We're gonna get you...
- Few would deny that the scene of the demon-possessed trees raping Cheryl is absolutely terrifying. It's actually considered one of the 100 Scariest Movie Moments.
- It's not much better that the scene is incredibly slow. So you, the viewer, have to watch a woman get raped for several minutes or so. Every slow, terrible minute.
- Also, there's the fact that it's not a slow penetration, but a very sudden and violent one. And that branch presumably had hundreds of thorns on it. One can only imagine how painful it would be.
- Anytime someone gets possessed, they talk in a demonic voice.
- When Shelly gets possessed and Scotty stabs her in the back with the dagger. She lets out a indescribably horrible screech that lasts for 30 seconds. Even worse, that still doesn't kill her, so what follows is probably one of the most gruesome dismemberments in the Evil Dead series. Oh, and she's still conscious while this is happening, screaming things like "No, don't! You love her!" while Scotty is hacking her to pieces.
- The whole scene that leads to the reveal of Cheryl's possession, starting with Cheryl calling the cards more and more angrily with each one, continuing with the Deadite telling them they will all be killed, and then with Deadite Cheryl stabbing Linda in the ankle with a pencil, and dragging it down. The worst is, it's only just begun.
- Deadite Linda. Her crazy face (Betsy Baker makes an ungodly creepy Slasher Smile and the makeup exaggerates it further), her blank pupil-less eyes, her slouching zombie-like way of moving, and that constant high-pitched giggle that doesn't actually seem to come from her.
- Crossing over with a moment of Awesome, when the Deadite Scotty gives Ash a Neck Lift and starts choking him to death, all seeming lost, until Ash inserts both his thumbs in Scotty's eye sockets and squeezes with all he has, the Deadite screaming horrifically and blood gushing.
- The wounds Ash collects, including having his leg clawed up and getting realistically and painfully beat down by the Deadites in the climax, whacked with a firepoker across the back over and over and bloodily bitten in the ankle as he crawls on the floor, desperate, screaming and struggling to stop them. It is played seriously with our hero lacking the Made of Iron and Slap Stick qualities of his future self. It can be unnerving seeing how out of his element, helpless and afraid the badass we will come to know and love is in this movie.
- The ghastly "melt down"
suffered by the deadites when Ash burns the Necronomicon Ex Mortis at the end of the movie.- More precisely: first they stand still as smoke pours from their bodies, then they start rotting at high speed (with the flesh taking on a multicolor hue for no other reason than yes), then the burning book animates and whips a long tentacle-like tongue around (the deadites do the same, yikes), and they keep rotting...then a ROAR is heard as huge, clawed, bloody hands explode out of the bodies, and the still-standing one falls down on Ash, its head transforming from a skull into a demonic face... then it hits the ground and explodes in Ash's face. As the bodies turn into multicolored goo, demon voices can be heard. The stop-motion only increases the surreal horror of this scene.
- Oh, and cockroaches surround the melted Deadites. Eew.
- Actually, the cockroaches and bugs were INSIDE the deadites. In one of the corpses, you can also see a snake lying in the pile of decomposing body and creepy crawlies.
- It gets worse. Before those hands explode from the bodies, the Deadite on the floor starts spewing a pale, yellowish mash that looks a bit like cottage cheese. For viewers familiar with the decaying process, it bears a resemblance to super speed saponification - a process by which bodily fats become soap under certain favorable conditions.
- The paranoia during the climax. Especially when Ash puts his hand through the mirror.
- Near the end, Ash is alone, no monsters or anything, and reality just seems to fall apart, with bizarre sounds and sights assaulting him.
- The Bolivian Army Ending sees Ash managing to survive, defeat the Deadites and emerge from the cabin the next morning after destroying the book. Cue a Cruel Twist Ending when the ominous Evil Dead is revealed to still be alive, wakes up in the woods and rushes to and through the cabin, lunging at Ash before he can escape as he screams at the top of his lungs and the movie ends. If you didn't know it was a franchise, and thus that Ash had survived, it may very well have ended with Ash dead or something far worse after everything he managed to live through.
