Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn - Hail to the King (baby)

‘Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn’ – is it a sequel?  Is it a remake?  The argument rages to this day.  However, ultimately, who cares?  It’s awesome!  Well... if you like seeing grown men screaming as they’re repeatedly covered in a variety of different-coloured bodily fluids.  Luckily, I do.

Ignore the original ‘Evil Dead’ (yes, it was fun – for the time – but this one’s head and shoulders over it when it comes to special effects, gore and characters).  Whether Part II is a remake or sequel, it basically covers the entire of the first film in the opening ten minutes and then gathers steam from there.  It is basically the original ‘cabin-in-the-woods-movie.’ So many times since we’ve seen a group of annoyingly-good looking teenagers head out to a cabin in the middle of nowhere, only to meet their end at the hands of something pretty nasty.  But, back in Evil Dead/Evil Dead Part II’s day – it was actually quite an original prospect – especially when it’s done as well as this.

Yes, the prospect of people being stuck in a remote location and hunted by someone out of this world isn’t that revolutionary, but it’s the way it’s done here that makes ‘Dead by Dawn’ a classic.  Here the hapless humans are hunted by, not just the undead, but the ‘evil’ dead.  If you’re unclear of the difference, the evil dead aren’t just your run-of-the-mill zombies, but demons who just look like zombies, but are a hundred times more powerful and are completely insane.

If the gore and general craziness of seeing a man fight his own (possessed) hand isn’t enough for you to get you to watch this, you have Bruce Campbell as the central character, Ash.  After this performance the B-movie world had a new cult hero who has gone on to not just star in the sequel, but countless computer games, comics and most recently a TV show.  Basically, Ash is a chump – a stupid, sexist idiot who causes more problems than he actually gets round to solving.  He is definitely not your average Hollywood hero – and the film is all the better for it.

Ash makes Evil Dead.  Evil Dead would just be another horror film without Ask.  If you don’t believe me – look into the remake of Evil Dead that completely omitted him (and I’m not counting the ‘too-little-too-late’ cameo at the end of the film).  It was rubbish.  Or rather it was just another horror film.  If you like your horror films, B-movies, or just wise-cracking insane heroes battling even more crazy demons, give this one a go.  It’s groovy.

10/10 The Monty Python Knights of Camelot are currently looking for this