The Evil Dead Series:Part 2.

Rating: 10/10 (29 January 2017)

Looking at the obit page on IMDb's Classic Film board,I was sad to see that Evil Dead 2 co-star John Peakes had died over the weekend. Talking to a fellow IMDb a few days ago about watching the movie for the first time,I decided to pay a tribute viewing to Peakes.
The plot:
In the cabin with his girlfriend Linda,Ash finds a tape recorder. Playing the tape,Ash finds that it is a recording of Professor Raymond Knowby reading from The Book of the Dead,that awakes an evil curse. Stopping the demon from taking him over,Ash chops his girlfriend Linda's head off for the second time (!),whilst finding that the exit from the woods is closed. Trying find their own way out,Knowby's daughter Annie,fellow researcher Ed Getley and guides Jake and Bobby Joe open the cabin door to find Ash taking on the evil dead.
View on the film:
Setting the mood for the flick, John Peakes gives a charming performance as Knowby,whose eerie voice in the opening whips up a Gothic chill. Picking up the chainsaw again, Bruce Campbell beams with a real growth in confidence as Ash,via Campbell hitting the quirky Comedy shotguns with a demonic glee,and taking down the living evil dead with brash one-liners.
Kicking the cabin doors open,the screenplay by co-writer/(along with Scott Spiegel) director Sam Raimi leaves no waste on the bone,with the 20 minute set-up of the first film being replaced by a rolling 5 minute intro. Not needing to set anything up,the writers tear the horror jugular with outrageous slap-stick and cackling demons. Playing fast and loose with the plot,the writers grip all of the horror chills and comedy spills on Ash's grisly fight or flight survival instinct.
Finding themselves with some decent cash for the first time in the series,director Sam Raimi & cinematographer Peter Deming masterfully mash gooey Horror,vicious slap-stick Comedy and quirky stop-motion Fantasy animation for a deadly delight. Splashing the screen in green and red ooze burning in lighting fast tracking shots circling the cabin,Raimi unexpectedly dips into Horror surrealism. Hitting Ash with buckets of demon blood,Raimi uses the surrealism to stop the flick becoming overly serious,via darkly hilariously bonkers set- pieces where Ash chainsaws a demonic head and fights against his own hand!,with Ash finding himself facing the evil dead for the second time.