Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn

Starring:Sid Abrams, Josh Becker, Sarah Berry, Denise Bixler, Bruce Campbell, Mitch Cantor, Kassie DePaiva, Richard Domeier, Jenny Griffith, Lou Hancock, Dan Hicks, Thomas Kidd, John Peaks, Ted Raimi, William Preston Robertson, Scott Spiegel, Snowy Winters
Studio: Anchor Bay
Product Type: DVD

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Writer-director Sam Raimi's extremely stylized, blood-soaked follow-up to his creepy Evil Dead isn't really a sequel; rather, it's a remake on a better budget. It also isn't really a horror film (though there are plenty of decapitations, zombies, supernatural demons, and gore) as much as it is a hilarious, sophisticated slapstick send-up of the terror genre. Raimi takes every horror convention that exists and exaggerates it with mind-blowing special effects, crossed with mocking Three Stooges humor. The plot alone is a genre cliché right out of any number of horror films. Several teens (including our hero, Ash, played by Bruce Campbell in a manic tour-de-force of physical comedy) visit a broken-down cottage in the woods--miles from civilization--find a copy of the Book of the Dead, and unleash supernatural powers that gut every character in sight. All, that is, except Ash, who takes this very personally and spends much of the of the film getting his head smashed while battling the unseen forces. Raimi uses this bare-bones story as a stage to showcase dazzling special effects and eye-popping visuals, including some of the most spectacular point-of-view Steadicam work ever (done by Peter Deming). Although it went unnoticed in the theaters, the film has since become an influential cult-video favorite, paving the way for over-the-top comic gross-out films like Peter Jackson's Dead Alive. --Dave McCoy

Customer Reviews:

A Classic.......2007-06-17

This is one of the best films ever made.

I should end the review there, but I guess I'll add a few other remarks, since that line alone would strike many as preposterous. Ok, first I should clarify: this is one of the best films ever made if you like the horror genre (and especially the comedy-horror sub-genre). Obviously if you hate horror films you won't think this is very good. That's fine. Usually when I see those "Greatest 100 movies" type lists, I don't like more than 2 or 3 on the entire list. Everyone has an opinion, and opinions are of necessity subjective. So if you don't like horror... run from this page, run very quickly.

Still here? Great! Anyway, I'm not going to go over all the great stuff in the film, most people have covered that pretty well. There's gore, there's slapstick, there's a ton of sight gags and wonderfully corny lines and catch phrases. It also has some interesting characters, especially the heroic fool Ash. This is just a damn fine movie.

The packaging is certainly... interesting. The artwork inside is nice, though a depiction of the skull on the original cover would have been nice (especially since there are two blank pages). The commentary is great, with lots of entertaining stories, tons of insights and things to watch for in the movie, and some bad jokes (as one would expect). I wish they would have added another commentary or two, as there seems to be (based on what I've read) quite a bit more that could be said about this film, but I guess one will have to do. The other extras were also pretty interesting, with even the picture section (a narrated slide show) being engaging, which is a first.

excelent edition!.......2007-05-29

Hola. Este dvd de evil dead 2 es altamente recomendable para cualquier fan de los DVDS o cualquier fan de EVIL DEAD. Es un lujazo de edicion y se lo recomiendo a todo el mundo.

Absolute Comedy/Horror Standard.......2007-05-23

Allow me to preface this review with a helpful fact. A few years back when Spin Magazine was writing about the films they felt were the greatest of the 20th century, they chose to include Sam Raimi's sequel to his very first film; which was a small independent horror called The Evil Dead. The Evil Dead was a great film in it's own right, however, the editors at Spin wanted to give Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn the recognition they felt it deserved. So they placed it at the top of their list...that's right, they felt that it is, in fact, the single greatest cinematic achievement of the 20th century.

Evil Dead 2 follows Ash Williams and his girlfriend into a small creepy Michigan cottage where they stumble upon some recordings that contain readings from an ancient relic called the book of the dead, and by playing these recordings they unleash demonic supernatural forces that quickly haunt and possess everything from the trees outside and Popeye's lamp to Ash's hand and his girlfriend's severed head. The shenanigans unfold and Ash is more game than perhaps anyone to take on these evil forces as best as he can, but some sort of defeat is consistently inevitable.

As a reader I hope you are not anticipating my rebuttal to Spin Magazine here. I just so happen to concur 100% with Spin's gutsy assertion. On the surface of Evil Dead 2, we are seeing vintage 80s shock horror but it certainly isn't presented deeply enough to qualify amongst the failures within that genre. Evil Dead 2 is microcosmically structured like classic slapstick and macrocosmically it functions as pure satire. In this sense it's budget is used firmly to it's advantage and runs together with the theme of making a select audience laugh, first and foremost. Those who are both distinctly either disturbed by gore or preoccupied by gore as a strength in horror, should take keen note that gore in this film is applied almost exclusively for physical slapstick comedy. Those who hate gore will hate it here and those who love to be immersed in gore may not understand or appreciate it's use in Evil Dead 2.

We get to see a chubby fruit cellar witch's soul-swallowing head extend via shoddy stop-motion effects. We get to see an eyeball pop out of her head and shoot across the room into some chick's mouth. We get so see blood spray humorously and pretty consistently out of the walls and floors of the cottage. We get to see Ash fight his hand, cut it off, and add a chainsaw to where his hand once was. We get to see him kill his girlfriend and fight both her severed head and headless body in a tool shed at the same time. We get to see Ash get clumsily chased around the house by a force of evil we never see. We also get to see the volume of slapstick comedy increase as the film goes on and finally we get to see a conclusion that still makes me kind of wish they never made a sequel (even though Army of Darkness is in and of itself a very good movie).

Evil Dead 2 may require a deeper degree of movie history appreciation, perhaps more specifically to exploitation and horror films. I know I sound like a movie snob saying that but the film does offer some fun and fitting tributes or references to past films. I think it is definitely fair to say that Raimi has a great appreciation for movies in general and we can plainly see that he has so much fun making them. Evil Dead 2 for me is fun, affable, and carefree; it is all the things it shouldn't be on it's surface, and it is perfect for that fact alone.

brillant film funny as hell.......2007-05-07

great film very hard to get on r2 to in uk but was thrilled to find it here the 3rd and final film in the siries gr8 stuff

Groovy.......2007-05-04

The series takes a left turn towards comedy in this sequel to a straight out horror film, not to say there is no horror to be found. There are plenty of scenes that will make you jump if you don't know what is coming, but there is a lot of laughs as well. In one word, the movie is fun. Bruce Campbell carries the film since it really does focus on his character and changes Ash from a quiet person into this explosive action hero that you can't help but cheer on! Every time I think of my favorite scenes, the majority of them involve Ash, which is what makes him such a great character. The big scene I immediately think of is when he fights his own hand, you'll just have to watch to see that for yourself.

A bigger budget was used in the making of this movie, but some B qualities still can be seen in the movie. Such as you can see there is no roof to the cabin when Ash is trying to out run the deadite spirit following him into the house. Another instance being when the eye pops out of the deadite, you can see the little black piece of plastic making the eye fly. Small things like that do not effect this movie, the story is compelling and you will ignore anything that seems cheesy. There is too much good about the movie and will always win over anything bad that can be said about this movie.

People kept asking after watching the first movie, why wasn't Ash every possessed in the first film when all of his friends were? Well, he gets to be possessed in this film in more than one occasion, so it goes to show that even he isn't immune. Overall, this is another MUST SEE! I have watched the movie many times and this is definitely something that will never get old.

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