Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Evil Dead II’

Written by Scott Edwards and John Edward Betancourt

‘Groovy.’
- Ash Williams

​Scott's Review
Spontaneous getaways are something that some people seem to have a good time doing. Not really having a destination in mind or knowing where they will be staying seems to make it more of an adventure for them. For me, no, I need to know where I will be going since I like to know more about the place before I get there. Hey, you never know what history the area has to it, or if they are infamous for shooting out of towners. I have no problems with spontaneous acts, and I applaud people that are able to live their lives that way. I will just be ready for what is coming my way rather than being surprised by what I may find.

Ash and Linda are on their way to a secluded cabin in the woods. Although Ash does not have permission to use the house, he is going above and beyond to make sure that the weekend will be great for his lady. When grabbing a bottle of champagne, Ash notices a tape recorder on the table and plays the tape. Before he knows what is happening, Linda has gone missing from her room. Trying to find her in the woods, Ash sees that she is possessed and tries to retreat. But the possessed Linda is faster than him and the only way to escape her wrath is by cutting her head off with a shovel. Burying his love, Ash receives another punch in the face as the evil in the woods is able to infest his body.

Becoming possessed as well, Ash has to look to his memories, along with the sun to keep the demons out of his body. Getting back to the cabin, Ash sees that everything around him is trying to torment him in one way or another. After receiving Linda's head in his lap, Ash is forced to perform one incredibly gruesome act and chops up her body with a chainsaw. Knowing that he will be okay with this being done, his hand becomes infected with evil and tries to kill him. Cutting it off at the wrist, Ash is now a one-handed fighter of the dead and will do anything within his power not to succumb to the evil. When Annie Knowby and her team arrive at her parent's cabin, she expects the worst when seeing the bloody chainsaw sitting on the floor and demands to know what Ash did to her parents. 

After being able to convince this new band of strangers that he is not a killer, the group finds out what really happened in the cabin before their arrival. When Annie's father was deciphering the Book of the Dead, he invited the spirits into his wife's body and after surviving her attempts to kill him, he buried her in the cellar. With a huge belief over the book's power, Annie has brought more pages that could help in releasing the dead's souls and bring the evil in the woods to its knees. As the day fades into night, no one is off limits to the demons and all of the tricks they are able to play will not keep Ash from making a stand against their evil.

There are very few times I will say this, but I think this sequel is better than the first. Although you are seeing the same story, you get to dive a little bit deeper into Ash's psyche and find out what he is really made of.  This movie is all about the Ash if you have not seen it before and knowing how to battle the evil is the only thing, he is really good at. If chopping off his own hand is not enough, he takes aim at the cabin that is willing to fight back with everything inside of its walls. Even the trees come to life in this second installment and will stop at nothing to defeat the living in the cabin. It is a hard movie not to love with all of the spatter, the jumpy scares and the massive blood flows. With season three of Ash vs Evil Dead on the horizon, this might be the best movie to catch up on to see how inventive Ash can really be when put on the spot. In fact, I bet you could say he is very… groovy. Stay Scared.

---

John's Review
My encounter with The Evil Dead haunted me in all the right ways, simply because I wanted more. I knew at my local video store there was a sequel sitting next to the original and sadly, with school on the agenda I had to wait a week to watch it, leading to all kinds of questions swirling around in my mind. How did Ash get out of this mess? Where on earth could the story go from here?  

So, needless to say when Friday rolled around, and the weekly family trip to the video store got underway, I wasted no time in making a beeline toward the horror section so that I could finally get my hands on the iconic and surprising second entry in Ashley J. Williams' wild adventures; Evil Dead II.

Now I say surprising not because the film was bad, but because I was completely unprepared for the fact that this was a hybrid on so many levels. It was part reboot, part remake, part sequel, part horror, part comedy. Truly, this film was a cornucopia of elements and every last one of them worked. While the plot may seem similar to the original, it really is not. The only remaining elements from the first film are the cabin, Ash and Linda and the finding of the Necronomicon. Everything past that point is pure horror/comedy gravy.  

Once more Sam Raimi dazzles as director, and Bruce Campbell truly shines as Ash. In fact, let's take a moment to talk about the fact that Bruce is an incredible stuntman. For those of you who haven't seen this one yet, you'll be amazed at how much physical abuse he takes in this movie, yet Campbell does it in style. We all know this was likely take after take, after take, to get the right stunt on camera and Bruce is clearly a warrior. As an added bonus, his portrayal of Ash evolves in this story as well, since this time around Ash is no longer a mousey college boy unsure of what to do, this Ash kicks plenty of ass.   

The fact of the matter is; this movie is a blast. There are scares, there are laughs and incredible one liners that only cement this film's status as a cult classic. There really is something for everyone here and Sam Raimi gets major kudos for not giving us a true 'direct' sequel because the end result is original and absolutely incredible.  

---

Powered by JustWatch