When Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell made indy horror history with the relentless low budget The Evil Dead, you knew it was only a matter of time before a sequel was to be churned out and in this case the sequel turned out to be almost more of a remake (due to the fact that they couldn't use the footage from the first film to create a recap!), than an actual follow up film - but who cares. 1987's Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn is some of the most fun you're likely ever going to have with a horror film.

Bruce Campbell reprises his most role famous as Ash, who heads on out into the woods with his girlfriend Linda (Denise Bixler) to spend some time at a remote cabin. Once they get there, Ash finds a tape recording which he plays back only to hear some strange incantations coming out of the speakers. This incantation opens up the pathway for evil to come pouring into the area. Linda gets possessed, Ash starts to have problems with his hand, and it all just hits the fan for our poor hero. It seems that only Ash and Annie (Sarah Berry), the daughter of the archeologist who used to own the cabin, can stop it once and for all, but Annie's help - Ed (Richard Domeier), Jake (Dan Hicks) and Bobbie Joe (Kassie Wesley), are also along for the ride. And then there's that thing, that demon calling itself Henrietta (Ivan Raimi), hanging out in the fruit cellar...

Before Sam Raimi helmed blockbusters like Spider-Man and before Bruce Campbell was a bestselling author and merchandising machine, they cut their teeth on some very infectious and flat out fun B-movie projects. Evil Dead II takes everything that was good about many of those early experiments, from the Three Stooges style physical comedy to the over the top acting to the fearless and relentless gore, and pumps it up until it explodes. Bruce Campbell's masterful physical comedy is the real star of the show, showing what a serious glutton for punishment Bruce really is. Ash gets beaten up to such an extreme and takes such a licking but still manages to keep on ticking that you can't help but love him, even if he is a bit of a moron. The scene where Campbell wrestles with his own hand is handled so well that it's really amazing that Bruce hasn't gone on to bigger comedic roles in the same way that Jim Carey or Will Farrell have. Just watch that scene where he has to flip himself in the kitchen (and then watch the extra features to see multiple takes of that scene) and you'll see just how insanely dedicated the man was to this role.

At any rate, the film manages to do what so few horror films can pull off successfully and that's blend humor with horror. Most of the time when you mix laughs and scares you end up with something very mediocre, a film that can't really work as either a horror film or a comedy, let alone both but Evil Dead II is one of those rare breed of genre films that is able to make it happen. Raimi's completely off the wall direction and the movie's wild cinematography and use of different lenses perfectly captures not just Campbell's ludicrous performance and all that it entails but the increasing strangeness of the cabin as well. The supporting cast is there mainly to serve as fodder for Bruce's inspired lunacy, this is completely his show, though they're all quite fun in their respective roles. The possessed characters are eerie enough and weird enough on a visual level (Ted Raimi as Henrietta is a sight to behold!) to be more than a little unnerving and Raimi throws in a few good jump scares to ensure that we're never too far from the edge of our seats at any given time.

Special effects wise, despite the fact that almost all of the arterial spray is any color but red, there's plenty of it on display in this film and the movie does not lack for gore. The latex appliances used by the 'Deadite' characters are grotesque and macabre serving as a flat out weird contrast to Campbell's sheer, unadulterated goofiness. In this day and age of rampant CGI, it's nice to see the practical effects work on a movie like this hold up as well as it does. A few nice in-jokes for horror fans make this one a blast to revisit, with references to A Nightmare On Elm Street and Psycho both placed in the movie.

The Blu-ray

Video:

Lionsgate presents Evil Dead II on Blu-ray for the second time in an all new AVC encoded 1080p 1.85.1 widescreen transfer, taken from the original negative, that is a pretty vast improvement over the previously released Blu-ray from Anchor Bay. Detail is much more prevalent throughout the movie, with the nasty noise reduction that more or less ruining the older Anchor Bay transfer now a thing of the past. Surprisingly, this doesn't look quite as good as the Evil Dead Blu-ray, but colors fare well and skin tones look pretty strong too. There is some crush in the darker scenes where shadow detail can get a bit muddled looking but the good absolutely outweighs the bad this time around. Grain looks pretty natural here, it doesn't clump up or get splotchy looking, while actual print damage is pretty darn hard to spot save for the odd speck here and there. Colors are reproduced nicely, though the movie is heavy on blues the reds look nice and bold without coming across as oversaturated and the greens in the woods look decent as well. The disc is well authored, not showing any problems with compression artifacts or heavy edge enhancement. Close up shots of Bruce's face show every bead of sweat and drop of crusty blood while it's easy to spot strong texture not just on the clothes that the actors wear but on various items placed throughout the cabin as well. It should also be noted that the infamous eyeball scene has had the wire removed. All in all, Lionsgate have done a very nice job here.