Evil Dead II (1987)
Article 5815 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-20-2020
Directed by Sam Raimi
Featuring Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks
Country: USA
What it is: More of the same… only sillier…and a lot more

More people are in the cabin in the woods terrorized by evil undead beings. Who will survive?

So how do you follow up a movie as audacious as the original? Well, if you’re Sam Raimi, you basically do a remake, bring your star up front and center, use a bigger budget, and make what was an undertone in the first movie an overtone here; the first movie hinted at comedy, this one IS a comedy. Much of the violence has a knockabout Three Stooges vibe to it, it’s fully aware that it’s working as both remake and parody, it sends up the cliches rather than succumbing to them, and it does it all with a rollicking sense of fun. It’s the kind of a movie that when one character does something monumentally stupid, you smile because it’s part of the joke. No, it’s not scary; it doesn’t slow down enough to let fear creep in, but that’s all right with me. This is simply a fun ride from beginning to end.