Watch Evil Dead II For Free

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

RELEASED IN 1987 and written & directed by Sam Raimi, "The Evil Dead" chronicles events when two Michigan State students (Bruce Campbell & Denise Bixler) travel to a remote cabin in western Tennessee for spring break wherein they discover a copy of the Book of the Dead and an audiotape whose incantations resurrect demons in the woods. The daughter of the archeologist who made the tape (Sarah Berry) also visits the cabin with her beau (Richard Domeier) and a couple of dubious locals (Dan Hicks & Kassie Wesley DePaiva). The first film was low-budget, cartoony and extreme, but it was serious horror. This sequel is also cartoony and extreme, but it's decidedly comedy horror. It's entertaining for what it is, but it's hindered by a confusing opening "recap" that doesn't match the previous film. Raimi stated that he didn't have the rights to use material from the original movie so he did a 7-minute recap with only two people instead of five (with Denise Bixler taking over the role of Linda). But there are other inconsistencies: The Book of the Dead and audiotape is found in a room rather than the basement and Ash (Campbell) later "rediscovers" that the bridge is out, which he already knew via events in the first film. Once you get past the awkward and perplexing set-up, the movie settles into an entertaining over-the-top gory horror comedy, which is so creative it's as if it was made by a lunatic. Bixler is a great replacement in the role of Linda, but her part is too brief and you only catch glimpses of her stunning beauty. It took me a while to warm up to Annie (Berry), but I eventually did and she's a worthy secondary protagonist. There are several amusing and thrilling sequences, like the demonic hand scenes. THE FILM RUNS 1 hour & 24 minutes and was shot in Wadesboro and (studio) Wilmington, North Carolina, with supplementary work done in Detroit. ADDITIONAL WRITER: Scott Spiegel. GRADE: B-/C+

Director Sam Raimi's over-the-top recap of his early low-budget horror flick "The Evil Dead" from 1981 is an improvement over its grainy, ghastly predecessor, a demon barf-fest which was made for about $400,000 and sparked a cult-following on home video with slacker teenagers. Raimi's budget on this one was a little over $3,000,000 and it shows. Bruce Campbell reprises his role as Ash, a university student taking his girlfriend to a cabin in the Tennessee mountains while the owners, a professor and his wife, are away. Things are just starting to get cozy when Ash comes across an ancient book in the professor's study, the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis--or, the Book of the Dead--along with the professor's taped thesis on the archaeological find in which he unwisely recites the incantation to resurrect a demonic spirit (it works). Raimi shows off a wickedly imaginative sense of gruesome glee (not apparent in the first film), as well as a film scholar's eye for classic movie references, visual jokes and an audacious talent for breathlessly-paced mayhem. Buckets of red, green and black guck get sprayed all over the screen, with prime recipient Campbell taking the brunt of it (he's a good sport rather than an actor). While Raimi has since proved in his mainstream films that he is more than adept at a solid narrative flow as well as a kinetic visual style and a keen sense of editing that sets the pace for his pictures, these techniques remain out of reach for him here (as well as a talent for handling actors). All types of cinematic tricks are brought out of the toy-box (everything that three million dollars could buy in 1987), but the picture is merely made up of episodes. It's a showoff piece for the filmmaker; he's in the process of developing his craft--and having a grand old time--but the set-ups have no follow-through, and the whole doesn't equal the parts. Followed by "Army of Darkness" in 1992. *1/2 from ****

This is the 2nd movie that made Bruce Campbell immortal - as a B-movie actor. And how glad I am that he's back with the delicious Ash vs. Evil Dead that got everything I love regarding the Evil Dead movies: gore, splatter, demons and a good shot of (dark) humor. On top, this is one of the very few movies that really made something worth watching out of Lovecraft's invention/writing the Book of the Dead, the NECRONOMICON. I am still working to evocate my first demon with the help of the Book of the Dead, but maybe I need an edition that is really bound in human skin ;)Sam Raimi directed and produced a lot of movies but imo the best ones are still the two first Evil Dead parts and Army of Darkness.

One of the best horror sequels ever made, and a key film in the development of the horror comedy in the 1980's (the most significant decade in that genre's development). Raimi walks a very fine line successfully ... reproducing all of the elements that were most loved about the original film while altering the tone enough to make what is essentially a remake seem completely fresh. While I still marginally prefer the first film to this one, this is a rare example of a sequel that equals the original film in nearly every aspect.