RATING: ½


By Shawn McKenna
Date Reviewed: 11/07/99

"Hail to the king, baby."-- Ash in Army of Darkness

What would Halloween be without ghouls, phantasms, or Bruce Campbell? The Evil Dead series has a fanatic following akin to The Rocky Horror Picture Show and UHF. In the spirit of all cult picks, it has its own idioms and terminology. Evil Dead was scary, but Evil Dead II with its over-the-top gore and a sense of humor, which is sorely lacking from most horror films, became an underground classic and turned its leading character Bruce Campbell into a cult hero. Think of Night of the Living Dead meets the Three Stooges.

Ash (Bruce) takes his girlfriend up to a deserted cabin. What harm could there be in borrowing a place for the night? However, evil incantations are said and his fiancée becomes one of the living-impaired. He is forced to dispose of her and in the meantime is attacked by a powerful force that lives in the woods. For the better part of the film, the phantasm is never seen. We see through its eyes as it follows Ash knocking down trees or trying to break through doors. This is always a good approach to horror, because the fear of the unknown and not showing the specter right away is psychologically more terrifying. It is very effective and frugal for low-budget films. In most horror films the creature seems silly and the audience's fear is taken away.

Later in the film, we get the superfluous humans who come to the cabin to find out what happened to dear-old archeologist dad. He wrote them that he had found the Necronomican (sp?) -- the book of the dead. Now these friends and family of this archeologist are going to be fodder for the apparition. They will be turned into 'deadities', the living impaired, so that Ash can dispose of them in interesting and shocking ways. Ash has to live to see the sun light or he will be dead by dawn.

What sets this film apart from others in its genre is style and humor. In one scene, Ash's hand is possessed and he has to cut it off or the hand will do him in. After he lobs it off with a chainsaw and it escapes its imprisonment from a pail covered by the book, Hemingway's Farewell to Arms, it runs amok like an evil Thing from The Adam's Family. This scene is played off like a Three Stooges skit and the possessed hand alludes to Dr. Strangelove.

Try to find all of the movie's allusions. The many horror ones are obvious -- all of George Romero's films, several unknown B-films, the original Evil Dead, and mucho, mucho mas. Now try to find all of the Scorsese allusions.

I like this film on a multi-faceted level. Bruce's performance is an understatement of panache and ruggedness. The over-the-top gore is done with stylistic humor. The humor helps the more squeamish viewers. The direction of Sam Raimi is quite good. The sequel Army of Darkness is a good movie too. This film is entertaining to watch and not just around Halloween. Just watch it with the lights off and a chainsaw next to you.



EVIL DEAD II (1987)
CAST
Ash Williams: Bruce Campbell
Annie Knowby: Sarah Berry
Jake: Dan Hicks
Bobby Joe: Kassie DePaiva
Possessed Henrietta: Ted Raimi
CREDITS
Director: Sam Raimi
Written by: Sam Raimi and Scott Spiegel
STATS
Running Time: 85m.
Rated: R
Genre: Horror/Comedy
Country: USA


Other Critics:

Roger Ebert
Leonard Maltin