Never turn on an abandoned tape recorder!

Rating: 8/10 (3 November 2005)

Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" movies are so different in the way sequels are structured that they really have to be reviewed together. Raimi made the original "Evil Dead" as an extremely low budget college project back in 1982 with the help of buddies Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell. But what he lacked in money he more than made up for with a dizzying array of camera tricks, homemade special effects, and sheer nerve and bravado. It's a very simple story: four friends rent an isolated cabin in the woods where they find the abandoned notes and tape recorder of an archaeologist who's discovered a book named the Necronomicon ex Mortis or Book of the Dead. When they play back the recorded notes that contain translated passages from the book, they unleash a horde of demons which they then spend the rest of the night fighting. Although there's an INCREDIBLE amount of karo syrup/blood thrown all over the place, what impresses you most about this is how much humor Raimi manages to inject into the proceedings. There's some scary stuff, but it's hard to take it seriously or get offended when the demons torture Bruce Campbell with an array of gags straight out of the Three Stooges. Even the monsters are credited as "fake shemps" in the credits! There are a couple of scenes that are creepy, both visually and aurally, which is a credit to how inventive Raimi was in setting up shots and designing the sound on a budget that wouldn't pay for the caterer in an Ah-nuld movie. The first "Evil Dead" is very obviously made by a young director who loved making movies and couldn't wait to strut his stuff in front of the entire world. It became a video hit here, so a sequel was announced. But Raimi, Tapert and Campbell pulled a fast one on their audience  instead of doing a straight continuation of the story like a normal sequel, they went back and basically remade the first "Evil Dead". The difference was that this time they had access to a much bigger budget that would allow Raimi to really push things completely over the top and watch them go splat when they hit the other side! There's more blood, more gore, and more monsters but this one is even sillier and funnier than the original. As I said earlier, it's basically the same story, reworked slightly. Two of the original characters were jettisoned so that Raimi could concentrate more on Campbell's performance  and that's the glue that really holds both movies together. Campbell transforms his character from a terrified and rather mousy little nerd to a chainsaw-wieldin', shotgun-totin', quip-spewin' Ramboesque action hero who proceeds to chop, shoot, kick and punch the crap out of each and every demon that confronts him  even after having to chop his own hand off because "it went bad". If you can't handle lots of fake blood and gore, this isn't the movie for you  but if you like your horror mixed with smart-assy humor and lots of visual flair then this one's for you, buddy.