Evil Dead 2

Evil Dead II, the Sequel to the Ultimate Experience in Grueling Horror (1987)

Directed by: Sam Raimi
Written by: Sam Raimi and Scott Spiegel
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks, Kassie Wesley, Richard Domeier, Ted Raimi, Denise Bixler, John Peakes, Lou Hancock

Part two of Halloween goodness. Noticing a theme? Anyway, half sequel/half remake I guess of/to the original Evil Dead. It sort of recaps the first movie in about ten minutes, changing details enough to confuse me (I was thinking, 'this guy takes his new girlfriend, also named Linda, to the same cabin where the last Linda got killed, gives her the same necklace, watches her get possessed by the same evil spirits and cuts her head off. Try explaining that to the cops'). Anyway, yeah. All recap.

In this one, he and a bunch of new people must fight off the evil demons or whatever, trying not to get eaten by the one living in the cellar. Oh yeah, and he cuts his hand off.

It certainly surpasses the original in terms of sheer grossness (dude obviously had a bigger budget for FX et cetera) and weird... shit. It sometimes borders on too silly, like some kind of really fucked up kids show. This worries me.

My associate observed that it looked sort of like a Tim Burton movie. Indeed! The creatures look like they belonged in the waiting room in Beetlejuice or something.

Anyway, it's as entertaining as the first one, and more advanced technically, though not so polished as to take away from the nasty low budget goodness of the original. It maintains a sense of mayhem (no plot, no character development! Yay, chaos! Actually, main guy seems to be developing into an asshole of some variety... still he reminds me of, like, the distant cousin of Joxer the Mighty. Not as weenie, maybe) or something.

And hey, there's some pretty nifty chainsaw action going on there. I wish I had a chainsaw for a hand. Actually, maybe not. It would make certain things kind of difficult. Making a cup of tea, for instance (I always worried about the little details of Edward Scissorhands' life, but that's a topic for another time). Still. It's pretty good for killing the undead among us.

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