Evil Dead 2

Evil Dead 2 title

AKA: Evil Dead 2 : Dead by Dawn

Tag Line : Kiss Your Nerves Goodbye.

Director Sam Raimi's followed up the success of his earlier Evil Dead pic, with this extremely tongue in cheek sequel. Plainly entitled "Evil Dead 2", Ash (our hero from the first film, played once again by Bruce Campbell) has a new girlfriend (who by strange coincidence is also called Lynda, the name of his girl in the first movie) and decides in all his wisdom to take her away for a romantic weekend at the old cabin in the hills where Evil Dead 1 took place.

Of course this proves to be not such a good idea as the forces of darkness re-emerge once more, Lynda is killed (again) and Ash is forced to single handedly fight them off all over again.

The film is actually less of a sequel and more of a remake, comprising of re-filmed sequences and rehashed footage from part 1. As the first film was done seriously, but too ridiculous to be taken as such. Riami and Tapert obviously decided to make this second effort a total farce.

There are some genuinely funny scenes, particularly where Ash's hand becomes possessed and he has to cut it off with a chainsaw, only to spend the rest of the film chasing s it round the house with his shotgun. Not to mention the scene where he slams one of the ghouls heads in the cellar door and its eye pops out, flying across the room!

Can Ash defeat the Evil Dead a second time around, and why didn't he just take Lynda to Centre Parks instead? This is a really fun film, different from the first, but equally enjoyable. I've found it best viewed extremely late on a Friday or Saturday night , whilst tucking into a large curry, after consuming a vast amount of alcohol!

Overall Marks 7/10.

Other Information.

Alternate tag lines, "Dead by Dawn" and "2 Terrifying..2 Frightening..2 Much".
The initial UK release was passed almost uncut by the BBFC. All the blood and gore was left intact, but they insisted on making a single cut to remove the scene where Ash was kicked in the head whilst lying unconscious. The film was passed fully uncut in 2001.
Originally released as "Evil Dead 2 : Dead by Dawn" in the USA, the film was released plainly entitled "Evil Dead 2" in the UK.
The film was made on a budget of $3million.
There is a US laserdisc by Elite entertainment, and special edition US DVD by Anchor Bay, that contains a 30 minute extra feature showing scenes that didn't make it into the final cut. These include a gorier scene where Ash battles Evil Ed and a scene were the old woman (Henrietta) becomes possessed after her husband, Professor Knowby, recites passages from the book of the dead.
Professor Knowby says on the tape Ash finds, that his wife (Henrietta) is in the fruit cellar. This was a reference to Psycho.
Look out for Freddy Kruger's glove, from Nightmare on Elm Street, which is hanging near the stairs in the cellar. This was in response to the original Evil Dead being shown on the TV in "Nightmare on Elm Street".
The director can actually be seen making a brief uncredited appearance at the end of the film. Look out for the knight who lifts up his visor and shouts "Hail he who has come from the skies", that's Sam Raimi.
The ghoul character "Henrietta" was actually played Ted Raimi, Sam's younger brother. He also helped out on the production of "Evil Dead" and can often be seen making appearances in horror and fantasy pics. Most notably that of Joxer in Sam Raimi's Xena and Hercules TV series, which also star Bruce Campbell.