What first got you into The Evil Dead?

Norfolk, but I'm from Birmingham ... which Evil Dead VHS did you find at that car boot sale? ... I love finding vintage horror tapes at those, I've still got a wall of them in my dining room! 
 
I'm one of those who watched the films all out of order.

My next door neighbour invited me around to watch a film along with another neighbour from down the road. (Actually the film was brought along by that second guy, originally 'acquired' by his older brother.)

Anyway, the film was a rather fuzzy quivery version of Army of Darkness... except I'm pretty sure the name came up at the start as Army of Darkness: The Medieval Dead.

Anyway, the quality was terrible, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Although I had seen a pirated version, I was still surprised when it came out  a year later in the cinema as Army of Darkness. They'd dropped 'The Medieval Dead'.

I would like to say I don't really condone watching pirate films (except the literal versions maybe, "oo-arr me hearties", etc.) but it wasn't mine. And I did buy a legit copy later. I'm curious if my memory concerning the title is faulty, though. I do remember Sam Raimi mentioning 'The Medieval Dead' on the DVD narration with Bruce Campbell.

Curiously, the ending was the Director's Cut version, not the U.S. Theatrical Version. As it was pirated, you'd think think it would have been the US version, right?

I came across Evil Dead 2 on the Horror Channel a while later. (This was cable, way before it all went digital. First reaction from the start was how very cheesy it was. "Give me some sugar..." Dear me...)

...but then it went crazy. And genuinely quite scary in places. Sure, it's heavy on the comedy but I find the Horror pretty genuine. Anyway, it suddenly just clicked with me, and I think it's arguably my favourite of the series. The blend of horror and comedy seems just right.

I didn't watch The Evil Dead until I bought it on DVD. (Actually, I think I caught the ending n Cable before then.) I'd read about the infamous woodland rape scene and it rather put me off. But I couldn't watch the other two and not see how it all started.

The acting isn't great in places. And I think it is way too nasty at times, leaving me feeling rather soiled after watching it.. but it's an enjoyable film. Straight horror, which isn't a bad thing. Much of the humour is unintentional, (although the deadite micky-taking was very amusing, but maybe that's my sick sense of humour) but I loved the cinematography. The way they use the camera is just awesome.

I've yet to watch the remake. I avoided it, to be honest, but I'm curious.
Particularly as I understand Bruce Campbell gets a cameo.
.

And I'm very much looking forward to the new series.

Anyhow... I saw that dodgy version of Army... around 22 years ago I think. Scary how time flies... and we're only getting a sequel (albeit in series form) now! I find this kind of enheartening though. What started as an incredibly low budget movie has really stood the test of time.
 
I was introduced as a kid, around 13 years old, the local video shop owner knew i had an interest in horror and fx and handed me an tape with no cover and said you'll enjoy this, it was evil dead, i thoroughly enjoyed it, eventhough some of the fx were a bit ropey looking
years later evil dead 2 came out and i was hooked, followed by army of darkness, out of all of them i prefer the second and third movie
 
It was in junior year of high school. A year prior I watched the last 45 minutes of Army of Darkness with my dad, not really knowing much about it. At the time I didn't get it. I thought it was about the dumbest thing I'd ever seen... but I still laughed and enjoyed it.

One night my friends and I walked to the video rental store. I saw Army of Darkness there and suggested it, having never watched the whole thing from the beginning. We watched it from beginning to end and loved it. We made the event a sleepover and watched it several times in a night. We researched it and found out about Evil Dead 1 and 2. We watched those as well. We all hailed Evil Dead 2 as the best movie of all time, and to this day it's the go-to film when we get back together a decade or more later.

Most of my friends weren't as into to Evil Dead 1, but I enjoyed it a lot. That's one I watch with my brother sometimes. Now I've added the remake to the list of go-to films.
 
I was young and I could rent 3 to 5 VHS per weekend.  I saw a lots of movies (mostly horror movie).  My mother recommended me a few titles which included The Evil Dead & the Last house on the left.  When I first saw the movie I was amazed by it craziness and I'm still amazed today! ;)
 
My aunt used to tape movies off of cable, and I remember watching the Henrietta fight scene from ED2 when I was a kid. Some time later, sophmore year of HS, I walk in to a Best Buy and find a hard plastic case VHS version of Evil Dead 2. A wave of nostalgia hits me and I grab it. I watch it and obviously fall in love with it, with repeat viewings on a weekly basis.

At some point, my aunt moves from Chicago to Wisconsin and I go visit (remote cabin in the woods type of place, haha). We drive in to town and stop at a gas station where they rent VHS, I grab Army of Darkness! Watch it, love it, yadda yadda...

It wasn't until I bought my own VHS copy that I realized that the one I rented was different. Eventually DVD's become mainstream and they release alt scenes of AoD, where I finally get to see what I saw on that first rented version. The alt take of the miniature ashes was there, along with a different scene of him standing at the door. The exact details are a bit cloudy, but I clearly remember feeling ripped off when I bought my first VHS version of AoD, because things were different, it gave me a horrible feeling, like the fear of missing out. Like somewhere out there there's more of this movie that I can't see. But we're also talking mid 90's, and at that point alternate versions of movies was, to me, something crazy. The internet was still fairly inaccessible, there was no Wikipedia or IMDB, we had to walk uphill, both ways, to download a porn movie, etc.

