Evil Dead II
I’ve watched Sam Raimi’s horror classic, “Evil Dead II,” so much over the past ten years that I probably don’t even have to watch it to be able to write a decent review of it. But where’s the fun in that?
“Evil Dead II” is second only to “Bride of Frankenstein” in the pantheon of great horror sequels; that there aren’t that many in general is a true sign of its worth. When Raimi set out to make a sequel to his 1981 cult hit, “The Evil Dead,” after the flop of his 1985 crime movie (“Crimewave”), he originally set out to do the bigger story he eventually made into 1993’s “Army of Darkness.” However, budgetary constraints forced him to do a smaller film.
So what did he do? Essentially, he remade the original film, except this time, he made it a comedy. The screenplay he co-wrote with Scott Spiegel has the requisite scares, to be sure, but they’re laced with an oil-black humor that leads more to laughter than to terror, a deft touch that carried over not just to “Army of Darkness,” but also to “Drag Me to Hell,” his 2009 return to the horror genre that brought back the skillful fright of the original “Evil Dead.”
By this point in the review, I would have lined out the plot, but honestly, there doesn’t seem like much point; if you’re reading this, you’ve probably seen the film a dozen times before as well. Let’s just say there’s a cabin in the woods, people go there (starting with Bruce Campbell’s Ash and his girlfriend, Linda), unleash an unspeakable evil by inadvertently reading from the Necronomicon (the Book of the Dead, and yes, I know THEY didn’t actually read from it), leading to possession, death, and gallons of blood. And believe me, Raimi is just getting warmed up.
This isn’t the deepest movie (hence the lack of a “+” next to my grade), but holy Hell, is it a lot of fun. Peter Deming’s camera zigs and zags in ways that seem downright ridiculous, but he’s just following his director’s outrageous vision, especially when the titular “evil” chases Ash through the woods, the house, and then…well, you’ll see. Greg Nicotero’s makeup effects, in particular, when Ash’s hand goes rogue, are wicked good, hinting at the brilliant work he does now on AMC’s “The Walking Dead.” And Joseph LoDuca’s score is one of the best in horror history, equal parts terrifying and funny, and sometimes, both at the same time. But the film’s unquestioned MVPs are Raimi, who would later bring this low-budget aesthetic to bigger budget movies like “Spider-Man 2” and “Darkman,” and Campbell, who turned the role of Ash not only into a horror icon, but also the jumping off point to a career that, yes, has led to a lot of lousy B-movies, but also allowed him the chance to do some pretty damn good films, both with other directors (in particular, 2002’s classic “Bubba Ho-Tep”), but also directing himself (“The Man With the Screaming Brain,” “My Name is Bruce”). Regardless of where their careers lead them, though, die-hard fans of both filmmakers will always appreciate them best for this brilliantly off-the-wall masterwork.
