The Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn (1987)

by Tracy Ladd:

Continuing on with The Evil Dead trilogy, I embarked on part two.  Not knowing what to expect aside from Ash fighting more demons, I continued my journey into the land of Raimi.

So I started the film and thought that I must be missing something because the beginning of part two seemed a whole lot like part one.  I consulted with my resident Evil Dead expert via text message and found out that it’s almost like a remake, but not.  Ash and his girlfriend Linda head to the scary cabin in the scary woods by crossing the scary bridge.  Ok, same as before, just without the douchey friends that were in the first one.

They arrive at scary cabin and Ash finds the Book of the Dead (which was burned in the first one) and the tape player that has the recording that unleashes the demons.  Of course he plays the tape and then….bad things start to happen.  Basically the way to sum part two up is it’s part one, with more comedy.  They went pure schlock with this one.  Was I disappointed? No.  If a film can make me laugh like this one did, I consider that mission accomplished.

I said in my first Evil Dead post that Raimi has skills.  He showed them here once again.  I love his speedy zooms through the scary forest and the close-ups on bloody faces and how blood spurts EVERYWHERE.  This time around he incorporated stop motion animation which was…..interesting.  Not in the way it was done, just what parts it was used in.

So here, once again, is my list of lessons learned from The Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn

• If you experience deja vu when arriving at your scary cabin weekend get-away, chances are you’ve been here before.  But don’t fret, this time around won’t be scary, but it will be humorous.
• The guy who decides to wear a Member’s Only jacket is sure to get possessed and eventually whacked.  Put the jacket away and go with a nice hoodie.  A cardigan works as well.  Actually his days are numbered so it doesn’t matter what type of apparel he sports.
• You won’t be at the scary cabin very long before your girlfriend / boyfriend will be possessed.  Just do yourself a favor and take care of business right when you get there.  Then you can self-reflect in peace and quiet.  That’s always nice.
• If for some reason you don’t exercise proper possessed girlfriend killing skills, and just take off her head, you’ll have to witness said girlfriend vacating her grave and doing a little sexy dance for you…sans head.  Oh and just a side-note, if she offers up a lap dance, I would advise against it.  You don’t want to get too close to all that.
• There’s a good chance that your decapitated girlfriends head is going to come back and bite you.  If she latches on to your hand, try to break the jaw.  If that doesn’t work, just cut your hand off right then.  That will save you the beat down your hand is going to give you later.  No, that’s not a euphemism.
• If for some reason an eyeball comes flying at you, for God’s sake, DO NOT under any circumstance, stand there with your mouth open.  Said eyeball will inevitable end up in your mouth and worming its way down to your tummy.  If, for some reason this does happen, induce vomiting immediately.  Although chances are good that it will taste like chicken.
• Don’t be surprised when your severed hand flips you the bird.
• It’s possible to MacGyver your bloody stump of an arm to wield a chainsaw.  All it takes is random rusty parts that just so happen to be stored in the scary shed at the scary cabin.  You should also have some decent arm strength. That way,  if you find yourself in a position where you need to use this, you’ll be able to.  Hopefully it just happens to be your dominate arm.  Once chainsaw is properly attached, choosing a battle cry is appropriate.  Groovy works in this situation.
• There no explanation necessary for when you go from normal, to demon, back to normal, to zombie-ish, then back to normal.  Just tell the poor scared girl who showed up at her dead father’s cabin that you’re ok now and it’s all good.

Next on deck is Army of Darkness which I’ve been told is the “crown jewel of the trilogy.”  Let’s see what lessons I can learn from the final installment.  I tell ya, the Evil Dead films so far have been better than any survival guide I’ve read.  Who needs to watch Man, Woman, Wild or Man vs. Wild or even Dual Survival.  All I need to know about survival I learned from Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell.

DarkMedia contributor Tracy Ladd has been writing about film since her days on the her high school newspaper. Even though she took a decade or two off to explore other things, she’s back to doing what she loves. She also bakes, can knit a pretty nifty scarf and makes lightsaber sounds with her knitting needles. Or chopsticks. Especially with the lightsaber chopsticks.

You can find her on Facebook, on Twitter @ReelGoddess, and on her website The Reel Goddess.