#5– EVIL DEAD II (1987)
Dir. Sam Raimi
Our countdown of the top 31 horror films of all time enters the top five today. These are the heavy hitters of horror. These are the films all other horror films aspire to be, fail to be, and then bow down to. Let's get it started on a groovy note.
Coming in at number five is Sam Raimi's absolute classic, the king of all horror comedies, Evil Dead II (sometimes referred to as Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn).
If you're visiting a site called Dark of the Matinee, you certainly know what Evil Dead II is about, but just in case let me get you quickly caught up to speed. Ash, played by everyone's favorite chin Bruce Campbell, and his girlfriend Linda (Denise Bixler) hop in Ash's 1973 Oldsmobile to go on a romantic getaway in the woods. Ash finds some old cassette tapes and plays one. What we hear back is a professor reciting pages from Necronomicon Ex-Mortis (Book of the Dead).
This, as you can well imagine, is bad news.
Once the pages are read an evil force is unleashed. First it kills Linda and then takes over her body. Ash has no choice to chop her head off. What else could he do? Then the force tries to take over Ash, but he fights it off. Eventually Ash's had becomes possessed and we get to witness one of the greatest scenes in horror film history: Ash cutting off his own hand.
Ash, naturally, replaces his hand with a chainsaw. From there on out we witness a bloody, gory, slap-sticky good time!
Evil Dead II is less of a sequel and more of a remake of The Evil Dead. Raimi wrote the script along with good friend and fellow filmmaker Scott Spiegel, while Raimi was working on Crimewave. It ws Spiegel who suggested making Evil Dead II a horror comedy hybrid, opposed to making it straight horror like the first installment. This was a genius move.
Imagine the Three Stooges making a gory comedy. This is what you would get.
Evil Dead II has all my favorite things wrapped into one film: comedy, horror, gore, camp, slapstick, chainsaw. What's not to love? Evil Dead II scares you and then makes you laugh. Its like a sour patch kid!
The truly terrifying thing is that the film almost didn't happen. Raimi was weary about doing the sequel when first approached. He thought Crimewave would be a hit and that he could go on to other things. Luckily for us, Crimewave wasn't a hit.
Special kudos to Stephen King. It was because of King convincing Dino De Laurentiis to fiance the film that Raimi and gang were able to get funding. King highly praised the first film and was all too eager to help Raimi get the sequel made.
The film turned both Raimi and Campbell into the gods they are today. It showcased Raimi's signature style that we still continue to see today. Virtually any horror comedy you see today owes a great deal to Evil Dead II. Its a classic and easily one of the five greatest horror films of all time.
No comments:
Post a Comment