Evil Dead II (AKA Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn)
Dir: Sam Raimi
1987
*****
It's rare that a sequel exceeds its predecessor, especially in horror films, but that's exactly what Evil Dead 2 does. Raimi and writing partner Scott Spiegel hadn't planned on making a sequel to their 1981 hit The Evil Dead but while they were working on their second film (Crimewave), Irvin Shapiro, the publicist who was primarily responsible for the mainstream release of the original film, suggested they make another. Raimi and Spiegel disagreed, Crimewave was going to be their ticket to greatness they thought but when it flopped (rather unfairly) they realised they needed another success in order to progress within the industry. However, Evil Dead is by no means a forced cop-out but it is a different film to the first. Instead of trying to re-create the first film, Raimi wanted to add time-travel, fantasy and comedy to the story. The first script had Bruce Campbell's character Ash travel through a time porthole back to the middle ages, but once it was established that their budget wouldn't allow them to do the idea justice they scrapped it, although they returned to the idea for the third installment, Army of darkness in 1992. Instead, they returned to the Cabin in the woods formula but were far more playful than they were the first time round. The film re-caps the events of the first film which makes it somewhat of a remake in many respects but the story progresses further than the first film within a few minutes. It's as gruesome as the first with just as many thrills and scares but is more of a slap-stick comedy than haunted house movie. It's basically a one man Three Stooges remake set within the horror genre. It's twice as inventive as the first film and has a refreshingly fast pace. It's also rather ridiculous. It's the epitome of comedy horror and proof that such a film can work and become successful.