Evil Dead II

Sam Raimi’s sequel to The Evil Dead begins with a problem and turns it into a gift. The original film’s rights belonged to another studio, so Raimi couldn’t simply recap with old footage. Instead he restages the setup: Bruce Campbell’s Ash drives to a remote cabin with his girlfriend, finds an old tape recorder, and accidentally unleashes ancient evil. It takes about ten minutes. Then the camera becomes a demon, hurtles through the forest, slams into Campbell, and we’re in new territory.

The forced do-over lets Raimi recalibrate. The first film had a mean streak, including a notorious scene involving a tree. This time Raimi anchors the film firmly in slapstick. Campbell, given the screen nearly to himself for the first act, reveals a genius for physical comedy that the original only hinted at. He doesn’t just react to the demons. He mugs, he pratfalls, he cackles.

There is a scene where Ash’s hand becomes possessed. His solution is to chainsaw it off with the maniacal glee of a man gloating in victory. Blood splatters. The hand, unimpressed, scuttles away like a malicious crab. Ash chases it with a shotgun. There is another scene where a demon hag rises from the cellar. Ash slams the trap door on her neck and stomps on it until her head squishes and her eyeball pops, launching across the room and into a screaming woman’s mouth. The gore in this movie is extraordinary. It is also hilarious.

More characters eventually arrive. Raimi keeps the geography tight. One cabin, a cellar, some woods. The new characters don’t distract from Campbell so much as give him people to bounce off of. His Ash begins to arc from victim into something like a heroic buffoon, a man too stupid or too stubborn to die.

If the film has a weakness, it’s that it doesn’t push Campbell’s comic persona far enough. Army of Darkness would recycle much of this film’s material but give Ash better one-liners and an ego the size of his Oldsmobile. But that film couldn’t exist without this one bridging the gap, transforming Ash from a generic college kid into a chainsaw-armed cartoon.

I saw Army of Darkness first, and it remains my favorite, though I understand the argument for this one. The confined setting creates real atmosphere, the gags are fresh, and there’s an energy here that pure comedy can’t replicate. This is slapstick with actual stakes, comedy where the blood sprays in gallons but you’re laughing too hard to look away.

In the end, the three films form a tidy spectrum: the first is horror with dark comedy, this one is slapstick horror, the third is slapstick fantasy. Pick whichever suits your mood. You won’t go wrong.