Downright eye-popping

This movie will always be a classic. Sure there are plot holes, a little bit of cheesy acting and special effects, and a whole lot of gore, but that's what makes this movie great. In order to truely appreciate Evil Dead 2, you have to take the movie for what it is, a cheesy, low-budget horror movie that isn't supposed to make sense or be thought-provoking. If anything, it's thought revoking, and that's a good thing.

The "hero" of the film, Ash (played by Bruce Campbell) isn't a burly super hero type. He's just an average guy put in a really screwed up situation. Less than ten minutes into the film, he kills his first zombie with a shovel. Most of the movie centers on him fighting the undead on his own. 3/4 of the film has Ash alone in the cabin either fighting a zombie or fighting himself (a very funny scene in the kitchen). Later on, some minor characters show up to progress the story and provide fresh corpses for the evil to infect, but that's where it gets interesting.

The commentary is excellent. Normally, I ignore the commentary on DVD's because most of it sounds like "Well, we shot this at nine in the morning and I still had a hangover from the night before, but at least I was getting paid 3 million per scene." Evil Dead 2's commentary is far different. It sounds more like Mystery Science Theater 3000, and it ends up being just as good as the movie itself.

In short, if you want to see a dorky guy with a chainsaw decapitate zombies and blow them away with a shotgun, get this movie!

I'll recommend this film based mostly on Bruce Campbell

Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn is played for laughs, so anybody expecting scares should steer back. But if it's dark humor you're looking for, this could be a film you might enjoy.

For anybody whose seen The Evil Dead, this film is basically a remake of that film, only even more outrageous with a bigger budget. If you've seen the first film, you'll recall that Ash (Bruce Campbell) was the only survivor of the massacre in the cabin after the evil dead was awoken from the chants uttered from the Necronomicon. He has to board himself up inside the cabin, hold off any demons plus his dead girlfriend with a shotgun and chainsaw. Eventually he receives help from some visitors and they must all battle the spirits in the woods.

At a short 85 minutes it's reasonable to expect this movie to move at a fast pace, and for the first half of the movie it does. There's plenty of hilarious situations in those 45 minutes such as when Ash is attacked by the head of his girlfriend and when his own hand is possessed by a demonic force. This isn't particularly scary but it's fun to watch. However, the second half of the movie doesn't live up to the great set up. When the four visitors arrive, the movie then turns into a by the numbers routine where the body count starts to rise and any sort of humor is almost absent by then. In the last fifteen minutes it seemed the movie was redeeming itself, and for a while it did. The scene with Ash going down the basement to look for the pages of the Necronomicon with a witch somewhere down there is thrilling to watch. However, the last five minutes are utterly bad, but to be fair I'll cut the filmmakers some slack since the end did set up for the superior Army of Darkness.

Some have stated the special effects and the direction are the reason to watch Evil Dead 2, but that's not so. Most will agree with me that Bruce Campbell is the real reason to watch this film. He truly has a lot of fun with his role and his fun is infectious, at least up to a point. Talk about luck for Sam Raimi. He and Campbell were friends in college and they were looking to just make a quick buck with The Evil Dead. Little did each know they would be revered and Campbell would be considered a great actor by legions of fans. It's too bad his name isn't that well known because he's just as good with physical comedy as Jim Carrey.

Back To The Cabin...

Bruce Campbell returns as Ash, the sole survivor of the first EVIL DEAD demon fest. This time out, he must battle the evil spirit in himself! Sam Raimi pulls out all the bloody stops to unleash a tale of possession gone mad! Campbell's solo performance during the first part of the film is a total trip! He is chased, flattened, thrown, carried through the air, and indwelt by that accursed horror from the blood-inked pages of the Book Of The Dead! This movie is either hilariously scary, or Terrifyingly hysterical. A perfect follow up to it's more serious predecessor. Would make an excellent triple feature with DEAD ALIVE and RE-ANIMATOR. Highly recommended...