This movie tends to get panned across the board. Many people see it for what it is on the surface, a low budget crap-o-rama. And, I do agree there is a lot of awful things about this film. The special effects are circa 1954. There are a lot of cheesy animated scenes with the beasts. But, this can be overlooked easily. It is a low budget film made in the late sixties. George Lucas hadn't introduced the world to computer generated effects yet. So, learn to ignore cheesy effects. That was the style at the time. Also, the acting is poor. But, I have seen much worse. And, yes there are some inconsistencies with hair length and the overall appearances of the cast members. But, they filmed this over two years on nothing but the love for the film. You can choose to dwell on all that is wrong or you can choose to focus on all that was right in this film. First, the film was like an early version of the Evil Dead trilogy. The book is like the Necronomicon (the book of the dead) in the Evil Dead movies. An old professor finds the book and by reading it and studying it he unlocks the evil of hell upon a remote wilderness location. After doing so his young college students come to visit him only to realize that he has unlocked the evil of the book. In this movie the professor leaves a note explaining what happened. In the Evil Dead he leaves a recording of what he had done on an old tape recorder. So, if you like the Evil Dead movies, this movie did it first. I think the best thing of all about this movie is that it has a brutal ending. It does not take the happy way out. In the end no one escapes. They all ultimately die. I liked the ending because it wasn't a Hollywood ending where the bad guys get theirs and the good guys win. They were battling Satan, OF COURSE THEY WOULDN'T WIN. So, before you trash this movie you should think of how innovative it was. It was 1970. A lot of this hadn't been turned into clichés yet. If you are a horror film fan (for real) this movie is a distinct positive moment of growth and innovation as well as cheesy crap. It's the best of both worlds.
