I'll avoid spoilers as best I can.
This film is often heralded as one of the classic horror movies. I can honestly say this is definitely worth watching at least once to see what exactly all the fuss was about. It was also banned in several countries or at least edited significantly. Watching the film this becomes understandable it was clearly ahead of its time.
Evil Dead was made in 1982 the horror genre was something very different back then. For starters it used to actually involve ghosts and demons and rather then shock tactics or gross out scenes, it was relying mainly on atmosphere and music. This does appear to be a low budget film at first, when you start seeing the somewhat awkward camera angles in the opening scenes of the film, but soon this will grow on you and you will see the film was intentionally shot this way. The film is basically set in a little cottage in the woods, expect to see a lot of future horror stereotypes to be born within.
Considering this film is almost 30 years old I can honestly say the violence is pretty amazing certain scenes putting more modern films to shame. Some scenes genuinely caught me off guard, although I am somewhat desensitised to horror movies having been watching them since roughly the age of 4, I can safely say parts of this film were pretty scary.
The film also earns bonus points for unpredictability, I was trying to work out the order of people dying and how they'd die and I wasn't all that accurate at all. Having been more famliiar with Bruce Campbell's later work I can say it was a pleasant suprise to see what he used to act like before he became cheesy, melodramatic and generally even more awesome.
To sum it up in one sentence Evil Dead is possibly one of the best horror films I've seen considering its age. This is pretty much in the same league as 'The Omen' films which were pretty awesome.
I will be posting a review on the remake/sequel shortly while its still fresh in my head, but i urge you to watch this film before you watch the second you will be able to appreciate the full trilogy much more if you do.