Review: The Evil Dead II

Ash (Bruce Campbell) goes up to that creepy cabin in the woods from the first film, with his girlfriend (Denise Bixler), and it’s not long before crazy undead shit starts up once more. He even loses his hand. Meanwhile, the daughter (Sarah Berry) of the professor whose taped voice is responsible for the unleashing of demons, is on her way to the cabin too (the cabin is owned by dear old departed dad).

 

I have no idea why it took me 26 years to get around to seeing this much-loved horror classic from 1987 (I only saw “Re-Animator” for the first time maybe ten years ago), but I’m pleased to report that I’ve rectified that situation. Directed and co-written by Sam Raimi (“The Evil Dead”, “Darkman”, “Drag Me to Hell”) it is at once the same as its predecessor and different. When Ash gets put down in the cellar here, you really get the feeling that this is his insane nightmare re-imagining of the events of the first film rather than a true sequel. I’ve heard that the opening was just a way of getting around the fact that Raimi couldn’t get the rights to footage from the first film (his own film!) in order to do a genuine prologue. But if it really is a true sequel, Ash certainly doesn’t seem to remember the events of the first film (and yet he’s largely the same character), which seems odd, as does the fact that he’s only with one other person at the start, instead of three.

 

The difference comes in tone, as this is essentially a remake/re-interpretation of “The Evil Dead” with the slapstick comedy amped up to 11. The result is perhaps a lesser film (depending on your sensibility), but an absolute blast nonetheless. I mean, this is one fucked up bizarre movie right here. It’s not as atmospheric, but it’s more comical and relentlessly paced. Raimi, who co-wrote with Scott Spiegel (director of “My Name is Modesty” and “Hostel Part III”) takes the first film’s survivor, Ash and with the help of the inimitable Bruce Campbell, turns him into quite possibly the goofiest action/horror hero of all-time. By the end he’s a chainsaw-armed Rambo, but you’re clearly not meant to take him or the film too seriously. Campbell’s performance here is a continuation of the last third of the first one, but he really comes into his own in this one as he basically bugs out for 90 minutes. Truth be told, every cutaway to other characters is a distraction from the real show here. I could’ve easily watched 85 minutes of Ash flipping out here. The severed head alone is hysterically funny, and there’s a brilliant bit where he contains the severed head under a flower pot, and stacks some books on it including ‘A Farewell to Arms’. Priceless. Things get downright hilariously absurd when lamps start mocking Ash. Yes, lamps. One literally eye-popping moment gave me the best laugh I’ve had in ages, and there’s also a brilliantly funny meeting between a tree and a guy’s head. This, ladies and gents, is the only sequel that can claim to be ‘one of a kind’. Like the first film, it was probably hell to shoot (just read Campbell’s excellent autobiography “If Chins Could Kill” for more on that), but it’s great fun to watch and looks like it was a blast. Kudos to Raimi, by the way, for splattering blood on a light globe just so he could shoot in red at one point. The film is certainly as blood-soaked as a film can possibly get, though it’s hard to get offended by anything this unashamedly silly. The blood looks awfully purple to me, for a start. The sound FX are dopey and the makeup is only slightly better than the first film, but that’s all part of the fun. The silly stop-motion corpse in particular is pure lunacy.

 

The music by Joseph LoDuca (“The Evil Dead”, “Army of Darkness”, “Brotherhood of the Wolf”) is spot-on for what the film is in terms of tone and energy, and the cinematography by Peter Deming (“Scream 2”, “From Hell”, “Mulholland Drive”) is wonderfully over-the-top, like the first film.

 

Both of the first two “Evil Dead” films are must-see classics, but it comes down to personal taste in differentiating between them, and at the end of the day, I responded better to the slightly more serious original than this one. But make no mistake, this is good, gory, spectacularly silly fun. It’s so good that it makes me hate “Army of Darkness” even more, for dragging the series down (Just because this film’s ending set things up, didn’t mean Raimi needed to really follow through. He could’ve just left it as a joke ending and had two really great horror films).

 

Rating: B