Evil Dead 2 - GROOVY!!

Rating: Null/10 (9 July 2000)

ED2 is not, repeat NOT, to be taken seriously. Sure its a horror film that tries (and to some extent succeeds) in scaring the audience, but at the same time it lampoons the horror & gore with slapstick comedy.
I suppose it must have been a tricky job for director Raimi deciding on the right mix between comedy & horror because normally both genres are complete opposites.
He didn't get the mix right first time round with ED1, but then again he didn't have the budget either; but with ED2 everything is just right.
Bruce Campbell reprises his original ED1 role as Ash, taking his girlfriend to a very remote country retreat (I sometimes wonder what kind of girlfriend, or anyone for that matter, would fancy spending a few days in a cottage in the deepest forest & highest mountain retreat in the US, but never mind.)
Anyway, Ash find the Book of the Dead and a tape recorder. He plays it back and we're smothered in all sorts of incantations & sinister spells that have somehow raised the spirits of the dead within the forest. And from that point on the action begins in earnest as Ash battles the demons, zombies, ghosts & other horrible creations (no lawyers unfortunately!)
The violence & gore are plentiful and yet tolerable. We don't shriek away like we would do if it was a pretty young thing from Scream or Halloween; instead its just a straight battle against the good guys & girls against the bad.
But it's the clever slapstick that really makes this film so richly entertaining. The wandering Hand, is truly a classic piece of cinema, and I loved the way it gave the Finger to Ash in total defiance but then got its own comeuppance in a mouse trap!
Then there's the chainsaw (Ash's new appendage for the lost hand); and from that point on we know the movie has moved away from the real sinister beginning to something a bit more convivial & tasteless.
The camerawork is really good, especially the 1st person scenes with the camera playing the Forest Demon chasing after Ash in his own home.

Raimi too deserves praise for making a better, rounded film treating the audience with a little more respect & intelligence than he did with the first (there's no tree rape scene here thank goodness!)
But top marks must go to Campbell, who plays Ash with a passion & kinetic vigour that you don't often see these days. The best thing is that he did nearly all of his own stunts - especially when he has to throw himself around the room smashing plates in his face etc.
It's a shame that he hasn't really broken into the Major studio circuit and will probably be always labelled as "Ash, the cool man with the handy chainsaw & a mission with Hell."
GROOVY!!!
***/*****