Not a sequel so much as an elaborate do-over, Evil Dead II amps up the ghastly laughs
to generally thrilling results. Though its characters aren’t, the film is
distinctly aware of its predecessor, as evidenced by its blowing through an
intro – in which Ash (Bruce Campbell) takes Annie (Sarah Berry) to a remote
cabin, accidentally plays a tape recording of a man translating the Book of the
Dead, and winds up having to slaughter his demonically possessed girl – that
more or less covers a good chunk of the original Evil Dead. From there, four new guests arrive at the
woods-surrounded residence to join Ash in some goo-saturated demon-killing, mayhem
enlivened by writer/director Sam Raimi’s unparalleled tilt-a-wheel
cinematography. Raimi’s splatterfest habitually takes the point-of-view of the
invisible evil forces stalking his protagonists, from a technically brilliant,
giddy single take in which the camera chases Ash through the house, to a later
sequence featuring the frame lurching, zooming and jumping about as a spirit
attempts to cross over into our world. That Raimi (via his camera) is the
film’s monster subtly speaks to the filmmaker’s tormentor role in works of
horror. But first and foremost, his gonzo aesthetics are interested in
high-wire kicks, of which there are plenty throughout Evil Dead II, and which benefit from the pitch-perfect, alternately
terrified and disgusted reaction shots of the perpetually doused-in-blood
Campbell.
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