Hail to the King (baby)

Rating: 10/10 (5 May 2016)

'Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn' – is it a sequel? Is it a remake? The argument rages to this day. However, ultimately, who cares? It's awesome! Well... if you like seeing grown men screaming as they're repeatedly covered in a variety of different-coloured bodily fluids. Luckily, I do.
Ignore the original 'Evil Dead' (yes, it was fun – for the time – but this one's head and shoulders over it when it comes to special effects, gore and characters). Whether Part II is a remake or sequel, it basically covers the entire of the first film in the opening ten minutes and then gathers steam from there. It is basically the original 'cabin-in-the-woods-movie.' So many times since we've seen a group of annoyingly-good looking teenagers head out to a cabin in the middle of nowhere, only to meet their end at the hands of something pretty nasty. But, back in Evil Dead/Evil Dead Part II's day – it was actually quite an original prospect – especially when it's done as well as this.
Yes, the prospect of people being stuck in a remote location and hunted by someone out of this world isn't that revolutionary, but it's the way it's done here that makes 'Dead by Dawn' a classic. Here the hapless humans are hunted by, not just the undead, but the 'evil' dead. If you're unclear of the difference, the evil dead aren't just your run-of-the-mill zombies, but demons who just look like zombies, but are a hundred times more powerful and are completely insane.
If the gore and general craziness of seeing a man fight his own (possessed) hand isn't enough for you to get you to watch this, you have Bruce Campbell as the central character, Ash. After this performance the B-movie world had a new cult hero who has gone on to not just star in the sequel, but countless computer games, comics and most recently a TV show. Basically, Ash is a chump – a stupid, sexist idiot who causes more problems than he actually gets round to solving. He is definitely not your average Hollywood hero – and the film is all the better for it.
Ash makes Evil Dead. Evil Dead would just be another horror film without Ask. If you don't believe me – look into the remake of Evil Dead that completely omitted him (and I'm not counting the 'too-little-too-late' cameo at the end of the film). It was rubbish. Or rather it was just another horror film. If you like your horror films, B-movies, or just wise-cracking insane heroes battling even more crazy demons, give this one a go. It's groovy.