The Ultimate Cult Classic!

Rating: 10/10 (23 May 2014)

For whatever reason, I've been on a horror kick for the past few months, which is odd because it's a genre for which I've never had much love. I've seen some good and some bad but it all made me want to go back to one of my favorites. A movie I had seen in over a decade: EVIL DEAD II. There is so much awesome in this movie and I'm pretty sure anyone reading my comments on here has already seen this movie so I'll probably just use this space to share my love for it. In an age where the new horror movies flooding theaters on a yearly basis are near carbon copies of each other, following the same formulas and hitting the same notes, just remember we'll always have Sam Raimi's cult classic to fall back on. The argument could be made that EVIL DEAD II is more comedy than horror, but any movie that features supernatural tree rape and loads of chainsaw violence are going to have a foot in the genre. The movie is essentially the same premise as the original: Ash Williams brings his girlfriend to a remote cabin in the woods for some romance but finds a tape recorder containing readings from the Necronomiconthe Book of the Dead. As the words are spoken aloud, an ancient evil awakens and terrorizes Ash, driving him to the point of insanity. But hope is not lost as he is soon joined by a handful of visitors, one of which might be able to decipher the texts and find a means of sending the evil back when to the depths of Hell.
Where do I begin? I love pretty much everything about this movie. It is the ultimate low budget movie that proudly displays the love of the craft from everyone involved. The cast and crew endured less than favorable shooting conditions and minimal resources but their desire to create a memorable piece of horror/comedy fun drove them through it all to create the epic-ness that is EVIL DEAD II. Sam Raimi and crew have an obvious goal of pushing the envelope of taste to the very edge without going over to the point that their movie never would've seen the light of day. When you think about it, the violence in EVIL DEAD II is pretty brutal. Decapitations, stabbings, dismemberment, blood and ooze everywherebut it's all done with this screwball tone that makes it less cringe-inducing and more laughable. When a character is dragged to their death through a basement trap door, it's accompanied by gallons and gallons and gallons (and gallons) of blood pumped from below in tidal wave proportions. Ash cutting off his demon-possessed hand is preceded by a Three Stooges-inspired fight between Bruce Campbell and himself in the kitchen. While the movie is still totally inappropriate for kids for the content, there isn't a whole lot you could consider "scary" about this horror classic. Even if you the humor injected through the film's total absurdity isn't enough to keep you laughing instead of screaming, the film's minuscule budget ensures that nothing here will be sending you screaming from the room.
I love, love, love the practical effects of this film. Raimi shoots for the moon with only enough budget to cross the county line, but he uses every conceivable trick to craft his film. Miniatures, matte paintings, and puppetry give this movie a perfect retro vibe. Creature effects are done with rubber suits and make-up, and camera tricks are used to perfect cheesy effect. And let's not forget Bruce Campbell, the man who became legend thanks to his role as Ash Williams, hero of the EVIL DEAD series. I honestly don't believe anyone but Campbell could've pulled off a character like Ash. Equal parts stone-cold hero and bumbling moron, Ash wages a one-man war against the Evil Dead. When the series was rebooted with EVIL DEAD in 2013, I enjoyed the movie but the one thing it could never recreate would be this character (and I'm glad they didn't try). Campbell gets it. He and Raimi knew just what this character needed to be this time around and they absolutely nailed it.
EVIL DEAD II is a movie that needs to be passed down through the generations, whether it be by friend of family. I was introduced to the series by a friend when I was in high school; he had the movies on VHS and we binged on them in a single night to introduce them to me. When my daughter gets old enough, you can be sure I'll be sharing this movie with her. EVIL DEAD II is a classic. It's rare that director and his crew do so much with so little, especially in an age when most movies do the exact opposite. Keep the love for this movie alive and share it with future generations of fans.