Saturday, November 2, 2024

Evil Dead 2 (1987)

  It's been ages since I'd seen this.  It's still not my favorite but it's miles away better than The Evil Dead.  Content warning:  gore, amputation, rats

Ash (Bruce Campbell) takes his girlfriend (Denise Bixler) to a secluded cabin in the woods owned by a professor (John Peakes).  Unbeknownst to Ash, Professor Knowby was working on a translation of an evil book of necromantic lore and accidentally unleashed it in the cabin.  His daughter, Annie (Sarah Berry), has the missing pages that will return it to whatever hell it came from, but will she get there before Ash is completely lost.

This film is really infamous for being almost an exact replica of its predecessor, except that it leans into the humor the first film only found accidentally.  A lot of that is due to the correct usage of Campbell's gift for physical comedy and rubber face.  Ash should have been in a full-body cast with the number of times he's thrown through walls, down stairs, and dragged through the woods.  Not to mention hit with firehoses of fake blood.  

If you're into B-horror or horror-comedy, this is probably already in your Hall of Fame.  It is a beloved cult classic turned actual classic that launched the careers of Sam and Ted Raimi, and turned Campbell into a horror icon.  It's currently streaming on Shudder with a subscription and Kanopy with a library card.  

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