Evil Dead 2 (1987)
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Denise Bixler, Ted Raimi
Category: New classic, favorite
Plot Tags: demon possession, comedy/scary
Original release: March 1987
Format viewed: Blu-Ray - own collection
Directed by: Sam Raimi
Written by: Sam Raimi, Scott Spiegel
Produced by : Robert Tapert, Irvin Shapiro, Bruce Campbell
Distributed by: Rosebud Releasing, Anchor Bay
It didn't seem fair to include Army of Darkness in this little project because I can basically recite the whole movie from memory give/take. So I thought it would make more sense to include the equally awesome but viewed-less-times Evil Dead 2. I remember seeing this for the first time with my dear friend Justus Humphrey (along with things like Dead Alive) and just having a grand old time. That has been part of what has made this project fun - remembering the circumstances by which I saw these for the first time or with whom etc. It's like with Reservoir Dogs- I remember the midnight screening and the crowd and all the rest of it and that positive association will always stay with the movie. So anyway, that is certainly part of it with Evil Dead 2.
The story starts with Ash and his girlfriend Leslie headed to a cabin in the woods for a romantic getaway. They find a tape recorder with a professor type guy reciting passages from the book of the dead (the necronomicon) and playing them brings out an evil demon thing that kills Ash's girlfriend Linda and possesses her body. Ash must remove her head to stop her and buries her outside the cabin. The demon attacks him and is possessed for a little bit and then let go. The next day we are introduced to the professor guys daughter and her partner who discover (as Ash previously did) that the bridge leading to the remote cabin is destroyed. They get help from a couple local guys to get another way to the cabin. Oh yeah, and Ash has to cut off his own hand which had become possessed by the demon. This is an absolutely hilarious scene and basically ruined all future 'person-versus-their-own-appendages' scenes in movies because no one could really do it better. Prior to the researchers and locals arrival, Ash starts to hallucinate and thinks that all the objects in the cabin are laughing at him, including cabinets, books, deer heads, the whole deal. It is like an evil version of that George Harrison video for 'I've got my mind set on you' - very fun. Once the others arrive, everything heads towards a steady decline with people being possessed, attacks by trees, the revelation that the professor guys wife was possessed but is in the basement/cellar versus being decapitated which leads to a rather amazing end to one of the characters.
This all continues on with the remaining ones trying to figure out how to cast the demon away. A reading of the last couple pages of the necronomicon opens a portal which does just that but also sucks Ash, his old car and newly fitted chainsaw hand into some pastoral area in Europe many centuries prior. He kills a 'deadite' which validates his heroic status with the locals but it also dawns on him that he is now, somehow, stuck in this time.
This movie, from top to bottom, is a crazed, bloody, goofy, manic good time. Raimi uses wild camera techniques and over the top creature effects to elicit a sense of controlled chaos that seems to echo the insanity the characters are going through. These things add to the overall fun of the movie which is, I guess, subjective. The grossness and overall violence (I mean, hey, a guy has to cut off his own hand once possessed) is pretty high but, if you're in the right mood, Evil Dead 2 is about as fun a time as you're going to have in this genre'. Bruce Campbell is just inspired as Ash and continues his smarm charm into Army of Darkness. All in all, I just love the Evil Dead films and hope to God the new one next year will be worth a damn because the source material sure as heck is.
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