The Evil Dead (1981)

Looking back, this was the humble beginnings of a horror icon and a beloved franchise. But back in the early 80's, this thing was pretty outrageous. I would have paid money to see people's initial reaction during the first run of The Evil Dead. The story, by itself, is your typical cabin-in-the-woods creeper with a supernatural twist. The curse of the necronomicon. Old H.P. Lovecraft never saw it coming. From there, the film turns into a cross between The Exorcist and Dawn of the Dead, with the gore cranked all the way off the dial. It's gross, man. But it's all done practically. Scratch that.. it's all done way on the cheap. That's what gives this it's charm. It's so bad it's good. Minus the tree scene, which is just not good at all, but we won't get into that. Shout out to the cinematographer (Tim Philo) for using extreme, fast dolly shots when they were virtually unheard of.