Release Date Available Now Running Time 85 minutes Genre Horror

The Movie

Let's get one thing straight right off the bat: Evil Dead 2 is not, repeat is NOT, a remake of the original, no matter how many times it has been billed as such. The first 10 minutes recap and slightly revise the events of the first movie, and picks up right where the original left off. It may rehash some of the events a little, but it's not a remake.

For those that don't know, the original Evil Dead was the first outing of Sam Raimi as a director, and of Bruce Campbell as an actor. A bunch of college students end up in a run-down cabin in the middle of nowhere, and are terrorized and picked off one at a time by some evil lurking in the woods. Well, that's pretty much the same plot for Evil Dead 2. No one ever said horror movies were known for their plot innovations.

Where the first movie was unintentionally funny because of its ultra-low budget production, the sequel makes a conscious effort to inject some humor into the whole thing. It plays out quite well indeed, hitting that ideal balance between the horror and laughs that any self-respecting entry into the "splatstick" sub-genre of movies would aim for. Of course, not everyone's idea of comedy is having veritable geysers of blood gushing forth from the walls, but I'm willing to bet that people who would be offended by such imagery probably wouldn't be watching this movie to begin with.

Evil Dead 2 is a horror movie, so it would stand to reason that it would have the typical conventions. Loads of blood, nasty monsters, stupid characters, cheesy effects, and of course really bad dialog. Yet where one person would see these as drawbacks, another would see them as the very things that make horror movies endearing to so many of us. It benefits from Sam Raimi's direction style, with plenty of just plain odd camera angles and lighting, all about and within a truly sinister looking cabin in a downright evil forest. While the acting and other elements of this movie may not be quite up to snuff these days, this movie has atmosphere in droves. This is one of those movies that has an offbeat charm that makes it such a cult hit, but it's hardly a masterpiece of cinema.
6 out of 10

The Video

I wouldn't say that the video leaves a tremendous lot to be desired, but there is definitely room for improvement. The edges and contours are well defined, but the colors aren't. Everything has a muddled look to it. Normally I probably wouldn't have made an issue about it, but it often reduces any large dark areas on the screen to shifting masses of dark green and black, and it just looks ugly. And unfortunately, this being a horror movie, there's a lot of dark to go around. I also did notice one glitch with a green bar flashing on the bottom of the screen for a frame towards the beginning of the movie. Unless you are the most anal retentive person in the world and demand nothing short of perfection on everything, it probably won't make a difference to you.
6 out of 10

The Audio

Also incredibly lackluster. Far too quiet and muffled most of the time, and it rarely takes advantage of stereo sound. Sure, there's one part where a bunch of noises are coming from all different directions, but that's for all of 30 seconds in an 87 minute movie. On top of that, a lot of the sound effects either don't fit or are just plain goofy. The aforementioned sequence seems like Raimi just told the cast to look all over the set andput in a bunch of random sounds later. I mean really, a bunch of galloping horses while zooming in on a mounted deer head? Completely out of place. To make matters worse, there's this omnipresent howling wind in many of the scenes. Sure it sounds spooky, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. That however, is a fault of the movie, not the disc itself. Like everything else about this disc, it smacks of lack of effort.
5 out of 10

The Extras

I think I'm getting spoiled by DVDs. Really, even on such a bare bones disc like this one, it's got advantages that VHS copies could never have. But all the same, in this day and age where DVDs come with loads of goodies, this just doesn't cut it. Evil Dead 2 has the original theatrical trailer, and that's it. Sure, there's the scene selection and widescreen as well, but those have come to be expected on DVDs. Heck, even the theatrical trailer is standard fare. No audio commentary, no cast bios, nothing. Even the insert with the chapter listings is banal. I shudder to contemplate how I would possibly score something with even fewer features. One can only hope that there's a reissue in the works with some special features that would put this on par with its fellows in the trilogy. Then I could get that one and unload this version on some unsuspecting friend as a gift. Heh.
1 out of 10

Overall

Disappointment, thy name is Evil Dead 2. I'd only recommend this to the fans that don't already own it on VHS. Here's hoping for a special edition sometime soon.
5 out of 10

-- reviewed by Mike Miksch