EVIL DEAD
2
CAST
Bruce Campbell, Sarah
Berry, Ted Raimi
DIRECTOR
Sam Raimi
YEAR OF
RELEASE
1987
Oh my god!
A sequel that meets up to, and in some
respects is superior, to the original!
Amazing! Evil Dead 2 is less a sequel and
more a remake of the original, quickly
retelling the story from the first one (minus
a few characters and events) and kicking
right in to the action. Ash (Campbell) goes
through some great stuff in this one- in his
continuing adventures in a cabin in the
woods, which has been surrounded by 'the evil
of the woods' since Ash and his friends
played a tape with an archaeologist reciting
lines from the Sumatran Book of the Dead, Ash
encounters blood coming out of the walls (ala
Shining), demented laughing furniture (ala
Pee-Wee's Playhouse), and he is even attacked
by his own hand! The son and daughter of the
archaeologist previously mentioned come to
the cabin, in hopes of finding their father
and presenting him with a missing page of the
book of the dead, instead finding Ash at his
wits end, believing him to be the one who
murdered their father (who was actually
murdered by his possesed wife). They are soon
shown the truth as the two and Ash, plus two
local trailbazers, meet up with the Evil
Dead. The real star of Evil Dead 2 to me is
the inventive effects and camerawork- stop
motion reverse motion and tons of great gore
are used throughout. There is more of an
element of humor in this one, but also tons
of great scares that make the humor a good
relief. This one has great novelties- Ash's
chainsaw hand and the line, "I'll swallow
your soul!" are my favorites. If you are a
fan of the first, Evil Dead 2 is a must-see.
And if by some tragedy your video store only
has Evil Dead 2 and not the original, it's
actually okay to see just this one. There is,
of course, a third installment, by the name
of Army of Darkness. Miss it. It removes the
horror element and makes the whole thing a
joke. It picks up where 2 leaves off, which
can only be bad (wait til you see). I heard
also that soon a digitally remastered version
of Evil Dead 2 will be coming out- check that
out if you see it.
SHOCK/SUSPENSE
4
GORE
5
CAMP
4
OVERALL
5
