Have you made it this far as a film junkie without owning a copy of The Evil Dead? It’s pretty much impossible at this point- whether it was the clamshell VHS, the dvds, the fake-skin special editions, odds are that you own Sam Raimi’s first film. But if you have somehow dodged it- or simply want the new definitive edition until Anchor Bay releases another one in a year or two- your high def dreams will soon be answered.
Anchor Bay has created not one, but two 1080p anamorphic transfers for the blu-ray release. Why two? One’s in 1.85 and one’s in Raimi-approved 1.33. The sound will be in Dolby TrueHD 5.1, and the disc will contain another brand new commentary by Raimi, Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell.
The blu will also come with a second disc, a dvd that will contain the following previously available features-
* One By One We Will Take You: The Untold Saga of The Evil Dead
* The Evil Dead: Treasures from the Cutting Room Floor
* The Ladies Of The Evil Dead Meet Bruce Campbell
* Book of The Dead: The Other Pages
* Discovering The Evil Dead
* Unconventional
* At The Drive-In
Sad to see that Within The Woods (Raimi and Campbell’s original Evil Dead short that was created to raise money for the feature) still hasn’t made it to an official release!
The Evil Dead hits Blu on August 31st.
16 comments
ANOTHER brand-new commentary track.
oh boy. maybe we can get some details on what they ate for lunch every day.
Jesus has there been another film that has been milked more than Evil Dead?
Remember when the first two films were impossible to find on VHS after they went out of print? Purchasing used copies of both could cost you as much as 50-60 bucks. You can probably get any one of these Anchor Bay releases on ebay for a buck or two.
@ #2: yes, Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness.
I've never really liked the first two. Not scary, not funny… maybe I need to rewatch them, it's been a long time. However, I LOVE Army of Darkness.
After seeing The Evil Dead at a midnight screening in Philly a month or so ago I overheard a couple of vegan hipster types commenting "I forgot what a bad movie it is…." They seemed to be complaining about the effects. Surrealism and practical effects are apparently lost on today's modern vegan, 20-something male.
It would be great, since the commentaries have already been done to death, if the new commentary was just completely unrelated off-the-wall bullshit, a la the commentaries on the Will Ferrell/Adam McKay DVDs. The last version of "Evil Dead" that I bought was the Book of the Dead edition though, so maybe they've already gone this route in one of the 8 or 9 versions that have been released since.
Comment 3 – I remember, and payed dearly for a VHS clamshell.
It had to debut on the new format eventually, so I don't get all the "milking" talk. Save it for the Blu-double-dip. A new commentary is totally redundant, however. I thought the track Campbell recorded on his own was sufficient (and hilarious) enough.
Already bought it on DVD twice. I've avoided re-buying anything on Blu that I already have on DVD so far.
anyone know WHY Within the Woods has remained unavailable all these years?
Yeah, seeing this many releases of a film is a little cheesy… but really, if anybody deserves the extra cash and recognition, it's Raimi & Campbell.
C'mon. Their commentaries (particularly where Bruce is involved) are always entertaining and there's always something new to relate. I see their continued milking as them following up on their original desire to return as large a possible profit to their original investors, which is fine by me as it shows that they're not in the business to just jerk themselves off like many other filmmakers. BTW, Within the Woods is out there and worth a look. Would love a cleaned-up version in a legit release along with the Raimi episode of The Incredibly Strange Film Show.
@ BZoDThGod: Depending on which story to believe. Within The Woods hasn't been made available due to 1)Music rights (they just used whatever music they wanted to, to score the old super 8 shorts and this one) 2) It is not very good and Sam Raimi doesn't want it released.
Why is there a 1.33 version? Are there a lot of people out there spending money on 1080p tvs with 1.33 dimensions? Are there people out there who are able to appreciate the quality of blu rays but can't wrap their fly heads around the concept of watching a movie at home the way it was meant to be seen in theaters? what the hell, I fucking hate fullscreen it's for ludites and old people
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