#1 Evil Dead 2 Review: Top 5 Horror Films For Halloween
Runtime: 85 mins Release Date: March 13th, 1987
Director: Sam Raimi
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks
Screenplay: Sam Raimi, Scott Speigel Score: Joseph LoDuca
Distributor: Rosebud Releasing Corporation
So, Evil Dead 2 is not just my favorite horror film, but my favorite film period. Essentially a remake of Evil Dead (so don’t worry about watching the first one, it’s unnecessary) with more of an emphasis on Bruce Campbell's character Ash, Evil Dead 2 follows similar beats but is executed substantially better with a much tighter narrative and better effects.
The film starts with Ash and his girlfriend Linda (Denise Bixler) on their way out to a seemingly deserted cabin in the woods. Ash, the cheap guy that he is, decides to occupy an “abandoned” cabin rather than pay for one. Denise mentions that this situation makes her uncomfortable and wonders what they’ll do if the owners return while they're there. Ash shrugs her off and says “we can just say we had some car trouble.” Soon after, Linda is getting ready for bed and Ash goes out into the living room where he discovers a recorder, and Linda encourages him to hit play to see what's on it.
Ash plays the recording and learns that the cabin is owned by a professor Raymond Knowby who had found a book called The Necronomicon in a castle out in Europe and has now brought it back to this cabin to study it undisturbed. The book’s cover resembles a face in agony and is bound with human flesh and inked with human blood. As the recording plays it gets to a point where Knowby begins to speak the “demon resurrection passages” (I’m hoping because he assumed it was nonsense) and as the incantation is being spoken, we see a force come in from the woods that smashes through the bedroom window and takes Linda.
That's the 10 minute mark on the film and what follows is an absolute nightmare for Ash. His girlfriend is possessed and he has to “deal” with her. These demons like to toy with their victims, so Ash goes through a solo psychological torment for the first act of the film. In the commentary the director, Sam Raimi (who you might know from the first Spider Man trilogy), said that producers didn’t like this part of the film quoting that they said “you can’t just have one man alone for the first act of the film.” But it really works, there's even a scene where he's so scared he can’t even scream. He tries to but nothing comes out.
Evil Dead 2 is 50/50 horror and comedy though, while it is pretty gory it’s also hilarious. The director is a huge three stooges fan, and the amount of slapstick mixed in with violence brings a lighter tone to this film that you don’t find in many movies within the genre. To give you an idea of how much I like this film, I watched it so much when I was younger that I literally melted the DVD. It is pretty gory though, so if you don’t have the stomach for that I’d say you should probably avoid it. But if you can and want a truly enjoyable horror film from start to finish to watch on Halloween, I don't think you could find a film much better than Evil Dead 2.
