When you’re a fan of horror, you’re never at a loss for recommendations. If you dug this slasher, there are 100 others just like it. Dug that haunted house film? Step right up and take a gander at the copious amounts of evil houses we have. It’s like a used car salesman, always a pitch, always a lot full of cars. Every horror film comes with a whole slew of similar films for you to check out. Except for The Evil Dead. If you’re a diehard fan of The Evil Dead, there’s no other film that will scratch that itch. Peter Jackson comes close with his early films and the sequel itself almost hits the right notes before it devolves into madcap lunacy. While it’s certainly dated compared to today’s films, there was a time when this was the film you dared other people to watch. Sam Raimi created one of the scariest films of all time and once he received a bigger budget, he went back and topped himself in every way imaginable.
Somewhere Between a Remake and a Reboot
Somewhere between a remake and a reboot, Evil Dead II feels less like a sequel (although it definitely is one) and more like Raimi trying to one-up himself. By essentially remaking the first but with a bigger budget, Raimi wanted to show the world that the first one wasn’t just a good low-budget movie, it was a good movie, period. Trading in spooks for absurdist laughs, the movie reinvents the formula established in the last one by diving headfirst into another genre. Evil Dead II is no longer a straight horror film but an insane comedy that beats you into submission. Once the film starts, it doesn’t stop punching you in the face with gags until the credits start rolling. Upping the ante in every way possible, Evil Dead II feels like walking through a homemade haunted house on Halloween that lasts 5 hours. It’s non-stop entertaining to an almost exhausting degree. Stephen King might’ve called Evil Dead the “future of horror” but Evil Dead II is the future of cinema.
Ash Williams Is Back
If you have somehow still never seen it, the plot follows Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell), the sole survivor of the first film, who once again battles demonic forces in a remote cabin. The film opens with Ash Williams taking his girlfriend Linda to a secluded cabin in the woods. There, they discover the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, an ancient book of the dead, and a tape recorder belonging to Professor Raymond Knowby, who had been studying the book. When Ash plays the tape, he inadvertently unleashes demonic forces that possess Linda, forcing Ash to decapitate her.
As the night progresses, Ash is tormented by the demonic spirits. He becomes possessed by a demon but regains his senses when daylight breaks. As evening falls again, Ash is assaulted by various supernatural occurrences, including his own hand becoming possessed, leading to one of the film’s most iconic scenes where he amputates it with a chainsaw. Meanwhile, Professor Knowby’s daughter, Annie, along with her research partner Ed and two locals, Jake and Bobby Joe, arrive at the cabin with more pages from the Necronomicon. Together, they attempt to stop the evil forces. However, the demons possess Ed and later Jake, leading to more bloody confrontations. Annie eventually manages to read the incantations from the Necronomicon, opening a time vortex that sucks the demons, the cabin, and Ash into the past.
Legacy
Evil Dead II is an insane combination of Tex Avery, the Three Stooges, Grand Guignol, and every other bizarre reference point bouncing around Raimi’s head like a bullet. It’s definitely not for everyone and certainly ahead of its time which is why upon its release, the film received mixed reviews from critics but over time, the film has been re-evaluated and is now considered a classic of the horror genre. It has been influential in shaping the horror-comedy subgenre and has inspired numerous filmmakers and writers. It is simply put, one of the most important films, not just horror and not just comedy, ever made.
What Evil Dead II Means to Us
For some stupid reason I held off on seeing Evil Dead 2, despite loving the original film. I distinctly remember asking my brother if it was any good. His response was, “It’ll turn your hair white!” So I finally rented it expecting another “ultimate experience in grueling terror.” Whatever else it is, Evil Dead 2 is not that – instead, Raimi and co. had (dutch) tilted everything towards comedy, creating one of the first classic “spatstick” films. (Re-Animator had come out two years earlier.)
Despite my expectations being thwarted – usually a recipe for me panning a film for years – I loved it. It was still gory as hell (the blood fountains, the possessed hand, Linda’s head being chainsawed), but it was now just as funny as it was bloody. Bruce Campbell transformed from the weenie, weedy nebbish of the first film into the epic Chin, from Ashley Williams to just Ash, chainsaw-handed kicker of deadite ass and master of cheesy one-liners. The swirling camera, outstanding sound design, and mostly-okay miniatures work were icing on top of a fantastic, flying-eyeball cake. And that ending! I wanted that sequel immediately.
It’s not a perfect film – some of the effects are a little dodgy, the acting is a little (or a lot in some cases) wooden and things get a little sloppy around the edges sometimes (you can see light fixtures in the beams of the cabin roof at one point and that Henrietta costume apparently ripped in the crotch during the filming and they didn’t fix it). None of that matters, because it’s 50 lbs of fun in a 5lb bag. There just SO MUCH good stuff crammed in there that you never have to wait more than a minute or two before getting another, more awesome round of gags and gore.
–Bob Cram
I will never forget the first time I saw Evil Dead 2 because I was 8 years old and the first scene I saw of it was a woman getting raped by a tree branch. I sat down to watch and was hooked and immediately begged my parents to go to the video store to rent the VHS so I could start from the beginning. I ended up falling in love with the gore, the humor, and the unique camera zooms that helped it become one of my all-time favorite horror movies. Bruce Campbell, as Ash, has become one of my favorite characters who is essentially the first ever male final girl. And he had a freaking chainsaw for a hand! What’s not to love?! Ultimately, I fell in love with its ability to blend humor and horror like I hadn’t really seen before with its memorable one-liners and realistic feel due to its low-budget practical effects. Evil Dead 2 is one of the greatest horror movies of all time.
–Vincent Kane
Have you seen Evil Dead II? What did you think of the film? Got a fun fact or piece of trivia on the making of the film? Share it in the comments below!
