Evil Dead II (1987, 85 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092991/
I'll start off by saying that I'm not a huge fan of this genre. I don't know exactly what this genre is called but it's something akin to cheesy horror. It tries to be both funny and scary at the same time and frequently fails at both. The Evil Dead was this same genre and I didn't really like it so that's why it's taken me over a year to return to the series.
We pick up essentially right where we left off with Ash (Bruce Campbell) at the cabin. There's a short flashback that catches you up on The Evil Dead (though it seems this has caused debate over whether or not Evil Dead II is a remake or a sequel, but I'm going with the "official" claim that it's a sequel). Later on three other people join Ash as he tries to fend off the dead spirits: Annie Knowby (Sarah Berry), Jake (Dan Hicks), and Bobby Joe (Kassie DePaiva). Possessions and battles take place with Annie eventually opening a portal to vanquish the spirits but also sending Ash back in time and thus setting up Army of Darkness.
I didn't like The Evil Dead that much. It just didn't find the right blend of horror and fun. However, Evil Dead II quickly destroys any notion that it's like its predecessor. We immediately get craziness with Ash running from demons, having bizarrely humorous dreams, and fighting against his own possessed hand. Campbell does a good job through the whole thing, essentially carrying the movie for its entirety. The other actors do fine - Berry getting the second most screen time - but this movie belongs to Campbell. And rightfully so. He's a convincing Ash and makes this film a joy to watch.
The movie has gratuitous blood and gore but that's what you should expect coming in. I knew this would be "horror" but in a very different sense than that provided by The Thing last night. Even with the cheesiness throughout I was on the edge of my seat watching this. The plot moved forward in good directions with lots of "No! Don't do that!" moments which every movie of this sort needs. And finally, one other note: the music was good for this movie. Creating tension by sometimes having music build up and sometimes having complete silence, it worked really well.
Overall, I gave this film a 7/10. It was really fun to watch but some parts lag a little and some sequences just don't find that right blend of fun and horror that I mentioned. Overall, though, it's a lot better than I expected and made me want to watch Army of Darkness.
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