"Groovy." - Ash
Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn, (1987), Directed by Sam Raimi
Grade: B+
As I mentioned the other day, Tremors was a comedy with horror elements. Evil Dead 2 is a horror movie stuffed with comedic elements. And what a ride it is. The young folks who are only familiar with the director Sam Raimi as "that guy who made the Spider-Man movies" have missed out on where he got his start.
Of course, this is a sequel to The Evil Dead, but unfortunately the original Evil Dead wasn't that great of a movie, and Evil Dead 2 is basically just an Evil Dead Redux with a slightly bigger budget and with different actors except for the main character Ash, played by the always iconic Bruce Campbell.
The movie, such as it is, is what would happen if a blood-and-guts horror movie were made like a Warner Brothers cartoon. The simplicity of the plot is so borderline ridiculous, you wonder how a full-length movie could ever be made out of it:
A clueless idiot named Ash fights evil demons in a cabin in the woods.
That's it. You mention that plotline to any horror fanatic and they will know instantly what movie you are referring to. The rest of the film is just an excuse for Raimi and Co. to reach into their crazy bag o'tricks and throw any pun, joke, or stylized slapstick at you. It also gives Raimi the opportunity to pay homage to his favorite comedy trio, The Three Stooges.
The film's low budget does show, however. This was 1987, and CGI was just beginning. A year before with the Spielberg-produced Young Sherlock Holmes, the first CGI image was rendered on film, but here in ED 2, we still get the stop-motion animation of demons, zombies, and other evil apparitions. Strangely enough, it works for the film. With the movie's cartoonish persona, it seems unlikely that CGI-generated effects would have fit as well with the film's tone and mood.
In the end, the film sets itself up for the final chapter in this horror-trilogy, with Ash being sucked through a portal and travelling back in time to fight demons once again, but with knights, wizards, and warriors. The sequel was titled Army Of Darkness, but what was Raimi's original title? The Medieval Dead.
Is Evil Dead 2 a great film? Probably not, but it's great fun, and sometimes that's just as important.
Although, I think Jack Black would state otherwise:
The film's low budget does show, however. This was 1987, and CGI was just beginning. A year before with the Spielberg-produced Young Sherlock Holmes, the first CGI image was rendered on film, but here in ED 2, we still get the stop-motion animation of demons, zombies, and other evil apparitions. Strangely enough, it works for the film. With the movie's cartoonish persona, it seems unlikely that CGI-generated effects would have fit as well with the film's tone and mood.
In the end, the film sets itself up for the final chapter in this horror-trilogy, with Ash being sucked through a portal and travelling back in time to fight demons once again, but with knights, wizards, and warriors. The sequel was titled Army Of Darkness, but what was Raimi's original title? The Medieval Dead.
Is Evil Dead 2 a great film? Probably not, but it's great fun, and sometimes that's just as important.
Although, I think Jack Black would state otherwise:
And for an example of the film's no-holds-barred, tongue-in-cheek ridiculousness, look no further than the following scene:
2 comments:
I love that movie! Not the horror one. . .High Fidelity!
Evil Dead II is the latest cult films and perhaps my favorite horror movies. Bruce Campbell was played the role of Ash once again in that film terribly hilarious follow-up legendary. Few people continue to live in the original, much less overcome.
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