A self-loathing send-up of the original Evil Dead film

Rating: Null/10 (2 October 2002)

** This review may contain spoilers for both Evil Dead I and II, proceed at your own risk **
I viewed Evil Dead I and II back to back, and I find it fitting to post my comments about both movies in a review for Evil Dead II. I expected Evil Dead II to be a sequel to the first movie, and I was surprised that it wasn't a continuation of the first film.
Sam Raimi who directed both films must have received a ton of criticism for the first Evil Dead movie. The proof is in Evil Dead II. It's as if Raimi took all the elements of criticism he received as a dare that he couldn't make a movie worse than the first Evil Dead. Raimi delivers on this dare by taking every point of criticism about the first film, and making these criticized elements worse and cheesier in Evil Dead II. Evil Dead II comes off as an intentionally sabotaged remake of Evil Dead I. Some examples you may be asking yourself?
Did you find it odd in Evil Dead I that Ash's blood spattered face was always clean and pristine as soon as the camera angle changed for the next scene? In Evil Dead II Raimi takes this one step further. The scene in particular that sticks out in my mind: a woman gets showered with enough blood to fill a wading pool. Her shorts are drenched in blood, leaving a huge stain on them when the blood waterfall finally subsides. In the next scene her shorts look brand new, there's not a drop of blood on them! Gotta love those new stain resistant Dockers khaki's.
Were you p***ed off in the first movie that Ash seemed to have these wonderful antibodies that prevented him from becoming a zombie? Well that situation is rectified within the first 5 minutes of Evil Dead II. Ladies and Gentlemen please welcome the new and improved half-zombie Ash!

Were you bored during the first hour of Evil Dead I when the plot moved slowly to build suspense? In Evil Dead two as soon as the opening credits stop rolling, we're hit right off the bat with a fast paced `horror' action scene. There is no suspense whatsoever in Evil Dead 2. The fast and intense pace at which the above mentioned supernatural attack scene occurs speaks as a metaphor for Raimi's reaction to criticism that Evil Dead I moved too slowly.
The key plot elements are the same for both movies: a destroyed bridge traps a small group of people in a cabin surrounded by an evil possessed forest. The previous occupant of the cabin was a researcher interested in a book of the dead that brought about the demonic possession of the forest and any that entered the cabin. There's a very cool ornamental dagger whose purpose isn't explained in either movie. Even with the more modern special effects in Evil Dead II, I'd recommend you see the first Evil Dead, rather than the second. Evil Dead I is quite suspenseful, it's a decent horror/gore film given the era it was produced in. Evil Dead II is nothing more than a self-loathing send-up of the original.