Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn

365 Films

Entry #34

Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn (1987)

Directed by Sam Raimi

I have to begin this entry by making an apology about Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn.  Actually, it’s several apologies; the first being that I hope and pray the subtitle Dead by Dawn is accurate. Even though it does not appear in the actual credits of the film, several DVD covers and posters refer to it as such.  I, the mere observer, can only throw my hands up in despair and ask John The Merciful to forgive me for any transgressions.  The second apology I owe is to my friends in high school who tried desperately in vein to get me to watch Evil Dead II several times over the course of four years.  Never being much of a horror enthusiast myself, I was indefinitely resistant to the idea that a horror movie could provide me with anything but nightmares and terror sweat.  I was and still am a wuss, through and through, and I feel only a fractional amount of shame admitting that.  There was also the matter of this being part 2 of a series that I had neither seen part 1 or part 3 of, on top of that, one of my friends tried to explain that this wasn’t really a sequel but more of a remake of the original.  Actually it wasn’t so much a remake as a sequel that goes to great lengths to erase all memory of the first film.  This amount of confusion over a simple horror movie was thoroughly inexcusable so I said good day, and off I went.  Several years later, I realized what a cursed, wretched, and damned fool I had been.  When I finally sat down to watch Evil Dead II, it was a revelation; the film surpassed even the loftiest expectations by leaps and bounds.  I think it’s redundant at this point to re-hash the innumerable qualities of the enterprise.  All I can add to the discussion is no matter how good you’ve heard the film is, it’s even better than that.  Not merely content to be an immensely satisfying fun-house ride, director Sam Raimi and crew have also constructed a hyperactive ode to the joy of cinema itself.  From the extended sequences of choreographed silent-movie slapstick mayhem to the insanely inventive kinetic camera work and editing, this is thing is just a wonder to behold.  It also holds a certifiable stranglehold over any aspiring filmmaker who made his or her own version of this film in the basement, garage, or even a stately tetrahedron.  It’s a perfect summation of those long hours spent toiling away and making shit up as you went along.  With no money or responsibility to anybody holding down the creative instinct, you are free to spill the contents for you brain out on a table and hope like hell you can figure out how to assemble all the pieces.  Obviously, the makers of Evil Dead had a shit-ton more resources than your average Joe Puke-Pail, but it is impossible to deny the cooperative filmmaking spirit that runs from viewer to screen.  Evil Dead II survives and thrives to this day not because it bowls you over with its awesome cinematic might and fury.  The film will live on because it is the product of a group of people who went out into the woods to shoot a movie and couldn’t make each other stop giggling.