31 Days of Halloween Films #25: Evil Dead 2
The Lowdown: Everything that happened in The Evil Dead happens here, just funnier, and with multicolored blood.
The Breakdown: Widely regarded as one of the few films that may actually be better than its’ original, Evil Dead 2, it could be argued, created the entire horror-comedy genre. From the cheese infused opening rundown/remake of what happened in the previous film to the hammiest performance ever in a horror film by the King, Bruce Campbell, Evil Dead 2 is an absolute blast. One of Raimi’s most controversial choices with the film was making it a mostly straight comedy, heavily borrowing from Three Stooges slapstick and old Ray Harryhausen stop motion techniques. The end result is a funny, over the top but ultimately love-able demonic possession movie, full of gore and laughs in equal measure.
EDII does a phenomenal job of upping the ante from the previous film with several extreme scenes. While jamming a pencil into someone’s ankle is cringe inducing on its’ own, there really isn’t too much more shock inducing than a man chainsawing his own hand off out of desperation. Even some of the sillier scenes, such as the entire cabin laughing along with Ash, have a visceral sort of terror to them in that the tone of the scene is always one of surprise. You never know where the next jump scare is coming from in this film, and Raimi plays that up well throughout. By using his brother as the dreaded Henrietta also brilliantly walks that line of scary and funny, as many of Henrietta’s mannerisms are hilariously over the top, but also her general demeanor and look is menacing and creepy. While the original film had some of these comedy elements in it, EDII totally dives into the deep end with the concept.
The Comedown: If you’re a horror fan, I’d be shocked if you don’t love the Evil Dead movies. I simply have nothing bad to say about any of the trilogy (fuck the remake). These movies were always dark comedies, and EDII is the first film where Raimi embraces his true intentions and goes with it. With Campbell giving his absolute all to the role, innovative creature effects from KNB and a frenetic, comic-book-like pacing, Evil Dead II is an absolutely perfect Halloween film. Groovy.