Remakes usually suck.
Legacy sequels spend half their running time reminding you how much better the original was.
Evil Dead 2 says, "Fuck all of that."
Sam Raimi looked at The Evil Dead, tore the damn thing apart with a chainsaw, stitched the bloody pieces back together with Looney Tunes insanity, Three Stooges violence, and enough Karo syrup to flood a small town. Is it a sequel? Kind of. A remake? Sort of. Does it matter? Not even a little. Labels are for people trying to explain Evil Dead 2. Raimi is too busy throwing severed limbs, demon blood, and Bruce Campbell's rapidly deteriorating sanity directly at your face.
This isn't horror behaving itself. It's horror having a complete psychotic break, laughing while it rips its own hand off, then dancing across the room with the bloody stump. Somehow—and this is the miracle—it's still one of the funniest damn movies ever made.
Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) and his girlfriend Linda (Denise Bixler) drive out to the middle of nowhere because apparently isolated cabins are a really good idea. Hidden inside is the Necronomicon, an archaeologist's tape recorder, and the cinematic equivalent of a giant red button labeled DON'T FUCKING PUSH THIS. Naturally, somebody pushes play. Ancient evil wakes up, Linda gets possessed, and Ash discovers that spending the weekend chopping up your undead girlfriend is only the beginning of an exceptionally shitty night.
The bridge home is gone. The forest is alive. Every shadow wants Ash dead. Then Annie Knowby (Sarah Berry), her research assistant Ed (Richard Domeier), and a pair of locals who clearly drew the short straws—Jake (Danny Hicks) and Bobby Joe (Kassie Wesley)—show up carrying even more pages from the Book of the Dead because . . . demonic possession, you know.
Plot has never been the point.
Evil Dead 2 exists as an excuse for Raimi to empty every insane idea rattling around inside his skull onto the screen, and thank whatever dark gods were listening that nobody told him to calm the hell down.
His camera doesn't simply move—it attacks. It dives through windows, flies through the woods like an invisible predator, crashes into doors, spins through hallways, and practically headbutts the actors. Raimi shoots horror movies the way punk bands play three-chord songs: fast, loud, messy, and with enough raw energy to make polish feel overrated.
Then there's the sequence. You know the one. Ash finally cracks. The lamp starts laughing. The deer starts laughing. The furniture starts laughing.
Hell, the entire cabin laughs until Ash joins in, teetering on the edge between survivor and complete lunatic. It's one of the greatest depictions of psychological collapse ever put on film, and it's also one of the funniest. Raimi somehow convinces you that total mental annihilation should be greeted with uncontrollable laughter instead of sympathy.
Bruce Campbell is the secret weapon that makes every ounce of this madness work. Plenty of actors would've played Ash like another square-jawed horror hero. Campbell plays him like a man who keeps getting punched by the universe and somehow finds the strength to punch back anyway. His face stretches like rubber. His screams become punchlines. His physical comedy borders on silent-film brilliance. Every wide-eyed reaction, every exhausted sigh, every crazed grin builds toward the birth of one of horror's greatest icons.
When Ash straps the chainsaw onto his arm and saws off the barrel of a shotgun, cinema gives birth to a folk hero for weird kids everywhere.
The practical effects deserve their own standing ovation. Every gallon of blood, every melting corpse, every stop-motion creature, every rubber demon, every flying eyeball has texture. Weight. Personality. Nothing feels sanitized. Nothing feels digitally scrubbed into submission. The movie practically dares its effects to become more outrageous with every passing scene until it finally arrives at a place where the only logical response is to sit back and admire the sheer commitment to the bit.
What's remarkable is how effortlessly Raimi balances tones that should absolutely destroy each other. One second you're watching body horror that would make David Cronenberg nod approvingly. The next you're watching a possessed hand flipping its owner the middle finger while Benny Hill music somehow feels appropriate. Horror and comedy don't take turns here—they beat the living shit out of each other until neither one remembers which genre is supposed to be winning.
And that's why Evil Dead 2 still kicks so much ass.
It refuses to grow up. It refuses to explain itself. It refuses to play by anyone else's rules.
Modern horror has become obsessed with trauma, elevated themes, and explaining every supernatural breadcrumb until the mystery is sucked dry. Raimi looked at all that decades before it became fashionable and basically said, "Nah...what if we just make the craziest goddamn movie anybody's ever seen?"
Mission accomplished.
Evil Dead 2 isn't just one of the greatest horror-comedies ever made. It's one of the purest examples of what happens when a filmmaker is given just enough money to make something bigger but not enough supervision to make it safe. Every frame bleeds personality. Every gag lands with the force of a sledgehammer. Every camera movement feels like Raimi double-dog daring you to keep up.
Forty years later, it still feels dangerous. Not because it's shocking.
Because nobody making studio horror today has the balls to make something this gloriously unhinged.
Can we now have a new 4K release, Lionsgate? We need it.
Home Video Distributor: Lionsgate Films
Available on Blu-ray - September 13, 2016
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles: English; Spanish
Video:1080p
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; single disc
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A
Bruce Campbell returns as Ash Williams in Sam Raimi's gloriously unhinged horror masterpiece. Trapped in a remote cabin and hunted by the demonic forces unleashed from the Necronomicon, Ash battles possessed loved ones, flesh-hungry Deadites, and his own sanity in a blood-soaked roller coaster of outrageous scares and manic comedy. Fueled by Raimi's hyperkinetic direction, groundbreaking practical effects, and Campbell's iconic performance, Evil Dead 2 is a delirious blend of horror, slapstick, and chainsaw-powered mayhem that redefined the genre. Equal parts terrifying and hysterically funny, this cult classic remains one of the wildest rides horror has ever unleashed.
Video
The included 1080p AVC transfer still punches well above its weight. Colors are bold without looking cartoonish, blacks are satisfyingly deep, and the endless parade of blood, slime, and goo retains plenty of texture.
Fine detail is impressive throughout, from the splintered wood inside the cabin to the grotesque practical makeup effects that still look fantastic decades later.
While the now out-of-print 4K UHD offers the definitive presentation with its HDR grading and additional refinement, this Blu-ray remains a terrific way to experience Raimi's manic visual style.
Audio
The English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix absolutely rips. Joseph LoDuca's legendary score fills the room, while the Deadites screech, howl, and crash around the surround channels with gleeful abandon. Raimi's hyperactive sound design remains every bit as kinetic as his camerawork, making this an immersive presentation that never lets up.
Dialogue remains clean and perfectly balanced amidst all the chainsaw revving, shotgun blasts, and gallons of exploding demon goo.
Supplements:
Commentary:
- None
Special Features:
While this Blu-ray doesn't include the newer "Bloody and Groovy, Baby!" retrospective created for the UHD, it still offers an excellent collection of legacy supplements that fans can sink their teeth into.
- Audio Commentary with Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, Scott Spiegel, and Greg Nicotero
- Swallowed Souls: The Making of Evil Dead 2
- Cabin Fever behind-the-scenes documentary
- Road to Wadesboro featurette
- Behind the Screams
- The Gore the Merrier
- Theatrical Trailer
- Still Galleries
The only thing missing is the UHD-exclusive "Bloody and Groovy, Baby!" documentary, which makes the disappearance of Lionsgate's 4K release even more frustrating. That disc has quietly become one of the most sought-after horror UHDs on the aftermarket, and there's simply no good reason one of the greatest horror films ever made should be unavailable in its best presentation. Come on, Lionsgate... quit screwing around. Dust off those masters, fire up the presses, and get Evil Dead 2 back on 4K shelves where it belongs. Groovy deserves better.
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