Today, a group of horny, drug and drink-fueled teenagers heading out to stay in the middle of nowhere sounds like a recipe for trouble - such is the power of cinema folklore for capturing and shaping the popular imagination. The release of Friday the 13th in 1980 and Sam Raimi's groundbreaking The Evil Dead two years later have a lot to answer for when it comes to stoking adolescent paranoia. By far the superior of the two, The Evil Dead sees a group of students led by Ash Williams (the legendary Bruce Campbell) head out to a cabin in the woods for a short break, where they discover a mysterious book and audiotape which plays strange incantations in an unknown tongue. Before long demons are unleashed, taking over the woods and the occupants of the cabin in an orgy of tree rapes and possession as grisly and disturbing as it is over-the-top and audacious. Joss Whedon's wonderful parody of the horror genre The Cabin in the Woods would have been an entirely different picture if it wasn't for Sam Raimi's groundbreaking horror classic. The same can't be said for the many imitators which came over the following years - but at least the recent remake had the good sense to stick to practical effects rather than filling the screen with obvious CGI.
