Evil Dead 2 (DVD)

The director Sam Raimi first made a name for himself through his work on the Evil Dead films. In my personal opinion, the best of those films is Evil Dead II, which was released in 1987.

Evil Dead II is about a young man, Ash Williams, who plans to spend a romantic break away with his girlfriend Linda in a cabin in the woods. Things take a turn for the worse when Ash plays a tape recording of an archeology Professor reciting from the Necronomicon Book of the Dead, which unleashes an evil force from the woods which kills Linda, possessing her body and threatens to do the same to Ash. The Professor’s daughter, Annie and her research partner Ed turn up just as the tormented Ash is fighting off the evil force which is driving him insane. It becomes a desperate battle for survival as the evil force is relentless in its attempt to kill Ash and everyone else as they try to find shelter and safety in the cabin.

I thought that this was a brilliant horror film which I really enjoyed. The story is a typical good versus evil one, but the frantic and gory style is quite unique and I feel that it is filmed in a stylish way. There are a lot of violent scenes, but it is combined with some tongue in cheek humour which I found entertaining. One thing which I liked about the film is that you don’t actually see the evil force, only people who are possessed by it or who are running away from it, which adds to the tension. The battle between Ash and the evil force is scary, disturbing and even a little bit funny.

In my opinion, Bruce Campbell is brilliant as the heroic and sarcastic Ash Williams who tries desperately to defeat the evil force. Sarah Berry is good as Annie Knowby who has some knowledge of the Necronomicon Book of the Dead. The film also stars Dan Hicks, Kassie Wesley DePaiva, Denise Bixler, Richard Domeier and Ted Raimi.

Evil Dead 2 is a brilliant horror film directed by Sam Raimi. It features a gory, tense story and a great performance from the actor Bruce Campbell.