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Rating: 4 Stars (out of 4)
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
A friend once told me that he put on a tape of Evil Dead II during a wild party,
just to show someone a particular scene. Before long the party came to a
standstill and everyone was gathered around the TV watching the film. I didn't
discount the story because I'd actually had a similar experience at another party
of my own.
That's just the kind of movie Evil Dead II is. You can't not watch it.
Evil Dead II is not so much a sequel as a remake of the original The Evil Dead (1983). Raimi and his crew made enough money on their first low-budget venture that they were given more money to make a sequel. Since Raimi had already planned to do Army of Darkness (then known as "Medieval Dead") as the REAL sequel, and he knew that it would cost more money than he had, he simply remade his first movie. Bruce Campbell returns from the first movie as Ash. He brings his girlfriend to a remote cabin in the woods that was used for research on the Book of the Dead and inadvertently sets an evil demon loose and spends the weekend trying to fight it off.
The movie contains plenty of shocks and startling moments. It doesn't ever bother to build suspense (at least not for very long) because it would kill its own furious momentum. Most of the scares come from unbelievable stuff suddenly popping in from the corner of the frame, such as the headless re-animated corpse of Ash's girlfriend, now wielding a chainsaw. We jump when it bursts through the door, but we're laughing when Ash deflects the chainsaw and it splits the corpse's neck in two, spewing black blood everywhere. We also laugh because the corpse is so ridiculous looking. It bobbles along like a muppet.
Everyone has a favorite part, but mine is still the eyeball. An evil demon is trying to get out of the basement through a trapdoor in the floor. Our hero jumps up and down on the trapdoor to get it closed, but not before the demon's eyeball pops out, flies across the room, and lands inside a woman's mouth.
The real trick of Evil Dead II is not just the scares and the gags. It's the pure kinetic energy. It moves with a vicious speed not seen since Howard Hawks' His Girl Friday (1940). It powers through its 83 minutes like it was a short cartoon. Yet it's never overwhelming. Director Raimi instinctively knows when--and for how long--to give us a breather.
I consider myself very lucky to have grown up in the 1980s and been a "discoverer" of this movie. (I was the first one to rent it and show it to my friends.) And I'm glad to see that it stands up to another viewing today.
DVD Details: Anchor Bay Entertainment's new DVD has all the extras a fan could want. It comes with a commentary track, recorded by Raimi, Campbell, co-writer Scott Spiegel, and F/X man Greg Nicotero. Most of the commentary consists of the filmmakers' ridiculing their own film, Mystery Science Theater 3000-style, and pointing out all the times that Raimi tortured Campbell on the set. Yet, there's definitely an underlying pride in their work. The disc also contains an amazing 30-minute documentary featuring vintage video footage shot on the set, as well as a trailer, a preview for a new Evil Dead video game, biographies and filmographies for Raimi and Campbell, and a choice between widescreen and pan-and-scan versions. This DVD is definitely the format on which to own this movie, following on the heels of Anchor Bay's definitive Army of Darkness DVD.
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks, Kassie Wesley, Theodore Raimi (Ted Raimi), Denise Bixler
Written by: Sam Raimi, Scott Spiegel
Directed by: Sam Raimi
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 85 minutes
Date: September 28, 2000
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