Name-drop time of someone you have never heard of, but a school friend called Darren Murphy said come round and watch Evil Dead. Well, it actually turned out to be ‘Evil Dead II’ and my Horror movie cherry was popped which then started me on the trail of loving horror and suspense movies that will be dotted throughout the list. This was released in 1987, some 6 years after the original movie which was labelled a video nasty and banned over here in the UK. This movie on the other hand was too comedic to worry the censors that much. We saw the return of Bruce Campbell and despite ‘re-doing’ the original movie to be able to bring this one the other actors from the first movie did not return. It could be that they were all killed off in the original and decided never to return. This film was produced by Robert Tapert and written by Scott Spiegel and Sam Raimi with the directing credit going to Sam Raimi alone. This movie was made and distributed on a sober budget constraint with production costing $3.5m and a return of $10.9m from the box office. Along with Bruce Campbell the movie also starred Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks, Kassie Wesley, and Richard Domeier. Critically liked as well with a score of 7.8 out of 10 from IMDb and an amazing score from Rotten Tomatoes of 95%. Moving onto the plot…
In this version Ash and his girlfriend Linda drive to a cabin hidden in the woods. Ash finds a tape player left in the cabin which he plays out loud. The tape awakens an evil force in the woods that possesses Linda and Ash is forced to kill her. He is left alone in the cabin fighting for survival and his soul. Meanwhile the cabin’s owner’s daughter has just landed and with her man they are planning to head to the cabin to catch up with her father after finding more pages from the Necronomicon Exmortis (the Book of the Dead). Finding the bridge smashed they take advantage of two locals to carry their baggage to the cabin using their knowledge of the trail hidden by the naked eye. Having four new victims arrive at the cabin just as Ash is coming around to the fact, he is going to have to continue his fight for life and soul. The relatives finding no owners at the cabin and blood everywhere they put 2 and 2 together and conclude that Ash is a murderer and dump his down the cellar locking him down there. Anyone seeing the first film knows this is a bad idea. Left with 5 people in a cabin in the middle of nowhere now with the ancient papers to tear a rift in time linking history to today and an evil presence inhabiting the woods surrounding them. What could possibly go wrong?
This was my introduction to scary movies, and I picked a good one. There is some horror and plenty of gore (well blood) but there is also plenty of scoops of humour and fun. The whole hand scene is great, and the interaction of the characters and the evil presence is amazing. This is just funny and scary and silly and gory. All wrapped up in one movie. For me, the initial movie they really tried to be scary, the second they tried to be scary, but their humorous side was not kept in track, by the third movie they forgot all about the scary business and just went for 100% comedy. This middle movie has the best of both worlds with Bruce Campbell being tortured throughout by the director and close friend Sam Raimi. They worked on the third movie also and then came back together for the TV series. These guys work well together, and they have produced some great work both on Evil Dead and elsewhere. For this movie, it is a great one that makes you laugh whilst also make you puke and make you jump all at the same time. If you are toying with watching this stopping thinking and watch it, it’ll help with both the decision and enjoying the movie.
Next up is a comedy sent from god himself apparently…
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