The Evil Dead II

You all know Sam Raimi right? Director of Spiderman… Well back in 1987, long before his greatest hits, he worked on a little project called Evil Dead 2 (the remake of the original Evil Dead)

Starring the infamous B-Movie mega-star… Bruce Campbell as the main hero Ash, and several co-stars including Dan Hicks and Sarah Berry. The film is a horror – comedy – gorefest based around the book of the dead, where once certain words are spoken, the spirits and demons of the underworld are unleashed.

This movie is so bad its actually great!!! Quite gory for its time, but does well in poking fun at itself. The acting is ok for its time but Bruce Campbell’s performance is beyond epic. Quite action packed, a true Bruce Campbell movie in its own right.

In one particular scene, he ends up having to chase his own demonically possessed hand around the cabin with a shotgun (I wonder where ‘Idle Hands‘ got its idea from…), while it hilariously mocks him. Bruce then goes into a psychotic rage which will leave the audience gasping for air between bouts of bellyaching laughter.

The movie was quite low-budget and the special effects reflect this, but the production as a whole delivers the blood spilling, hand-chopping experience quite well. This film sparked a follow-up sequel called ‘Army of Darkness‘ in 1992. The series has quite a large cult following and If you have the free time, aren’t grossed out by gore and like B-movies, then I highly recommend watching this!

Acting – 3/5 – it’s so bad its really good and Bruce Campbell gives an amazing performance in his ‘psycho’ phase

Plot – 4/5 – Great for what it is

Enjoyability – 5/5

Overall – 4/5

Army of Darkness

Army of Darkness (1992) is the direct sequel to my previously reviewed film….. The Evil Dead II.

Starring none other than the big boy of B-Movie badassness… Bruce Campbell (I enjoyed the sound of all those b’s). Ash (Bruce’s character) is catapulted from the present right into the medieval era, where the book of the dead has, yet again, been unleashed (obviously by Bruce….). He quickly becomes the hero to these people and amply shows off his boom stick. (his gun you perverts… I know what you were thinking!!). To cut a long story short, Bruce must save the country from the blight of the undead in order to be sent back home.

This movie has got quite a few hilarious moments. The terribly bad jokes and puns are just sooo bad, they’re hilarious!!. Still as gory as ever, if you liked the Evil Dead II, you’re definitely in for a treat. By far one of Bruce Campbell’s better films but not quite as funny as it’s prequel.

The only problem I have with this movie are the sub-characters. The one or two there are we don’t really get to know and in all honesty, we don’t really get to care much about. Beneath the skull splitting monster-killing action, there are a few sub-plots, however they’re quite basic (probably due to the fact that in the end, this is a B-Movie).

Acting – 4/5 (BRUCE CAMPBELL!!!!)

Plot – 3/5

Enjoyability – 4/5

Overall – 3.5/5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD_82kvQLkA – Trailer