Passes the Bechdel test
The Evil Dead
1983. Directed by Sam Raimi, written by Sam Raimi.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
4 women characters. 3 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 1. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
Five college students take time off to spend a peaceful vacation in a remote cabin. A book and audio tape are discovered, and its evil is found to be powerful once the incantations are read out loud. The friends find themselves helpless to stop the evil as it takes them one by one, with only one survivor left with the evil dead who desperately tries to fight to live until morning.
- Released
- 15 Apr 1983
- Genres
- Horror
- Rated
- NC-17
- IMDb
- 7.3 / 10
- Metascore
- 71 / 100
- Awards
- 5 wins & 1 nomination total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Ashly 92 lines, man
- Scott 79 lines, man
- Linda 49 lines, woman
- Cheryl 48 lines, woman
- Shelly 30 lines, woman
- Voice 11 lines
Full cast, 27 people
- Bruce Campbell as Ash
- Ellen Sandweiss as Cheryl
- Richard DeManincor as Scott
- Betsy Baker as Linda
- Theresa Tilly as Shelly
- Philip A. Gillis as Fake Shemp
- Dorothy Tapert as Fake Shemp
- Cheryl Klam as Fake Shemp
- Barbara Carey as Fake Shemp
- David Horton as Fake Shemp
- Wendall Thomas as Fake Shemp
- Don Long as Fake Shemp
- Stu Smith as Fake Shemp
- Kurt Rauf as Fake Shemp
- Ted Raimi as Fake Shemp
- Ivan Raimi as Fake Shemp
- Bill Vincent as Fake Shemp
- Mary Beth Tapert as Fake Shemp
- Scott Spiegel as Fake Shemp
- John Cameron as Fake Shemp
- Joanne Kruse as Fake Shemp
- Gwen Cochanski as Fake Shemp
- Debie Jarczewski as Fake Shemp
- Bob Dorian as Person on Recorder (voice) (uncredited)
- Sam Raimi as Hitchhiking Fisherman / Evil Force (uncredited)
- Tom Sullivan as Demon Hands (uncredited)
- Robert Tapert as Local Yokel (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
We couldn't read who says what in this film's script, so there's no dialogue chart for it yet.
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scenes
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
SHELLY: Okay, okay- then to a wild week-end in a wonderful cabin with good friends, provided we live that long. LINDA: Hey Scotty, what's this place like anyway?
LINDA: Yeah... SHELLY: It's probably a real pit. CHERYL: I can't believe that we're renting a place for a week-end that nobody's seen.
LINDA: This place is perfect. CHERYL: The woods come awfully close to the house don't they?
CHERYL: It's just a little claustrophobic that's all. LINDA: Well, I think it's beautiful. SHELLY: Me too, it's gonna be a bomb week- end.
CHERYL: No, no it's no bible. I don't know what it is. LINDA: Well, this one of the clock's not bad.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 43 are women's.
127 lines from women, 171 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
4 women and 12 men in the cast. 3 women and 1 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
A woman speaks the first line.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 21 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 42% of the words (1,018), men 58% (1,418). Women have 43% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit E: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
13
Two men
18
Exhibit F: behind the camera
1 of the 6 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 7% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Sam Raimi (man)
- Written by
- Sam Raimi (man)
- Produced by
- Robert Tapert (man)
- Shot by
- Tim Philo (man)
- Edited by
- Edna Ruth Paul (woman)
- Music by
- Joseph LoDuca (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
0 women, 3 men, 5 not listed
-
Production
0 women, 5 men
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Editing
1 women, 1 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 1 men
-
Other crew
0 women, 0 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 1 men
-
Writing
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 27 on average. Men: 24 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Ellen Sandweiss 24, Betsy Baker 27, Theresa Tilly 29
Men
Bruce Campbell 24
Exhibit H: the money
It made 84.0 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $350,000
- Box office
- $29.4 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 1 scenes and 309 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
