they were doing. Everyone plays it up to the hilt and I appreciate that. It's a lot creepier than the other instalments and does contain one or two genuinely disturbing scenes involving trees. it's also just over 80 minutes long, so the time will fly by. JOIN US!
helpful•60
- crystallogic
- Dec 8, 2018
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $350,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $2,400,000
- Gross worldwide
- $2,895,590
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