Evil Dead II

Evil Dead II is quite possibly one of the most beloved cult films of all time- and it deserves and earns every bit of that praise. This movie is totally insane, an unhinged, Stooge-ian romp through buckets of blood and guts.

It's not about zombies- the monsters in this film are demons that possess and reanimate the recently or not so recently living- but as it's frequently lumped with in zombies movies, I figured I'd cover it as well.

Evil Dead II is one of those movies that, while in other films the directors might have said "Can we even do that?" in this one they said "We're going to do that as a musical, with cartoon sound effects, and cover everyone in vomit in the end." I realize that that might not sound terribly appealing to anyone, but you just have to trust me...there is a level of creativity in this film that totally belies it's B-horror movie trappings.

This is the film that more or less launched Sam Raimi into the rather comfortable position he enjoys now as a big name director, and destined, or perhaps condemned, Bruce Campbell to a eternity of low budget roles as the snarky hero.

Evil Dead II is more or less a remake of the first film. It takes place in the same cabin, features the same protagonist doing more or less the same thing, and even starts off with a re shot and truncated version of the first film to bring everyone up to speed.

This is where the similarities end. Where Evil Dead was a legitimate attempt at horror, Evil Dead II completely embraces Raimi's love of slapstick humour and gross out horror, and Campbell's genius for physical comedy. It might sound bizarre on paper, but in the film the styles sync up beautifully, the humour setting up and adding weight to the films truly frightening moments, while the outlandish nature of what is going on means you quickly  realize you have no idea what to expect.

If this sounds a bit gushing, eh, what can I say, I love this movie. I think, for most people, it's hard not too.

Evil Dead 2 (also known as Evil Dead II and Evil Dead II : Dead By Dawn)

Directed by Sam Raimi

Written by Saim Raimi and Scott Spiegel

Starring Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Denise Bixier, and Richard Domeier.