Film Discussion of the Week: Evil Dead II

Without a shadow of a doubt, Evil Dead II starring Bruce, is the greatest horror movie ever made. It has the right amount of creepiness, over the top violence, and humor. Then add on top of it the charisma and charm of Bruce. Its an amazing movie.

I'm always shocked to find out someone hasn't seen it. It's considered a classic of the genre.

I wonder if Balder has seen it?

Army Of Darkness is a classic Bruce movie, but I always liked Evil Dead II more because of how it balanced the horror and the humor. Army Of Darkness was all slapstick. Not that it's a bad thing.

I'm not a big horror movie fan. The humor looks good, though.

If that is the case, you should watch Army of Darkness first.

The Evil Dead trilogy is a good series to get into for those who maybe don't like horror that much. The first movie is straight up horror but the horror gives way to slapstick as the series goes on. The third movie, Army Of Darkness, is barely a horror movie. It's more of an adventure comedy. But all of them are really great in their own way. And the Ash vs. Evil Dead TV series is pretty amazing too.

And for those who are really unfamiliar, Duke Nukem ripped off a lot of great Ash one-liners 

I never cared for any of the Evil Dead sequels. The first film was a stand-alone classic and remains one of my all time favorite horror films and films in general. Evil Dead II feels like a 3-Stooges take on the first film, with none of it ever feeling like a serious attempt at film making or horror. The plot is essentially just a rehash of the first film, so there's really nothing special there. The severe overuse of camera angles and slapstick detract from the strong horror atmosphere the special effects create, which is a shame because I really admired the artistic design of just about everything in the movie. Going back to the plot, the film is paper-thin in terms of storytelling and characterization; all the characters are underdeveloped and just there to killed off, and there's even less dialogue than there was in the first film, despite it (Dead II) having a significantly longer run time. I mean, I don't watch an Evil Dead film for the plot or characterization, but there's just nothing credible about II's storytelling at all.

Honestly if you want an actually scary Evil Dead film than just watch the first one; despite being made at a fraction of the cost of the sequels, it's still infinitely more effective at scaring the pants off of you. To me, the second one just comes across as an artsy joke, or an artistic brain-fart.