10 Most Infamous Banned Movies

5. The Evil Dead

With the remake set for release in a few months time, public attention/knowledge of the already infamous original will surely flourish. Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead presented audiences not just with a superbly original, innovative and hilariously gory picture but operated to show aspiring filmmakers that with enough dedication pretty much anything could be achieved. With a paltry budget of $90, 000 secured through various abstract investors (lots of begrudging parents and beguiled local businessmen) Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and a band of 36 other crew members set out into the woods to make a movie, blissfully unaware of the seismic cultural impact their film was going to produce. A group of teenagers find a book (called The Necronomicon in a humble nod to H.P. Lovecraft) and re-play recorded readings from it. Consequently they start to become possessed by dead spirits, evil dead spirits at that. All sorts of chainsaw and axe-flavoured mayhem goes down before the film's intensely graphic climax which sees Bruce Campbell's Ash, the last survivor, battle to the bitter end. Labelled the 'number one nasty' in the UK due to the film's huge success in video sales it was removed from distribution until further cuts were made. The BBFC backed up their claims of the film's unacceptable violence under The Obscene Publications Act of 1959, a piece of litigation which serves to show that at times artists can truly be restricted by the law in terms of what they can/can't depict. The main problem with The Evil Dead was that people didn't really get the joke. Younger audiences understood that the violence was excessive to the point of being cartoon like in nature. However, the older generation took the violence at face value and were presumably shocked by people's laughter at content which was so offensive to them - labeling the film as a potentially damaging product. Whatever your thoughts are on graphic violence in cinema, I challenge you to watch The Evil Dead and not be at least entertained by the sight of a man permanently attaching a chainsaw to his arm. The Evil Dead is a charming example of an exploitation horror come comedy film, it has developed a very strong cult following and its infamy has endured to this day - quite right too.