Evil Dead II (1987)

Director:

Sam Raimi

Writers:

Sam Raimi (written by)
Scott Spiegel (written by)

Release Date:

13 March 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Fantasy | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Kiss Your Nerves Good-Bye!

Plot:

The lone survivor of an onslaught of flesh-possessing spirits holds up in a cabin with a group of strangers while the demons continue their attack.

Plot Keywords:

Cabin | Evil Dead | Demon | Book | Book Of The Dead

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Bruce Campbell	...	Ashley 'Ash' J. Williams
Sarah Berry	...	Annie Knowby
Dan Hicks	...	Jake
Kassie Wesley DePaiva	...	Bobbie Joe (as Kassie Wesley)
Ted Raimi	...	Possessed Henrietta (as Theodore Raimi)
Denise Bixler	...	Linda
Richard Domeier	...	Ed Getley
John Peakes	...	Professor Raymond Knowby
Lou Hancock	...	Henrietta Knowby
Snowy Winters	...	Dancer (dance sequence)
Sid Abrams	...	Fake Shemp
Josh Becker	...	Fake Shemp
Scott Spiegel	...	Fake Shemp
Thomas Kidd	...	Fake Shemp
Mitch Cantor	...	Fake Shemp

Also Known As:

Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn

Runtime:

84 min | Sweden:70 min (video version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-18 (2002) | West Germany:18 (video rating) (cut) | Germany:18 (SPIO/JK) (re-rating) | Argentina:16 | USA:R (edited UMD version) | Portugal:M/18 | Netherlands:16 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Ontario) (Re-rated 2007) | Canada:R (Ontario) | Italy:VM18 (video rating) | UK:15 (2008) (re-rating) | UK:15 (re-rating) (2008) | Germany:16 (cut DVD version) | Sweden:18 (DVD rating) | Italy:T | Chile:18 | Australia:R | Canada:R | Denmark:15 (DVD rating) | France:-12 | Hong Kong:III | Iceland:(Banned) | Ireland:18 | Japan:R-15 | Singapore:R21 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 (cut) | UK:18 | USA:R (edited for re-rating) | USA:Unrated | USA:X (original rating) | Norway:18 (video) (2002) | Norway:(Banned) (original rating) (1986-2003) (cinema release)

Filming Locations:

De Laurentiis Studios, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA

Company:

De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG)

Trivia:

The references to A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) were the conclusion to an unspoken battle of "can-you-top-this" between Sam Raimi and Wes Craven. In Bill Warren's book The Evil Dead Companion, it says that Raimi took the torn Jaws (1975) poster in Craven's The Hills Have Eyes (1977) to mean that Craven was saying that his movie was even scarier than Jaws. Raimi included a torn Hills poster in The Evil Dead (1981) to send the same message. Craven responded by including a scene of Nancy watching The Evil Dead in Nightmare. Raimi responded to that with a scene of a destroyed Nightmare poster in Evil Dead II.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Annie is trying to pull Jake out of the cellar door, she is sprayed with blood and her shirt and shorts soaked in the front. When she turns around, she's almost completely clean.

Quotes:

[Ash grabs a chainsaw]
Ash: That's right... who's laughing now... who's laughing *now*?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Supermarket (2009)

Horror Movie Played For Laughs; Extremely Entertaining

This is one of the few horror movies I truly enjoyed, because the film offers a great combination of horror and comedy. It adds up to a very entertaining 85 minutes.

There's a lot to like in this kinda-goofy movie: nice visuals; good humor to counteract the scariness and gore of a horror story; a small amount of ridiculous theology compare to what usually is offered in this genre, and some totally outrageous scenes. They include a woman's head loose and then biting a man's hand with the rest of her body running around with a chainsaw; a hand with a mind of it's own, monster-type grandma and grandpa in the cellar, chase scenes through a forest with trees coming to life and attacking people, on and on....wild, wild stuff.

My main complaint is not enough lulls. There is too much action, and it's so intense it's almost too much to watch in one continuous sitting even with its fairly short length. One needs a break once in a while!

There is no credibility in here, but that's okay since I think most of this is played for laughs more than horror. Bruce Campell suffers physical damage that would have killed a person many times but within seconds, he's back to normal. Campell, by the way, must have set the all-time record for making rubber-faced wild faces in a movie, more than Jim Carrey. However, this movie certainly isn't one to be scrutinized for realism. You have to look at it, with all the gory scenes and shocking violence as not much more than just tongue-in-cheek satire on horror movies. It's great fun.