Review: Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn (1987)

When is a sequel not a sequel? When it's a pumped-up remake of the original. And, for most films, this would be a bad thing. But in the case of Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, the followup to 1982's The Evil Dead, it allows director Sam Raimi and leading man Bruce Campbell to revisit the basic good ideas of the original, expand upon them them and just generally dial the energy level up as far as possible.

Evil Dead 2 begins roughly the same way the first film did, with Ash (Campbell) showing up at an isolated cabin with his girlfriend, Linda (played this time by Denise Bixler...or would Ash be dumb enough to show up at the same cabin with another girl who just happens to be named Linda?), only to find that an archeologist and his wife have read from the Necronomicon, a.k.a. the Book of the Dead, and thus have awakened ancient, heinous spirits who now roam the woods around them. Linda gets possessed by demons; Ash decapitates and buries her; she gets up and dances around (in stop-motion animation, no less); and Ash himself winds up taken for a ride through the forest by the rushing, sinister forces (actually two guys running through the forest with the camera strapped to a two-by-four to give the viewer that "demon's eye" point of view--really).
(Some have argued that what I describe in the paragraph above is just a recap of the first movie, and that everything that happens afterwards makes this a true sequel. But this "recap" leaves out so much from the first Evil Dead--like the fact that there were a bunch of other crazy kids in the cabin with Ash and Linda in the first movie--which, in slightly altered forms, pop up later in this movie, that I still believe Evil Dead 2 to be more remake than sequel, with more money to spatter with blood and more experience for its actors and director. Now, on with the review, already in progress....)

Ash does battle with the demons on his own, eventually suffer the embarrassing fate of having his own hand become possessed, which slaps him around and attacks him with plates, and being forced to chop it off with a chainsaw, until the daughter of the archeologist (Sarah Berry) shows up with her doofy boyfriend (Dan Hicks), a tow truck driver (Richard Domeier) and his white-trash girlfriend (Kassie Wesley, who eventually wound up playing Blair on One Life to Live). Once they figure out that Ash isn't out of his damn mind (not entirely, anyway), they all do battle with the evil forces until those who are left read the appropriate pages from the Book of the Dead to close the otherworldly door that's been flung open--but not without consequences for poor, much-abused Ash.

One of the aspects that distinguish Dead by Dawn from its predecessor is its breakneck pacing. This movie steps on the gas and never lets up, constantly throwing one shock after another at the audience, like fountains of blood shooting from the walls or Ash's bothersome hand, which beats the ever-loving shit out of him, then continues to plague him even after it's been amputated. (It's in these scenes that Bruce Campbell reveals himself as a terrific physical comedian, literally flipping himself all over the place and cracking plates over his own head while in combat with his renegade hand--it's one of the most athletic performances in cinema history.)
There's a major difference in tone, too. The first "Evil Dead" was dead serious (pun intended), and thus very funny for all the wrong reasons. Dead by Dawn is, in actuality, more comedy than horror film-and is all the better for it.

There isn't nearly as much effort to scare the audience as there is to thrill, surprise, startle and amuse it. And Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn satisfies on all counts. It's exactly what it wants to be: a great ride.

And a few years later, the ride continued with Army Of Darkness, with an even bigger budget, even more laughs and even more Bruce Campbell one-liners.