Evil Dead 2 Review

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We watched Evil Dead 2 on Amazon and this movie has been a favorite of mine since I was a little kid. The combination of stop motion, practical effects, and Bruce Campbell’s amazing physical acting makes for one of the best comedy horrors ever made.

Evil Dead 2 Synopsis

Evil Dead 2 is the story of Ash and his girlfriend Annie who drive deep into the woods to have a nice time breaking and entering into a cabin that isn’t theirs. Following their felony, Ash stumbles upon the Necronomicon Ex Mortis – the book of the dead.

The book served as a passageway to the evil worlds beyond. Written long ago when the seas ran red with blood, and this blood was used to ink the book. in the year 1300 AD the book disappeared.

Ash plays a tape recorder with a translation of the pages from the book, and that’s enough to unleash more evil than they bargained for.

Evil Dead 2 Review

Evil Dead 2 (1987) is sort of a remake of the first movie that started it all The Evil Dead, by Sam Raimi. It’s not a step by step remake, and it differs in a lot of ways, but the premise is very similar – people go to a cabin in the woods, find the book of the dead, and are attacked by a long-dead evil.

Where the first movie is deadly serious and quite disturbing, Evil Dead 2 takes a more comedy-based approach while maintaining an incredible array of shocking visuals. The effects in this are so over-the-top that it’s pushed into goofy, nervous laughter territory.

Couple these super-cool effects with Bruce Campbell’s most incredible performance of all time. He carries this movie in a way that amazes me every time I watch it. For almost half of this film Campbell manages to act alone, with almost nothing to react to and his energy is unbelievable.

Finally, I really enjoy how this movie manages tension with silence and stillness juxtaposed with loudness and chaos. It’s a classic that’s based on a classic, and Ash gets a sawed off chainsaw for a missing hand coupled with a sawed off shotgun – the most bad-ass pairing of weapons since peanut butter and chainsaws for hands.

Score

10/10

Spoilers

If you haven’t seen this movie, you really must.

Evil Dead 2 takes a very simple premise and creates a playground of special effects around it. 

There isn’t a tremendous amount to spoil in this one, it’s mostly the story of how a long-dead evil is summoned at an old cabin in the woods, and what Ash does to put it back in its place.

The end result is the most fun you may ever have in a horror movie, action is everywhere. The violence is so insane and prolific that you can’t help but laugh at the spectacle of it. 

No one but Sam Raimi could have pulled this thing off, and to be honest, no one ever has. The 2013 remake, Evil Dead is technically a remake of the first movie. So, number two continues to stands alone.

Final Recommendations

Everyone you know should watch this movie.