Uma Noite Alucinante 2

This is the type of film we really wish we made ourselves before some else thought of it. It's intelligent but not entirely complex ... entirely enjoyable yet a serious piece of film making ... everything adds up to cult status. It's the type of film your uninformed friends (or mine at least, I'm surely surrounded by fools) dismiss as trash without giving it a chance.

Raimi showed us the thrills, chills and blackly tinged laughs he could bring about in the first in the series on a virtually non-existent budget. Here with just that little bit more he retreads old ground but everything still works ... probably more effectively too! Seeing some of props used and slightly off production values (the 'muppet' headless girlfriend in the shed, the demon head stuck to camera attacking Ash towards the end, Ted Raimi's ripped old lady from hell suit and the quickest of glimpses of set floor boards during one stage of shooting) shows how Raimi was still constrained by budget issues.

Seriously though, who cares ... this film has 6 different colours of blood, some seriously funny slap-stick scenes (didn't think I'd say that anytime soon) and a chemistry between lead Campbell and director Raimi that let the jokes flow freely.

Campbell proves himself a master of face contortion, self-harm as well as flipping himself over! So many classic scenes in such a short space of time ... my favourite being when Jake is dragged into the cellar and a torment of pink blood comes pumping out. The camera work is as dynamic and as fast paced as in the first outing, the shot of ash standing by the remains of the bridge at the start of film standing out for its grandness among otherwise less cinematic shots.

The film leads on nicely to the 3rd installment in the series with one-handed Ash getting sucked into another dimension to face the undead in jolly olde England (or something like that). It really is no wonder that the in-store geeks/pop-culture snobs of High Fidelty described Evil Dead II as the greatest movie of all time.

'Groovey' indeed.

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.

This film, is without a shadow of a doubt, one of finest, most imaginative comedy horror films ever made. Raimi, has put all the aspects of the film together in masterful fashion. The camera work and sound effects are pulsating, and the timing is perfection. And in Bruce Campbell, the film as a lead actor who gives an exceptional performance. Campbell plays "Ash", an everyday, supermarket attendant who suddenly finds himself thrown into the unusual situation of having to defend himself against, zombies, evil spirits and even his own possessed hand, just in order to survive the night. I laughed, I gasped, and I gripped the arm of my chair throughout! If you like your comedies, black and hilarious, and your horror, gory and sensational, then look no further. Raimi has created the definitive comedy horror! Fantastic!

Always a tricky fish to try and fry, the second instalment of a growing franchise, recognising that the same as before just won't do, a need to break away from what's started and to brew, there's still plenty of gore and a great deal of splatter, without CGI, lots of matter gets scattered, some inconsistency, with the early story, but it soon moves along, although there's not really a song (why would there be), must have been lots of fun, making monsters to gun, making potions from notions, appendages that can run, it's quite dated today, though it had been ground breaking, but I enjoyed going back, got more hooked on the making - and It didn't make me laugh, and never did, and there's a good reason for that!!!

My Rating : 8/10

Sam Raimi's 'Evil Dead II' is the definition of horror-comedy done well. Part II in the Evil Dead trilogy and carries the story forward brilliantly. Masterful camera work and stop-motion. Hilarious, entertaining stuff.

If you like this movie, also check out the lesser-known and highly underrated Peter Jackson's 'Dead Alive'.