Movie 77: Evil Dead 2

Starring: Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks, Kassie Wesley, Ted Raimi, Denise Bixler.

Director:Sam Raimi.

In many ways I think Evil Dead II is the happy medium of the franchise, and that works very well.  It doesn't have the raw, unfiltered nature of its predecessor but it doesn't fall entirely into the silly camp of Army of Darkness.  It has a much stronger budget, everybody involved as grown and learned, and all of that culminates in a much more polished and direct film...even when it does devolve into a lot of slapstick pretty quickly.  That isn't necessarily a bad thing-not altogether, anyway-since some of that slapstick is genuinely funny.

The quick and easy retcon-obviously the product of necessity in the name of time and money-actually works pretty well.  It's a smart move, and one that isn't done nearly as much as it possibly should be, in that it doesn't rely on the viewer having seen the original film.  I'd argue too many movies nowadays assume familiarity to the detriment of coherent storytelling.

It doesn't waste any time, either: Ash and Linda go to cabin, do two seconds of dialogue to show their relationship, play the recording, and then possession and violence...and we're back to where the first left off: Ash tossed through the air by the evil.  Luckily for the quality of the film, Raimi hasn't forgotten the tricks that brought him to the dance, namely the low angle camera sprint, running through the woods, through doors and back out into the forest again.  It's an excellent effect, and Raimi milks it for everything it's worth.

Campbell has learned to ham it up by now, starting to create the Ash bluster everybody knows and loves.  The way he's able to rubber face his way through scenes is really admirable, actually.  He manages to maintain some of that terror, he just does it in a more traditionally masculine way.  Not so masculine that he isn't willing to give some tearful reactions, which is a good thing and keeps things grounded.  If nothing else, his willingness to take a beating is a wonder to behold, and his commitment to the physical comedy is staggering.

Sam Raimi does understand a punchline, though: as Ash places Lindas' head in the vice and goes for the chainsaw, only for her headless corpse to suddenly burst through the door swinging it wildly is very, very funny.  It's still horrific, but it's very funny.

I will always have tremendous respect for Campbell's excellent work in the evil hand scenes.  He really manages to make it look like the hand as a mind of it's own, and that's extraordinary stuff.  It's a funny scene, sure enough, but the real marvel is that performance.  Hand's down the funniest moment in the film, though, is when Ash drops through a chair...and every object in the room begins to laugh at him.  The Moose Head is kinda terrifying, but the whole scene is genuinely hilarious.  When Ash sees the lamp moving up and down and makes some sort of hoedown move...it's impossible not laugh at that.

Y'know, I guess I understand why they came to it, but Annie and her companions do jump to the conclusion that Ash murdered everbody despite no bodies or anything...in fact, there's more physical evidence that he was a victim of violence more than anything else, since he is missing a hand and covered in bruises.  At least they come around pretty quick..thanks to her Father leaving a helpful recording of his every move.

Ted Raimi might be a national treasure...his performance and make-up as Henrietta is excellent.  It's a fun action sequence and, true to form, brings another good comedy gag as the witch's eye flies across the room and into Bobbi-Jo's mouth.  Bobbi-Jo is much better looking than any redneck Woman I've ever met...mmm, Bobbi-Jo...anyway, Raimi keeps working with some excellent techniques: once Ed goes possessed and attacks Bobbi-Jo, Raimi uses some fantastic close-up of her eye and her mouth...it's simple, but very effective.  Then, of course, Jake falls victim to a Three Stooges gag...which is very cute.

Raimi does have a way with broad shots, quick edits and multiple lenses.  Right from Ed's attack(featuring a textbook dismemberment) to the weird morphing of the cabin(again utilizing sound for maximum effect), he just manages to use so many technically interesting but rather uncomplicated film-making efforts.  There's a lot of craftsmanship and imagination in all of it.

There is another, albeit less convincing, attempt at a main character misdirect to this film.  Ash gets possessed and it certainly seems like the protagonist label is passed off to Annie...after all the time and investment in Ash it seems like an unlikely stretch in the narrative, but it does change things up a little for the short term.  Campbell does pretty well with the possession effects and movements.

The film also plays with the audiences sense of memory, too: a lot of the scares in this film function on making the audience forget about certain plot elements.  Luke's death, for example, plays on the fact that we forgot that one of the demons was locked in the cellar(since it hasn't been brought up in nearly twenty minutes) until it grabs Luke and splatters him about.  Building off of that is the sudden return of Possessed!Ash as well...it's still magic trick stuff-misdirect then reveal-used to extraordinary effect.

Ash makes a pretty quick transition from zero to hero, but there's something very earned about it in this film.  I think a lot of the appeal comes from how generic his one-liners become: big swelling music, a sweeping close-up and all he can say is "let's go."  It's wonderfully subversive of hero tropes.  I don't think it works as well later on the franchise, and it runs the risk of veering into irritating territory in the new TV show, but it makes good use of itself here in regards to holding up the tongue-in-cheek, near-parody nature of the film as a whole.

I almost feel like Raimi wrote himself into a hole with the ending of Evil Dead II and that the subsequent film was just him trying to do the best he could with it...it seems odd to me that he would have written a time-travel ending into his film with the actual intention of another sequel.  That said, it seems like an appropriate enough ending to an already strange film.

Final Thoughts: Far more polished and assured than the original, Evil Dead II still suffers-but only slightly-from leaning on comedy bits and silly moments.  Campbell and Raimi had both learned a lot about their respective skill sets and managed to pull a lot more from their shared experience and history together and make the whole thing a very congenial and charismatic experience, no matter how silly it gets in places.  It still brings a lot of the fun insanity of the original, which is really the name of the game, and while the film isn't perfect, it is undeniably an entertaining one.

Final Rating: Three and a Half Stars.