! ! ! Greatest Movie of All-Time ! ! !

Rating: 10/10 (25 May 2016)

First off: I am a fanatic for this movie, Evil Dead 2 is without the slightest doubt the best horror-comedy ever made, as well as the best movie ever made. I've never seen a more exciting and more entertaining movie and I CAN'T STOP coming back for more! I estimate that since June of 1989 I've watched it over a thousand times, literally. No joke. How's that for replay value. To me it's the absolute ultimate movie-experience and it never seems to lose it's ability to entertain. Evil Dead 2 is THE keystone to ANY respectable home-video collection. Nostalgia aside, let us delve into this iconic masterpiece of comedy and horror.
The plot is very similar to the first Evil Dead film (an excellent horror film in it's own right), but the second coming of the Evil Dead franchise leaves it's predecessor in the dust, it's superior in every possible aspect. Where to start, lets start with the talent in front of the camera: Bruce Cambell reprises his iconic role of "Ash" and he plays it MUCH better this time, it's in this movie that he's undeniably in top form to wage his war against the mighty Deadites. It's a good thing too, because Ash is tortured and abused mercilessly throughout the entire movie.
Evil Dead 2 plays up the humor angle more so then the first entry, the splatter effects are more spectacular and Ash with "old double-barrel" is better armed then before; not to mention the chain-saw plays a much greater role, eventually finding itself grafted onto Ash's bloody stump of a wrist. The first half of the film, is essentially Ash versus the evil spirits of the woods and the possessed severed head of his freshly decapitated girlfriend and eventually her headless, chain-saw wielding, animated corpse. Not to mention his left hand becomes infected and demon possessed, which turns violent towards him almost instantly and makes an all out effort to kill Ash, who eventually pins it to the floor with a knife and then cuts it off with the chainsaw; all this makes for some of the most intensely entertaining scenes in the movie. The first half of the movie culminates in one of the most intense "laugh-outs" ever committed to film, where parts of the interior of the cabin (starting with a deer head that's mounted on the wall) begin to jitter and jangle with demonic vibrations; in the spanse of an electrifying minute no fewer than 8 to 10 distinctly different laughing fits, Ash included, fill the air - this terribly ticklish scene might make you feel a little tingly. The first half seems to pack more of the distinctive black humor, that's a trademark of the series, that's because it's largely just Ash versus the evil spirits in and around the cabin, or more accurately: Ash vs The Cabin. Later on with the introduction of four more people (to kill off), who are often at odds with each other, it becomes more character driven and less spook-house in feel. However, the movie still manages pack PLENTY of that deliciously unholy (and often hilarious) super-natural mayhem, which is the main driving force behind the movie - that and surviving it. Bursting with manic energy, Evil Dead 2 moves along like an unholy roller-coaster, riding upon rails of blood, spewing smoke and fire at it's viewers from beginning to end. It's completely unhinged and utterly insane.
The second half of the film finds four unfortunate people, (one of which is the daughter of the guy who owned the secluded cabin) walking through the woods up to the cabin and, unbeknownst to them, right into a nightmarish hell-realm of demon-born chaos. Their clearly not aware of the danger and one by one over the course of the next 40 minutes they each meet their demise - some of which (Jake) at the hands of each other, well more or less. The finale see's Ash in combat against, the witch in the cellar or "possessed Henrietta", as he slowly emerges from the cellar's trap-door, battle weary, but still standing. A heroic Ash absolutely unleashes a can-of-whoop-ass and proceeds to kick some serious Deadite ass, victoriously slaying the demonic "extendo-neck" witch with his partners in crime: his wrist-mounted chain-saw and old double-barrel, which by now is sawed-off "Groovy!". Once thou hath slayed Henrietta, it's now up to Annie to dispel the evil, by way of certain incantations found in the pages of the Book of the Dead (aka Necronomicon Ex Mortis), she recites the passages and basically counteracts evil with evil, effectively vanquishing the very spirits, that just days earlier her father unwittingly unleashed, by reading aloud from the very same book, BUT ultimately - Annie wins out; but then wastes no time in dying herself, by way of a bloody, back-stabbing Kandarian dagger made of bone. Ash is thusly and dramatically sucked into a vortex and transported back in time, to 1300 A.D. and, as was prophesied, becomes "The Hero From The Sky"; as he immediately finds himself amid an army of medieval armor-clad knights, that are in battle with a winged Deadite demon. Ash, as cool as can be, blows it head off with trusty old double-barrel, seeing this, the knights all begin to worship him, their proclamation goes as such: "Hail he who has fallen from the skies to deliver us from the curse of the Deadites Hail! - Hail! - Hail!" And slowing panning out and ending with a double-fisted clang: roll end credits. Evil Dead 2 is "the sequel to the ultimate experience in grueling terror".
29 years after its release I've yet to see any movie that comes even close to knocking it off it's throne. Hyper-kinetic in pace, brilliantly filmed and edited, splattered with spectacular gore effects and brought home by the best acting performance of Bruce Cambell's career. Evil Dead 2 has long-proved to be the best of its kind......and the best overall.