First watch in probably a decade and so glad I was able to finally catch it on a print, played like gangbusters with an audience and really highlights the insane practical FX work & perspective/lens trickery involved. Diverges from the original film in terms of tone even more than I remembered, taking the same basic premise: people read from book, book summons a series of body horror creatures that need to be mutilated, whoops, etc and moving it from its demented DIY descent into pure gruesome nonsense (that at its best resembled something of an American Fulci movie, albeit a sped-up cartoon version) and applying a much funnier, more confident control over its constantly escalating, inescapable and disgusting gore set pieces. I like both for their own reasons but do find it sort of interesting that this is ultimately closer to the realm of what Peter Jackson would eventually do with his splatter comedies than Raimi's own original in a few ways.

The perhaps a bit too self-aware cult factor has always kept this a smidge away from all-timer territory for me personally but I can't deny that this is an accomplished piece of gory slapstick kineticism; the early section especially that is very contained and just focused on a bug-eyed, manic Bruce Campbell vs. a playfully violent demonic cabin in a series of sequences that feel like they're dragging silent era comedy into the splatter movie 80s kicking and screaming is some of Raimi's finest work and I also like the idea that the only way to make sense of this particular vulgar cartoon world he's created is to become a vulgar cartoon yourself. Sometimes you just need a movie that contains 10 straight minutes of a guy fighting his own hand.

[35mm]