Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn - Festival Review

The Evil Dead (1981) reigns supreme as a must-see and surefire crowd pleaser, supplying a wealth of wickedly gnarly demon scares and macabre frights. These moments were once regarded as utterly intense in their ability to disturb. And whilst the film remains alarmingly creepy, many also embraced the dark humour that complemented the chilling nature of this classic. With its core booming with humour, and its flair boasting intense, wild absurdity, Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn (1987) truly leaves a lasting impression.

Technically, the sequel leads off exactly where the previous film ends, or at least that's the idea. Bruce Campbell, who once again takes the lead as the famed deadite destroyer, Ash Williams, had recanted the unusual opening as being down to legalities. The original film was owned by New Line Cinema, but the sequel was being made by De Laurentiis Entertainment. Therefore, director Sam Raimi did not own the rights to his own film. Essentially, the opening sequence is a mini remake filmed to retell and rerun the conclusion of The Evil Dead, in a bid to springboard the action to follow throughout the film. 

With the new ending/beginning amalgamation formed, the film begins its plot, which, unluckily for Ash, sees him battling another round of death, decay and destruction in the cursed cabin. The future mythology that forms across The Evil Dead franchise generally begins to find its roots in this film, with the first act dissecting how this mysterious ancient text, the Necronomicon, found itself in a rural Tennessee cabin in the first place. The film explains that the tape recorder, featured in both films, belonged to Professor Knowby (John Peakes), who took to the cabin to deeply study the jinxed text. Flash forward to the current happenings, Knowby's daughter Annie (Sarah Berry), her research partner Ed (Richard Domeier), followed by Jake (Dan Hicks) and Bobby-Joe (Kassy Wesley), all head to the cabin, where Ash is still fighting for his life. What ensues is a gory dance with death where no one is safe from the deadly grip of the terrifyingly cruel deadites. 

The making of Evil Dead II began during the filming of the franchise's antecedent film when Raimi's publicist team urged him that the film would be a success, and that a sequel would be a foolproof hit. Raimi began mentally constructing all the ways in which the deadites could live to haunt another day, many of these ideas forming around the idea of Ash being teleported into the Middle Ages and so forth. As such, the valiant choice of tipping the scales from horror to rambunctious comedy was deeply sown from day one. After a few years of administrative production history, including Stephen King advocating for a sequel, Raimi and Campbell co-working with the Coen Brothers and securing an increased budget of $3.5 million, the long-awaited Evil Dead II was finally in production. 

Now that Raimi had experienced gory horror filmmaking, his talent was able to explore the facets that originate from such over-the-top, bloodied tumult. One of these major qualities is just how ludicrous and flamboyant the slaughter was in The Evil Dead. For the sequel, this butchery could not be recreated using mostly the same actors, same setting and situation without it not being slightly irreverent and, on the nose, leading to Raimi doing exactly that, leaning heavily on the farce of it all and situating the mayhem in a brutal yet comedic light. 

Evil Dead II has long been associated with the phrase 'Splatstick', a telling quip that emphasises the grotesque for laughs, often employing aspects such as physical comedy to exemplify the hybrid genre. Campbell undoubtedly has one hell of an experience throughout the entire franchise, almost becoming a puppet in which the land of the deadites controls. After just losing his sister, friends and his girlfriend, it is now time for him to lose his sanity. The trope of Ash's grip on reality succumbing to the evil within the cabin is told through a ménage of ways: whether that be through him sparring with an apparition of himself or going to war with his own possessed hand. 

This last titbit of Ash's deadite-infested hand serves many functions within the film. Firstly, the gag itself; after Linda bites Ash's hand, the limb becomes haunted by the spirits, in turn gouging at his own face, before going on a skirmish mission with his own body. The finale to this iconic scene sees Ash take to a chainsaw to stop the attacks, leading to his now infamous chainsaw hook in place of a hand. It is moments such as this that have remained an integral part of the franchise. 

Instances such as this are loaded with excellent practical effects. The film's common motif of utilising body horror, clever visual work and stop-motion all collide to create a joyously memorable experience. During one segment, a reanimated Linda rises from the ground, all decayed and eroded, before performing a whole dance routine. The scene is utterly hilarious, but also entirely disturbing, as we watch the corpse pirouette and prance around. The stop motion was a tedious process as the routine was based on a real dance performance, with animator Doug Bewick having to recreate the movement with miniature figures. The scene had to be enacted frame by frame, averaging roughly one frame for every five minutes of work. The slow process was certainly worth it, considering how much of a fan favourite moment it has become. There is something so fantastical and eerie about watching this dead body float around on screen to synchronised music. It not only paves the way for applause for Beswick and the effects team's dedication to the physicality of performance and how uncanny they have made the animated Linda, but it also enhances the overall surreal, nightmarish whimsy of the film's tone. 

An element that is crucial to Evil Dead II's payoff is the performances that run throughout, with a particular nod being owed to Campbell as the one and only Ash Williams. Ash experiences an entire metamorphosis throughout the film. Going from casual college student with a laid-back, fun persona, whilst still having a form of sensibility about him, to being a delirious, monster-fighting hero who holds no mercy. Not at one point does Ash's transition from horror to comedy feel amateurish or silly, despite the sporadic situations that he finds himself in. On a similar note, his dramatic characterisation also holds resemblance to the shifting mythology within the film. 

The idea of the Necronomicon, deadites, Kandarian demons, haunted cabins, chainsaw-hands and so forth is entirely bonkers when dissected, but somehow Raimi's infectious filmmaking talents of creating intricate and interesting plot points are what make Evil Dead II the film that helped pave the way for the entire franchise. As the film continues, the ending makes way for the completion of the trilogy - Army of Darkness (1992), a horror that sees Ash be transported to the Middle Ages, where he must tackle the evil undead in order to return to the present day. Thanks to the mythos built in The Evil Dead, and largely its sequel, the franchise continues to live on to this day. 

Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn is nothing less than truly unexpected and unpredictable. It belongs to the kind of horror cinema where absolutely anything can happen thanks to the original storytelling and frenzied tactics displayed throughout. The live-wire sequel has garnered a dedicated following over the years for good reason — it is an 84-minute affair of equal belly-laughs and chaotic jumpscare's all wrapped up into a gory, fleshly ball of fun. 

Watch the classic Evil Dead II on Sunday, 28th September at 20:30 at this year's Dead Northern Film Festival. 

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