Evil Dead II

A sort-of-remake-but-mostly-sequel to 1981’s The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II follows Bruce Campbell’s Ash as he’s once again forced to battle bloodthirsty demons within a remote cabin in the woods. There’s little doubt that Evil Dead II, for the most part, improves upon its entertaining yet erratic predecessor, as filmmaker Sam Raimi, along with coscreenwriter Scott Spiegel, places a consistent emphasis on Campbell’s always-entertaining protagonist and, in fact, devotes a good chunk of the first half to Ash’s solo exploits – with the character’s efforts at battling demonic forces certainly standing as a ludicrously over-the-top highlight within the entire series. (It’s especially difficult not to get a kick out of Ash’s ongoing fight with his possessed hand.) Raimi’s decision to bring a new batch of characters to the cabin about halfway through prevents stagnancy from setting in, as the new blood, so to speak, ensures that the movie, up to a point, doesn’t quite suffer from the repetitiveness that plagued the first movie. Having said that, Evil Dead II does begin to run out of steam at around the one hour mark – with the movie, like its forebear, simply unable to sustain the fast-paced and incredibly broad tone for the duration of its brisk running time. It’s just as clear, however, that the film picks up for a gleefully, insanely outrageous final stretch, which ensures that Evil Dead II both ends on a positive note and lives up to its place as a memorably gruesome (and often very funny) splatfest.

*** out of ****