(1987) *****
Watching this, I was thinking about that 3D popped eyeball in Friday the 13th #3, wondering if the people responsible really thought they were doing something great. It took five more years for REAL eyeball genius, when Ash slams that demon's head hard enough to pop one out, and after an eye-POV shot and a profile of the eye in flight, it lands right in the screaming woman's mouth. Seeing that was like seeing someone make a basket from the other side of the court. That feeling of raucous joy permeates everything in Evil Dead II. Every punch, slash, axe-blow, gush of blood and breaking chair feel like that full-court shot. Bruce Campbell delivers the performance of his life, pulling out physical humor worthy of Harold Lloyd and carrying the whole movie with his big expressive face.
Sam Raimi condenses the first movie into seven minutes in the beginning (the length of your average Tom and Jerry cartoon, I noticed with a snicker), and gives his abandoned cabin adventure an astounding upgrade. While the original is certainly unique, you don't have the sense of loss that so often comes with this kind of makeover. You still feel the maddening, voracious eeeevil of the Evil. You feel the desperate clinging to the pathetic non-safety offered by the cabin. Whenever the plot gets within even two or three beats from dragging, someone turns into a demon!
What else can I say? This movie is like the Exorcist with ninjas.
3 comments:
For some reason I carried a little tape recorder around with me in 1987 and I used to record my friends saying or doing funny (stupid)things. I still have one of the tapes with Octopunk's review of Evil Dead II right after we saw it in the theater. He liked it then too! What's amazing about this film is that it's essentially a comedy, even though the first one was a full-on scary-as-hell gorefest, yet it works! Groovy.
I've had a moritorium going on the Evil Dead movies for a few years now. I'll probably be ready to watch them again in another year or two.
Um - hey "inconceivable guy" are you going for a record of some kind?...you used to carry a tape recorder around to record your friends - you guys amaze me...
Love, Dana
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