Kids These Days Don't Read Classics Anymore + DDHFF Fargo!
Hey all! Splat Summer is off to a great start! We’ve had a Friday the 13th, some sunny days, and a great StokerCon weekend! But before we get into our slashers for the summer, I have, by popular demand, The Evil Dead. My school is doing the musical on Halloween weekend this year, and I think I’m one of, like, three people that’s excited about that, largely because I think most of my esteemed colleagues don’t really know what it is - or how cool it is. So I’m here to fix that!
But first, I know that the beginning of this summer has also come with some pretty damn scary real world events, as well as the ones on our screens or in our books. And, as is so often the case, most of the events are so far out of the control of the general public as to be nearly unbelievable. But you, as a person, can do a lot locally that has a big impact nationally. You could, for example, vote for someone in a mayoral primary. Or go to your library, which supports public access to education, entertainment, shelter, and other vital resources. You could also go to an independent community film festival. The possibilities are endless, important, and hopeful. So, with that in mind, let’s dive into The Evil Dead, and, in this first-ever So Desensitized double feature, the Darkest Day of Horror Film Festival that came to Fargo last weekend!
The Evil Dead (1981) is, in short, a b-grade, super gross, micro-budget horror movie where a group of clueless college students go to a cabin in the woods and get their asses possessed after playing the audiobook of the dead. But, beneath all the gross-out elements, there’s genuine horror gold.
Evil Dead was created by the legendary Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell. They first came up with the idea when they were in high school, and were finally able to achieve that dream in 1981, with a run-down cabin and $350,000 to their names. I assume most of the budget went to the special effects because they are, and I don’t use this term lightly, absolutely beautiful. Are they vomit-inducing levels of gross? Yes. That’s the point. They’re beautiful. Everything about this movie is clearly made with love, by people who genuinely like each other. It might be a truly gross movie about demonic possession, but everyone involved loved it and wanted to see it through, and it shows. This is no Blair Witch, no Texas Chain Saw. This is a horror movie made by horror movie fans, for themselves.
But, aside from amazing practical effects and heart, what makes The Evil Dead such a good and important movie? To begin with, it’s one of the first AIDS horror movies on record. While the pipeline from the Tate/LaBianca murders as seen through horror movies to the AIDS epidemic as seen through horror movies is pretty straightforward as they go (which I go into more detail about in part four of my Fearmongering series), there is still a clear shift. Tate/LaBianca murders movies are marked by being generally released from 1973-1980, and having more external threats, like cannibal families or mental hospital escapees. AIDS horror movies, on the other hand, tend to focus more on goopier, internal threats, like Freddy Krueger, The Thing, or, in this case, the Deadites. Some AIDS horror is subtle, or ‘coded’ in some way, like Nightmare on Elm Street, or The Lost Boys, and some AIDS horror is…not. Like The Thing. Or The Evil Dead. The demons of the Necronomicon (the Deadites) are characterized by the way they slowly kill their victims, leaving a soulless body to be possessed by their violent spirits, which they then use to infect others. It’s a pretty clear-cut AIDS metaphor, as they go. It’s an early one, still very reminiscent of post-Manson era horror like The Exorcist, but with AIDS starting to show its undeniable influence on the zeitgeist through the rather aggressive use of bodily fluids and heavy, campy makeup with distinct drag undertones, hinting at the wave of queer-coded horror villains that would arrive in the not-so distant future. As a cultural touchstone, The Evil Dead foreshadowed what was to come in horror movies and their themes, setting the gory, microbudget stage for movies like Sleepaway Camp and The Slumber Party Massacre. So thematically and culturally, The Evil Dead is a classic masterpiece. But what about in terms of viewing pleasure? Is this a movie that’s actually good and fun and cool to watch?
The short answer is yes. It’s well written, it's classic, it’s so much fun, and it’s honestly kind of the perfect 80s horror movie. For horror fans. For non horror fans, I’m gonna be honest, it’s real gross. Like, real gross. The bodily fluids are, as I said, aggressive. There’s vomit, pus, decapitation, etc. And it’s also legit scary. The Deadites are genuine demons, a la Pazuzu in a The Exorcist, but much gooier and more violent. The Evil Dead doesn’t come to play, and that’s a thing you should be prepared for before watching. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that The Evil Dead is a brilliant, fun movie, that translates into a brilliant, fun, and camp as hell show. Get hype, y’all, if you aren’t already (for whatever reason)!
And now, for the second part of this post: the Darkest Day of Horror Film Festival! I had the absolute delight of attending the first annual DDHFF at the Fargo Theatre on the 21st, missing only five of the presented shorts and movies for eating lunch and being tired. The schedule for the day was as follows:
Every block ended with a feature, then a ten-minute break, giving the audience time to stretch, use the bathroom, get concessions, etc. I interviewed one of the organizers, JD Provorse, who is also the co-creator of the podcast We Watch Shudder. In our brief interview, he said that the festival was overall very successful, and will likely continue for the foreseeable future. There was very much an emphasis on independent films, with many of the projects featured being kickstarters. There was also a successful effort made to represent LGBTQ+ filmmakers in honor of it being pride month. DDHFF had something for everyone, from the hilarious and brilliant Lost Boys Pizza, to the religious creature feature The Leaching, to the highly effective, dialogue-free A Drive At Dawn. The final film of the fest was the Estonian musical horror chainsaw romcom Chainsaws Were Singing, which was first filmed thirteen years ago, and finally made it to screens this month, joining the handful of other international films also present in the lineup. Also featured was a trilogy of music videos from local metal band Gorgatron, which I highly recommend. In short, the Darkest Day of Horror Film Festival was a resounding, community-building success that has big plans for the future!
Thanks for reading, y’all! Happy splat summer! With summer officially in swing, next post will be a brand-new (to this blog, anyway, it came out in 1983) summer slasher. But not just any summer slasher - in two weeks all you lovely people will have the absolute delight of reading about my favorite horror movie in the whole entire world! So get excited for that, happy reading, and stay spooky! 🩸🎞️📽️📙💚
