Evil Dead II

The booklet claims to have "rare photos", but it's just pictures from scenes throughout the movie that we've seen before- nothing special, but has some good insights from the special effects guys and Bruce.

Now for the DVD

I was really pleased with the extras- the commentary was a lot of fun- I enjoyed it more than the first Evil Dead special edition because Sam Raimi actually throws in a lot more tidbits with Bruce and friends to back him up. There were no long pauses, everyone had something interesting to say and it's just a lot of fun listening to them mock the dialogue and point out the mistakes. Plus, there's only four people on the commentary so no one is overwhelmed and we can hear everyone talking- I think too many people on commentaries can be frustrating. Also find out what Kurt Russel's fav. line is from "Evil Dead 2" in a quite hilarious memory Bruce brings up.

"The Gore The Merrier" featurette was very cool- it's lengthy too so we get to see a lot of the cool effects being made and used in the final product. We also see Raimi, Campbell and the rest of the crew clowning around and also a ridiculous/funny little skit that the special effects team came up with- about a baby that comes back from the dead for revenge. The documentary was shot with a crappy camera, but back in '86'87- home video cameras sucked anyway so I wasn't surprised- it's fine though- just a little grainy.

The theatrical trailer was edited very well- I hadn't seen it before and I was pretty impressed how spooky they made it.

The video game preview is awesome- like a teaser trailer, but it's really neat- gotta see it for yourself.

The bios only consist of Bruce and Raimi, but they're better than most bios you find on dvds.

Photos- no big deal- some candid shots.

Widescreen and full screen formats- sweet. Love it when they have both.

And...sound is great. Overall, nearly poi-fect dvd- I just would've liked some out-takes- cuz we know there was a lot of laughing going on from the reminiscing we hear on the commentary.

Buy it- definately worth it- great menu too, pretty much everything is worth mentioning!


Ash is dealt another Bad Hand! A Classic Horror Film!   August 11, 2000
Ryan Costantino (Nowhere, Special)
16 out of 16 found this review helpful

Bruce Campbell is back as Ash, the loveable, gun-toting S-mart employee turned demon killer overnight. After a slight, altered rehashing of what happened in the first Evil Dead we get to see Ash kill more demons spawned from idiots who read/listen to the Necronomicon! But wait, there's more! When Ash's hand gets "possessed" he has to take drastic measures, and that's where the true fun begins! The fight scenes involving Ash's hand have to be some of the funniest instances of pure comic genius ever put on screen. Bruce Campbell is the reigning King of Horror heroism and the Evil Dead 2 is a must for any Horror fan's collection. Any movie where someone attaches a chainsaw to his arm as a prostethic replacement needs to be watched over and over again! So if you haven't bought this movie yet do it now, who knows when you'll be in a deserted cabin fighting demons for your very soul! Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn, pure classic Horror!


The best out of the Evil Dead Trilogy!   January 22, 2000
Melissa Menifield (Pittsburgh, PA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

I rented all 3 Evil Dead movies one night, and I have to say that I enjoyed this one the best out of the three. This one basically cuts out a lot of what happened in the first Evil Dead movie; some of the characters are deleted, and it takes a few minutes to realize what is going on. Still though, this one has more of a comedic spin than the first one. Ash and his girlfriend travel to a cabin in the middle of nowhere to spend a few days, and accidentally end up unleashing the evil spirits that surround the woods. Then when help finally arrives, the trouble starts all over again, and Ash finds himself in a climactic battle with the ultimate incarnation of evil, before being sucked into a timehole and landing right in the Middle Ages. Make sense? Of course not! But who cares! With Bruce Campbell's brilliant heroic/comedic performance, mixed in with the obviously-over-the-top gore and humor, this film is simply brilliant from beginning to end, the best of the three Evil Dead movies. Get it!


Absolute Comedy/Horror Standard   May 22, 2007
Kasey Driscoll
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

Allow me to preface this review with a helpful fact. A few years back when Spin Magazine was writing about the films they felt were the greatest of the 20th century, they chose to include Sam Raimi's sequel to his very first film; which was a small independent horror called The Evil Dead. The Evil Dead was a great film in it's own right, however, the editors at Spin wanted to give Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn the recognition they felt it deserved. So they placed it at the top of their list...that's right, they felt that it is, in fact, the single greatest cinematic achievement of the 20th century.

Evil Dead 2 follows Ash Williams and his girlfriend into a small creepy Michigan cottage where they stumble upon some recordings that contain readings from an ancient relic called the book of the dead, and by playing these recordings they unleash demonic supernatural forces that quickly haunt and possess everything from the trees outside and Popeye's lamp to Ash's hand and his girlfriend's severed head. The shenanigans unfold and Ash is more game than perhaps anyone to take on these evil forces as best as he can, but some sort of defeat is consistently inevitable.

As a reader I hope you are not anticipating my rebuttal to Spin Magazine here. I just so happen to concur 100% with Spin's gutsy assertion. On the surface of Evil Dead 2, we are seeing vintage 80s shock horror but it certainly isn't presented deeply enough to qualify amongst the failures within that genre. Evil Dead 2 is microcosmically structured like classic slapstick and macrocosmically it functions as pure satire. In this sense it's budget is used firmly to it's advantage and runs together with the theme of making a select audience laugh, first and foremost. Those who are both distinctly either disturbed by gore or preoccupied by gore as a strength in horror, should take keen note that gore in this film is applied almost exclusively for physical slapstick comedy. Those who hate gore will hate it here and those who love to be immersed in gore may not understand or appreciate it's use in Evil Dead 2.

We get to see a chubby fruit cellar witch's soul-swallowing head extend via shoddy stop-motion effects. We get to see an eyeball pop out of her head and shoot across the room into some chick's mouth. We get so see blood spray humorously and pretty consistently out of the walls and floors of the cottage. We get to see Ash fight his hand, cut it off, and add a chainsaw to where his hand once was. We get to see him kill his girlfriend and fight both her severed head and headless body in a tool shed at the same time. We get to see Ash get clumsily chased around the house by a force of evil we never see. We also get to see the volume of slapstick comedy increase as the film goes on and finally we get to see a conclusion that still makes me kind of wish they never made a sequel (even though Army of Darkness is in and of itself a very good movie).

Evil Dead 2 may require a deeper degree of movie history appreciation, perhaps more specifically to exploitation and horror films. I know I sound like a movie snob saying that but the film does offer some fun and fitting tributes or references to past films. I think it is definitely fair to say that Raimi has a great appreciation for movies in general and we can plainly see that he has so much fun making them. Evil Dead 2 for me is fun, affable, and carefree; it is all the things it shouldn't be on it's surface, and it is perfect for that fact alone.