The Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn (1987)
Along with a number of other horror classics, “The Evil Dead” had paved the way for a boom in interest for horror cinema in the 80s. Never before had audiences clamoured for violence, mayhem and terror the way they were then, so it came as no surprise when, six years after “The Evil Dead” hit theatres, the world was treated to its long anticipated sequel, “Evil Dead 2”, also known as “Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn”.
To get up tp speed on the series, so far, take a look at Part 1
This was no ordinary sequel though, as, in a rather surprising twist in storytelling, the start of the film actually rewrote the events of the original. The film’s opening shows us a slightly altered series of events whereby Bruce Campbell’s protagonist, Ash and his girlfriend, Linda were the only ones to go up to the cabin. The demonic force then corrupts and possesses Linda until Ash is eventually forced to kill her and is left by himself. The reason for this was simply that at the time of filming, Sam Raimi did not possess the rights to the original footage so he instead opted to re-shoot a new recap, resulting in this rather unique opening.
In contrast to ensemble cast of the original, a large chunk of this film is spent following Ash by himself as he is tormented and attacked by the demonic spirits in the cabin. He is eventually joined by some new characters investigating the cabin, but the time spent following Ash when he’s alone allows the film to delve much further into the isolation and psychologically traumatic aspects of what is happening in comparison to the first film. You can really see Ash becoming more and more unhinged as the film progresses and the demonic forces continue to conjure up new ways to mess with him.
One of the most important differences between this film and the original is the tonal shift that takes place. While the original film was portrayed as a straight horror, “Evil Dead 2” starts to lean more towards tongue in cheek dark comedy, and it is in this style of film that both Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell really found their calling. Ash acts more like a gritty, action star style protagonist; spouting off one liners as he fights. This version of Ash fancies himself as a macho hero, but isn’t always particularly effective when trying to be one, and Bruce Campbell’s effortlessly convincing portrayal of this has allowed Ash to be a pop culture icon and staple of the horror genre as a whole (fun fact: before horror crossover “Freddy vs Jason” was released in 2003, one of the original concepts was for it to actually be Freddy vs Jason vs Ash).
The new tone of the film, along with already having an existing fan base and a substantially increased budget (the original had an estimated budget of around $90,000 where as this sequel had a budget of $3.6 million), allowed Sam Raimi to experiment and take things much further than he was previously been able to. This resulted in some of the most memorable moments in not only the film, but in the whole series. Arguably the most memorable fight in the film trilogy was only possible with this new tone, as it is not between Ash and one of the deadites (the official name of the demonic forces) but is instead a long, slapstick style fight between Ash and his very own hand as it becomes possessed and tries to kill him. This eventually results in Ash’s most well known look when he finally decides to cut off the possessed hand and replaces it with a chainsaw, which is am image so universally cool that it has remained the signature image of the franchise to this very day.
The film’s twist ending also hooked in a lot of viewers as it was not only an interesting surprise but also left the door open for an interesting version and a new direction for the series to go in. Throughout the film Ash and the other characters have been reading from the ancient book of the dead, The Necronomicon, and at one point they find a picture of a figure surrounded by worshippers. This in the end turns out to actually be a depiction of Ash himself as at the end he is accidentally sucked into a vortex created by the Necronomicon and sent back in time, where upon arrival he kills a deadite with his shotgun and is worshipped as a hero. This is not only a nice twist in story telling but also amped up a lot of fans with anticipation of a sequel in a whole new setting with Ash stuck hundreds of years in the past with no way to return.
So “Evil Dead 2” had everything that the original had; it had the horror, it had the suspense, and it certainly had the blood (at one point gallons and gallons of it are continuously poured directly onto Bruce Campbell like a fire hose). But in not taking itself too seriously and the creators experimenting with what they could do with it, it also had so much more. It had better characters, more memorable scenes and action, and a sense of fun that is rare for horror movies. It’s clear the cast and crew had fun making this film and that enjoyment transfers over to the Darkness, which is why this often cited as the fan favourite of the series.
This sense of fun and adventure will be expanded even further in the coming sequel, so to find out how that pans out join us in part three of the “Evil Dead” retrospective as we look into “Army of Darkness”.
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