groovy

Rating: 7/10 (28 January 2008)

After the underground success the original Evil Dead had, 6 years later Hollywood decided to make a sequel. By this point Bruce Campbell was in his mid to late 20's so playing the college kid was a little far-fetched so they altered the plot a bit, basically rendering the original movie as useless. Seriously, if you watch the whole series one after the other, its like the first movie never happened.
The story is Ash and his girlfriend go on a romantic getaway in a secluded cabin among the woods somewhere in Michigan, sound familiar? Ash then finds a tape of some doctor who used the house for research on a mysterious evil book known as the Necronomicon. Professor Knowby somehow translated the book and with the help of a huge 1980's tape recorder begins reciting passages from it. The passages he recites resurrect the deadites (the demons of the Necronomicon) and then WHAM all hell breaks loose, literally. Ash is forced to kill his possessed girlfriend, cut off his own hand and fight a tree...yes you read that right. Meanwhile while all this is going on, Professor Knowby's daughter and her boyfriend make their way to the cabin to find ol Knowby himself and run into a redneck couple along the way. All things come together where the handless Ash must join up with the crew to stop the Evil Dead once and for all.
I won't give away the rest because its too good to give it away so you'll just have to watch it yourself. Again the special effects were the star of the show but this time its kicked up a notch thanks to it being a better funded film than the first one. What made Evil Dead 2 a little better than the original was the original one was 100 % serious while the sequel was more of a horror/comedy with a few scenes that make you laugh including a Hulk Hogan style hulk-up before the final fight and of course the transformation. In the first movie Ash was this wussy guy caught in the middle of something strange but in this movie he transforms into a chainsaw welding, shotgun carrying superhero. He somehow manages to hook a chainsaw to where he cut off his hand (nevermind the fact he didn't bleed to death nor suffer gangrene) and carry around an old sawed-off shotgun......groovy.
Discount anything you've seen in the first movie if you want to enjoy the sequel, otherwise you'll be scratching your head wondering what's going on. Otherwise kick back with popcorn and enjoy the show. The highlight of the movie is the laughing scene where every inanimate object in the room begins to laugh and then Ash joins in the fun, priceless comedy.
7 out of 10