Chapter Two: Evil Dead II
By Brett Beach
June 11, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
—Ash, talking to himself (sort of)
Warning: This film contains sequences that may be too intense for audience members under the age of 17.
—Title card, before the start of the film
Twenty-odd years later, Evil Dead II still resonates for me, although for vastly different reasons than it did for my 12-year-old self discovering it on VHS in the late 1980s. With the creepy skeleton head and the tagline/false secondary title "Dead by Dawn" on the video box cover, it promised something more than most of its ilk. But what exactly? As the title card above suggests, a world of images that might be more than I could handle.
As I type this, I consider that a lot of the would-be blockbusters released in the last few years - the bright shiny baubles, as I have come to term them - would have thrilled me to no end at that pre-adolescent age. Now, I find myself confused by the trailers for the likes of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra as I realize that I quite literally can not follow the action and the editing, never mind the plot. "My 12-year-old-self would have loved it" has now become my rueful mantra as I accept that I have begun morphing into a crotchety old man. Evil Dead II certainly isn't a film for kids and yet, I am grateful I did see it back at a young age because revisiting it as an adult allows me to understand the appeal it had back then and appreciate the artistry, the skill, and the joy of filmmaking that lines its cinematic bones.
If you'll allow me to tender a completely inappropriate sports metaphor for a moment, Evil Dead II throws out the play book, the rule book, the coach, the assistant coach and eventually the playing field and exists in a realm of cinema where very few features dare: one where the cast and crew are "getting away with something." It's not quite comedy and not really horror – the coining of the word splatstick to create a reference point is still the best descriptor. Evil Dead II goes beyond the bloody, the icky, the ridiculous and the campy to form a genre hybrid that in two decades since has almost no imitators (surprisingly) and very few equals (not so much). In an era where "torture porn" and excessively gruesome remakes of already disturbing horror films are still fashionable, Evil Dead II seems almost quaint (but not thankfully, restrained) by comparison.
It spends the barest of minimums in setting its story in motion, appears to be making up what little plot there is from scene to scene and is, at its core, more of a reimagining of the first film than a sequel. (Despite its maker's explanation to the contrary, I persist in this thinking and believe it contributes greatly to the film's kinetic energy). There is no earthly reason for it to succeed as well it does. What keeps this gory, slimy top from spinning off the table? It's the fortuitous combination of a director throwing every trick in the book up on the screen (and inventing new ones as needed) and an actor willing to look as absurd as necessary and endure physical smackdowns at every turn, yet still summon up the heroic posturing to come off like a badass. Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell keep it creatively copacetic. If this film did not exist, they would have had to create it.
As the follow-up to the "ultimate exercise in grueling terror," Evil Dead II is that rare second film that takes everything that was best from its predecessor, tweaks it and combines it with fresh ideas. Despite a scant running time of 84 minutes, EDII devours action and dizzying camera angles at such an alarming (and exhilarating rate) that one is a little thankful for the relative calm in the story's middle third, even if it comes at the cost of descending into more conventional storytelling with recognizable character types
With the breathless pace established at the outset, one begins to wonder where the movie can possibly go. We are briefly introduced to a young couple on a drive out for a weekend at a cabin in the woods. At the three-minute mark, the girlfriend is possessed. At the five-minute mark, she's been decapitated and buried. At the eight-minute mark, our hero, Ash (Campbell) has already gone fairly insane. The half hour that follows is for all intents and purposes, the Bruce Campbell One Man Show.
When I was young, I wasn't sure how to respond to Ash or Campbell's portrayal of him. He seems like a conventional B-movie leading man (or a close approximation) until he is being projectile pelted with shades of gore the colors of the rainbow or laughing maniacally alongside a possessed stuffed deer head. How does one create a back story for a character in such circumstances? Thankfully, the actor cleared things up a while back by explaining that he always played Ash as at least 70% idiot. This may seem like an unusual admission for an actor to cop to concerning the lead character of a beloved cult trilogy, but it makes a certain amount of sense.
To fully embrace the Three Stooges meet Ray Harryhausen vibe of the film requires a hero who is both in on the joke and the butt of it as well. This helps if you are going to be reacting to the sight of your severed, possessed hand flipping you the bird. The two most memorable sequences of EDII also personify the comic "idiocy" that tempers the thrills.
In each, Ash is pursued by the unseen but pissed off demonic force that rages through the forest at lightning speeds. In the first one, he is sent hurtling through the woods by the force, branches whipping his face, his body spiraling in cartwheels until he collides with a tree and comes crashing down into a puddle. The sound and fury of the moment - and Raimi's decision to keep Campbell's rubbery face with all the blows it's absorbing, front and center - produces shock and laughter. On a shoestring budget, an effect is achieved which wouldn't have the same impact with more money up on the screen. Later, the same unseen force rockets towards and into the cabin, pursuing Ash, tearing down doors, smashing through walls, until...it loses Ash, looks around confusedly and retreats. The POV angle is the joke and it's a very good one.
While the conclusion confused me once upon a time, it now takes on a more tragic tone, even knowing that the story concludes happily (depending on which ending you opt for) in Army of Darkness. To see the chainsaw-armed now white-haired Ash sucked into the time portal and dropped into the Middle Ages certainly feels like Raimi indulging his masochistic impulses toward his character and chuckling as defeat is snatched from the jaws of victory. It also calls to mind the middle chapter of another saga where the hero loses his hand in battle and must settle for staying alive to fight another day rather than triumphing over the forces of evil..
Crimewave. Darkman. The Quick and the Dead. A Simple Plan. For Love of the Game. The Gift. Drag Me to Hell. I invoke the names of Raimi's non-Evil Dead and Spider-Man films as a reminder of how many different genres he has worked in–monster, western, noir, sports, gothic. His greatest skill, though, comes from bending the lines of genres and finding new discoveries along the fracture points. Horror films will never entirely shake their disreputable tag and that's as it should be, but Evil Dead II is a reminder of what can be accomplished in the bastard genre, if you feel free to paint outside the bloody lines.