What genre is it

[abraxas]

What's your opinion

[FireStar]

No I don't think its a zombie movie, I think its more of a supernatural/demonic genre.

[The Walking Dude]

I think it's a comedy.

[HNT]

I voted yes, but a demonic possession movie is perhaps more accurate. Considering that there are enough of those for that to be its own horror sub-genre, I think an argument could be made taht it fits in that category.

As these things go, I definitely don't think that Evil Dead is a comedy at all assuming that you are talking about the original. Army of Darkness is pure slapstick, and Evil Dead 2 is a horror comedy. The original is played dead serious and not at all for laughs, though, and it is actually quite scary.

As a little kid back in the early 80's my mom had a tradition where she would rent my brother and I some horror films to watch whenever Friday the 13th came around. Since she would watch them with us, it wasn't very long before she was looking for sometihing outside of the F13 series because she found them boring and repetitive (as a child I disagreed, but as an adult I have to admit that I see her point). In any event, she read a movie review of Evil Dead and rented it for us. Needless to say when I (maybe 9 years old) and my 7 year old brother started asking her to explain exactly what was happening in the tree rape scene, she just looked completely disturbed and said we'd understand when we were older.

Frankly, I don't blame her for skipping right over it. We had already gotten the old birds and the bees speech, but how exactly do you explain rape by demonic foliage to a child? Needless to say, we got back to watching F13 where the goings on were utterly predictable not long after that.

[GL]

I've called it Supernatural since the very beginning, and I don't see where you even begin to call it a zombie movie to begin with.

[Jen]

I don't really consider it a zombie film, it fits into the demonic possession category for me, so I say no.

And I agree with HNT, I don't think the first film is a comedy, its definitely a horror film. The second film, my favorite of the series, is a horror comedy. Army of Darkness is a comedy with some horror elements.

[GL]

Indeed, I feel the exact same way here, regarding the series. I still want to know how exactly this one fits into the zombie genre. A little bit might help since I have never even heard of any attempt to place it there to begin with.

[HNT]

I was actually lucky enough to see Evil Dead 2 in the theaters ater I caught the original on video a few years earlier. Even as a kid/tween I guess I had pretty good taste in horror. My poor parents, though, were very patient with me and took me to see all kinds of films that I don't think that they enjoyed at all

[CT]

It sounds like your parents did take you to see some risqué stuff in the theater. Didn't you say you saw Kids in the theater with them? That's cool though, wish my parents had been more tolerable of horror. Well my dad kinda is but not my mom at all.

As for Evil Dead, I would actually call it a Slasher with Demonic Possession themes. I think it was a slasher with a twist, the hero did most of the hacking and slashing. I agree that the original is not a comedy or a zombie film. But as I consider zombies to be anything no longer in control of itself (not necessarily dead risen), Deadites could be called that in my book. I would call them posssessed freaks myself.

[HNT]

No, I saw Kids in the theater but not with my parents. I was 17 by the time it came out and I saw it with my friends

[CK (old account)]

This is simple Demonicomedy!!