rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 1987
Directed by Sam Raimi; produced by Robert Tapert; written by Sam Raimi, Scott Spiegel
Starring Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks, Kassie DePaiva, Ted Raimi
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
Sam Raimi's 'Evil Dead II' is a comedy that presents itself as a horror-film
with lots and lots of gore. It seems like a remake of the original movie,
only this time the visuals are better. The first movie was not really comedy
either, although sometimes it went over the top almost as much as this one
does. This movie knows it does not make much sense, it shows us how stupid
the genre can be. This sort of seems the early version of Peter Jackson's
'Braindead', another movie that spoofs the horror-genre while being a gory
horror movie at the same time.
The gore is mainly there to support the comedy, showing how ridiculous some
horror-movies are. On the other hand it sometimes really is very scary. Even
if you know that a zombie creature will enter the screen, most of the time
from behind the human character, you still will be scared at times.
This movie exists out of special effect after special effect (pretty good
for 1987), out of Bruce Campbell who plays Ash again (he seems to have no
memory from the first movie), and out of a terrific visual style. Especially
the point-of-view shots from the 'thing' in the woods look great. It is not
much different from 'The Evil Dead', but if you could see only one then see
'Evil Dead II'.