Evil Dead 2 by Sam Raimi (Review)

You just know that the cast and crew had a blast making this movie! You can see it in the reckless abandon, the slapstick energy, the dozens of buckets of blood that are used in a single scene. This is what bad movies are all about, when a movie transcends all of the gore and camp, not to mention lackluster production values, to become that highest of all cinematic stations: the “cult classic.”

Ash (played to the hilt by Bruce Campbell) and his girlfriend are in the woods at an abandoned cabin to get a little nookie. Unfortunately for them, this is the same cabin where a professor worked to translate the Necronomicon, the Book of the Dead (for all of you Lovecraft fans). Ash turns on a recording of the professor reciting the passages from the Necronomicon. An evil force is unleashed, turning Ash’s gal into a zombie. After decapitating her, Ash is faced with one horrific occurrence after another until he goes insane. Which is not a good thing, considering the professor’s daughter, her boyfriend, and two hicks come to the cabin. Discovering the bloody and stark raving mad Ash, they believe he’s killed her parents. Of course, it turns out that Ash may be their only hope as the demonic forces renew their attacks on the cabin.

You know what happens next. Characters make stupid mistakes that anyone with a modicum of common sense would never make and get dispatched in ultra-bloody fashion. Calling this movie gory is like saying that football is Nebraska’s state religion. And like Nebraska football, you just can’t take it seriously. Oh, I guess you could try. But watching Ash get sprayed with geysers of blood shooting from the wall, or cutting off his possessed hand with a chainsaw, or even fighting an evil zombie down in the fruit cellar will probably change your mind. There’s some blood and guts… okay, a lot of blood and guts, but the anyone who gets grossed out by this doesn’t understand the meaning of the world hyperbole.

The real reason Evil Dead 2 is so darn good is Bruce Campbell, who hams it up as Ash. Campbell throws himself into the role, literally. He breaks things over his head, throws himself down stairs, and gets sprayed with gore over and over again. Sam Raimi loves to get in close to Ash’s face, watching him howl and scream in madness as he cuts up various things, and Campbell plays it like the perfect buffoon, overacting ever step of the way. Raimi’s direction is the other real star focus of the film. His camerawork is exaggerated and ludicrous, zooming and careening all over the place. He utilizes every cheap special effect in the book, from stop-motion animation to rear projection, adding a cartoonish feel to the entire film. Yet another reason why I find this film impossible to take seriously.

And you know what, no one should take this film seriously. It’s a bad movie, a terrible movie, a cheesy movie. And I mean each one of those with love and respect. This is the kind of movie that my friends and I would make, buckets of fake blood in hand. it’s campy, surreal, and would probably make for quite an acid trip. Sometimes, the movie does go too overboard, the ludicrousness of it all gets too heavyhanded to be funny. But for the most part, Evil Dead 2 is one of those great slasher flicks where any technical and acting shortcomings are turned around and become the film’s greatest strengths.