Month of Horror - Day Three: Evil Dead II

"Swallow this."

Years of my life had been spent thinking I had seen The Evil Dead. The truth was revealed when I decided to "re-watch it" a few weeks ago, only to realize that the movie was almost entirely new to me. As it turns out, a friend had shown me a few clips back in high school but I'd never watched the whole movie. I've definitely seen Army of Darkness many times. There's no doubt about that. But what about Evil Dead II? Do I have two secret shames to live up to? No better time to find out than the Month of Horror.

Two minutes in, all my questions are answered. This was my first time watching Evil Dead II. After some deep self-reflection, I realized what must have happened. In high school, I watched those clips but not the whole movies. Since I had forgotten that fact, I just assumed that the movie wasn't very memorable and therefore, not that great. Wrongwrongwrong. These movies are fantawesome (which is a new word I just created specifically for the Evil Dead trilogy) and should be watched by all.

Sam Raimi is the King of Horror Comedy and it's too bad that the Spider-Man movies have kept him so occupied for the past decade. Drag Me to Hell was a lot of fun though. Not too many movies have made me laugh out loud while peeking at the screen through my fingers. As far as Evil Dead II is concerned, I laughed a lot more than I was screamed but remained thoroughly entertained throughout. It's too bad that the first quarter century of my life didn't include two of Raimi's best films.

Some of the familiar scenes included a naked corpse woman dancing in the woods, the craziest looking deer head, and Ash battling against his own hand in what was clearly a thinly-veiled comment about man's own struggles with masturbation. Some of the best new (to me) scenes involved the origins of the Shotgun Hand, Evil Ash, and a timewarp, which I also saw as a comment about man and masturbation.

What's interesting about the first two Evil Dead movies is that how difficult it is to compare the two even though they are relatively similar. One is funnier while the other is scarrier, but both take place in the same cabin with the same evil spirit running around causing all sorts of trouble for groups of frightened woodland tourists. Even with similiar characters and narratives, they can't really be weighed against one another. Maybe it's a monetary. Steven King talked the man who butchered Dune into financing Dead II for 3.6 million bucks while the first one only spent $375,000. For what The Evil Dead did with 1/10 of the money, it's pretty clear which is the more impressive film.