I'd still give anything to find that VHS version of AoD I rented, but I'm sure even that gas station has moved on to DVD by now, or given up all together on renting movies.

EDIT: Forgot about Evil Dead 1!

I saw ED1 last, tho when I saw it I remembered the car tire/bridge scene from cable channel surfing. I bought it on VHS at a music store (that sentence is so dating!). I liked it, and still enjoy it, but generally the only time I watch it is when I marathon the trilogy. It's got some great scenes, and that makeup, oh, that makeup, but in my opinion it just doesn't hold a candle to ED2.

As for the remake/reboot/whathaveyou, I was pumped to see it, got to it on opening day and hated it. Maybe I had just built it up in my head too much. BUT, i grabbed it on bluray anyway, and after subsequent viewings, I have come to love it. But, to be fair, I watch all my blurays on a 10 foot projection screen at full HD with surround sound, so that does help enhance movies a bit! But seriously, right to the blaring end, it really did find a place in my heart, and I love making other people watch it, as it's usually followed by me saying "You liked that? Check this out..." and on comes the trilogy, haha.

EDIT2: All this thinking about the version of AoD I rented has got me searching, and this is what I remember:
Another scene explains the mirror thing a little better, as Ash leaves the windmill to walk through an ominous forest, accidentally knocking into his horse. Saying "You big piece of hamburger, c'mere," he ties the horse down until seeing a duplicate of himself in the windmill's doorway, which then slams shut. He runs back into the windmill and smashes headfirst into a mirror.
Click to expand...
 
Army of Darkness was the first one I watched and it made me want more. I saw it on TV in the early 90's, just a couple of years after the theatrical release. I had no idea what it was and I had never seen a movie quite like it before. I got obsessed with it. I couldn't stop thinking about it and wanted to watch it again. Here in Brazil the movie is called "Uma Noite Alucinante 2" (something like "One Cazy Night 2"), because the first Evil Dead wasn't really well known and was released under a different name (something like "The Demon's Death"), so Evil Dead 2 was released as the first film in the series. That "2" on the title made me go after the first one and I stumbled upon the actual first Evil Dead film before finding Evil Dead 2. I found a VHS copy of The Evil Dead in a Blockbuster, of all places, but the tape was really old and worn out. It actually had some kid's birthday party taped over the first few minutes and a couple of scenes would repeat themselves in the middle. I think it was a bootleg copy that somehow ended up in a Blockbuster. The picture quality was so faded and washed up that when I first watched the movie on DVD, I was surprised to see that the trees in the forest were actually green. Needless to say, I loved the damn thing, even though the video quality was terrible (a few years later, I bought the first film on DVD even before owning a DVD player). I did some research (thank God for early internet and the House of Horrors website) and went after Evil Dead 2. That was the last one I watched, but I remember seeing the VHS cover to it before - the one with the skull that's on my avatar. When I finally watched ED 2, my older brother watched a few bits over my shoulder and said "isn't that the movie where the guy shoots at the walls and the house bleeds on him?". I said yes and he very nonchalantly added "yeah, I saw that one in the theater". I was never more jealous of my brother than I was at that moment. The Evil Dead series was largely responsible for making me wanna become a filmmaker. In the end, it was the visual and technical inventiveness coupled with the "I could've made that!" vibe that really hooked me. To this day, I still watch them for inspiration when things get rough and I start having doubts. Anyway, some time passed and the Hail to the King video game for the Playstation was released. It was the beginning of the films becoming popular around me and I think it was around that time that I joined these forums for the first time. I love the fact that the fanbase has grown and that we're getting new stuff, but I also kinda miss the time Evil Dead was my own personal thing that I had discovered on my own and nobody else seemed to know or care about. Call me crazy, but I miss the days this stuff was less accessible. It made it seem more special. I certainly don't hate the fact that it's popular now, but I think it's sad that this new generation of fans will never have that experience.

So yeah, that's my story.
 
Having seen the original NOTLD several years ago, my voyage into horror broke free and I became thirsty for more. I was mostly interested in zombies at the time, and somewhere through hours of research, the Evil Dead was brought up, but it didn't look like zombies to me, so I didn't give it a second glance.
One year later, and I began to get into slasher films. Starting with the big franchises, NOEM and F13, Evil Dead popped up again when I read about the Necronomicon being used in Jason goes to Hell, and how FvJ was going to lead to FvJvA. Interested, I started looking up the Evil Dead movies.
What finally hooked me was the Musical, as I listened to the entire soundtrack and the concept of demon possessions, bad-ass one liners, and chainsaw arms stroked a nerve in me. Within a month I had bought and watched all 3 films back-to-back and it quickly became one of my top fandoms. 

If my memory is correct, I've only been into Evil Dead for around four years. Feels like it's been a lot longer. I can't remember a time before Evil Dead. So I'm still bit of a newbie. I just finished catching up with the comics last month.
 
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