Unlike the majority of the horror-lovin' world, I was not a fan of EVIL DEAD (1981), groundbreaking indie effort though it was, so in my eyes just about anything would have been acceptable as a followup. Luckily its first sequel was this delirious more-or-less, kinda/sorta remake of the first film, only with a bigger budget and director Sam Raimi displaying bolstered confidence behind the camera to compliment his visual imagination. Like a live-action cartoon filtered through a modern sensibility as influenced by a dosed-on-mushrooms Charles Addams, the movie is a roller coaster ride of crazed incidents and a sense of loony humor that would have been right at home in a Three Stooges short.
The plot is about as basic as it gets: Assorted innocents find themselves at a remote cabin that's home to the Book of the Dead, a tome that unleashes all manner of demonic forces when its pages are read aloud. At the center of all of this is Ash (Bruce Campbell reprising his role from the first film, with this followup being the turn that earned him his ongoing status as a top cult movie presence), a hapless everyman who is put through the wringer by the rampaging evil spirits. We root for him as he endures torment after torment and self-mutilation, and his adventure perfectly walks the fine line between the utterly terrifying and the downright hilarious.
The birth of an iconic image: Ash swaps his self-severed hand for a chainsaw.
EVIL DEAD II is a horror comedy all the way, and in my opinion it is the hybrid of those two flavors that most perfectly nails the desired effect. Its set pieces are brutal, gory, and scary, but they are also howlingly funny, so the film is best approached with as little foreknowledge of its mad antics as possible.
As previously stated, this is pretty much a remake of the first film, so you can just skip that one and start here. EVIL DEAD II has a bigger budget, more imagination, and a greater sense of confidence and refinement from the filmmakers, and it came as quite a breath of fresh air during a decade dominated by dime-a-dozen un-scary and dirt-cheap slasher no-brainers. In short, EVIL DEAD II is a must-see gem.
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