Evil Dead II (Special Edition)

..It's not nearly as good as the original in my opinion. Despite the more professional look and better pacing, I prefer the original for its lack of slapstick. The first worked so well because it was such an unrelenting and grueling experience and was the finest horror film since "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". It didn't take prisoners, and while its a bit dated it still has the power to terrify the audience. Not to mention it had some great if primitive stop motion effects. I really wish Sam Raimi would make another all out horror film again as that's what he does best.

That being said, "Evil Dead II" is still quite enjoyable on its own merits. I usually hate films that attempt to combine horror with comedy. While "Evil Dead II" is not quite scary, its often hilarious. Imagine an off the wall combination of "Friday the 13th" with the Three Stooges, and you're coming close. The sight gags are often surreal and inspired, the sequence with the hand being the finest. Also, the film is very atmospheric and still maintains a sense of unnerving creepiness, which was completely jettisoned for "Army of Darkness" which I'm a big fan of. This film has plenty of gore to still appeal to fans of the original. The gore is so over-the-top its difficult to find it even remotely offensive.

Special mention must go to Bruce Campbell. While he was a meek and unwilling hero in the first film, he is a completely over-the-top bad a.. in this one! It's a very finely tuned parody performance of action stars. While this is the role that leads him to being typecast, it also made him a cult legend. Its a shame he didn't become a bigger star. While its not as successful as the first installment, "Evil Dead II" is a lot of fun and one of the best combinations of horror and humor.

Evil Dead II:Dead By Dawn is the 1987 sequel to the Evil Dead movie made in 1981. The film was directed by Sam Raimi. It starred Bruce Campbell & Sarah Berry. Often looked upon as a remake of the first film on a higher budget, it isn't and wasn't intended to be. The story goes a lil something like this: Ash and his girlfriend Linda take a romantic vacation to a seemingly abandoned cabin in the woods (which is all just basically a recap of the first film minus everyone else to catch viewers up with the plot). While in the cabin, Ash plays a tape of an archeology professor reciting passages from the Necronomicon(or "Book of the Dead"), which he has discovered during an archaeological dig(the professor, that is.). The recorded incantation unleashes an evil force that kills and possesses the body of Linda. Ash is forced to sacrifice his girlfriend. After he buries and dismembers his girlfriend, a spirit is seen on the hunt for Ash. It's there where the film picks up and continues. Alot of people don't know it but this movie might not have been made if it weren't for Author Stephen King. At the time, King was directing his first movie, Maximum Overdrive, based on his short story "Trucks". He had dinner with a crewmember who had been interviewed about the Evil Dead sequel, and the crewmember told King that the film was having trouble attracting funding. Upon hearing this, King, who had written a review of the first film which helped it become an audience favorite, called Dino De Laurentiis and asked him to fund the film. Initially skeptical, De Laurentiis agreed but only alotted Raimi & company $3.6 million as opposed to them wanting $4 million to make the movie. This sequel was originally planned to send Ash back to Medieval times but it was scrapped because of funding. That concept, eventually, became the third movie in the Evil Dead series. Evil Dead II did quite well at the box-office with fans of the original returning to see the further adventures of their favorite hero, Ash. Only this time, it isn't so much a horror movie as it is a 'dark' comedy of sorts with lots of gore. It's further proof that movies of this type can succeed. This Special Edition DVD is packed with plenty of extras. Indeed, it's another classic worth adding to your collection.

Evil Dead 2 seems to be more of a reinterpretation of the original rather than a chronological sequel. The plethora of special effects that you are bombarded with from the first scene makes it quite evident that the film makers had a considerably larger budget to work with here, and the rest of the movie continues to pile the effects on pretty thick. Fancied by many as the best of the series, Evil Dead 2 at the very least matches the entertainment value of the original classic, and goes down as a solid offering on its own.

Here, we begin with Ash and his girlfriend driving down to the isolated cabin from the first movie for a weekend. We seem to be given the abbreviated version of the events that took place in the original, because the book is discovered and the spirits are unleashed a mere five minutes into the movie. Ash is soon alone again in the cabin battling the spirits as they taunt him and they even give life to house hold items, coming across as more comical than anything as a deer head on the wall begins cackling loudly. A number of rather silly comedic moments ensue as Ash dismembers his own possessed hand and has a game of cat and mouse with it armed with a shotgun. Meanwhile, two couples make their way to the cabin in hopes of retrieving the book and research about it. However they soon join Ash in his struggle against the evil dead as the movie intensifies, and eventually culminates in a completely over-the-top ending.

As I mentioned, while the movie is plenty gory and horror themed, the overall vibe of it is quite comedic and it is more satirical of horror in nature. So if you're the type that doesn't like any slap stick goofiness mixed in with your terror, this would probably not be one for you as it is almost remniscient of Three Stooges material with a horror spin added. If this does indeed sound like the type of movie you'd like, this is one of the better examples of how it's done along with Army of Darkness, (which this film sets the stage for). I'd highly recommend Evil Dead 2 to the campy horror fan.

this film is sam raimi's baby! when this film was released everyone started ripping off raimi's camera techniqes.he was way ahead of his time.i love the shots when ash is in his car trying to escape where sam only films the hood of the car and the back end with that perfectly eerie music in the back round. i also love the shots of the cabin and the fog retreating from the forest.sometimes i wish my house would come to life and everything start laughing just like in the movie.....just no blood spraying all over me.best and least appreiciated film ever released by sam raimi!

Some of the reviews on Amazon for this movie are laughable. The "baby boomer alert" Crabtree guy who says this movie isn't funny. Umm, who on earth watches a movie with Bruce Campbell and expects a serious movie? This movie is supposed to be a comedy not a horror movie (after all we're talking about a guy who played Elvis battling a mummy!). Wow just wow. It's not often you see people miss the point THAT much. Nobody comes into this movie expecting any sort of serious horror except for 1 guy, LOL!

And the guy who says Shaun of the Dead is the only other competition for this movie in terms of horror comedy. LOL, OK let's see: Bubba Ho-Tep; An American Werewolf in London; The Toxic Avenger; Gremlins; Re-Animator; Bad Taste; Dead Alive; etc. You get the picture. There's tons of great horror comedies and this is just one of many.

To sum this movie up, it contains very hammy acting and some nice gory bits all rolled into one. It's a very fun movie.

I still can't believe someone actually watched a Bruce Campbell movie and expected an actual horror movie. If you want real horror I would suggest A Nightmare On Elm Street (only part 1), The Thing, The Fog (the original), Halloween, Dawn Of The Dead (original Romero), The Shining (probably the best horror movie ever made), The Exorcist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original), Psycho and The Descent. So there, I just gave you a list of some of the best real horror movies out there - watch those for horror, watch Evil Dead II for the slapstick.