Evil Dead 2 (UK)

Evil Dead 2 was the follow-up to The Evil Dead. Although that film was a serious horror film, Evil Dead 2 is basically a comedy/horror film. Although I think the first film is quite good, this is better. There are some cool scares and and a few humorous scenes as well. Well worth seeing if you like the original.

The film is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and looks excellent. Everything is clear and detailed and the film does not suffer from any artifacts or any other digital faults.
The sound is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is very good.
It may not be up to the standard of more recent films but it is good enough. Dialogue is clear and audible and the speakers are used well.

The main menu is animated with eerie music and strange sound effects playing over it. Extras wise, we have a trailer, an audio commentary and a making of. The trailer does a good job of setting the scene of the film and what to expect of it. The audio commentary features director Sam Raimi, actor Bruce Campbell, special effects artist Greg Nicotero and co-writer Scott Spiegel. The commentary is very entertaining as none of the contributors can stay serious for very long and are always making fun of the film and themselves. There is a lot of behind-the-scenes information revealed as well. Finally, we have a 30 minute featurette called The Making of Evil Dead 2 or The Gore The Merrier. This has been compiled from 6 hours of VHS footage filmed during pre production and the filming of the film. It also features recent interviews with special effects artists Robert Kurtzman, Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero. This featurette is not only very informative but also very funny as well. Highlights include some of the footage with Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, the special effects artists revealing some of the mistakes in the film and a spoof film, Evil Dead Baby. A great extra.

Evil Dead 2 was originally released by BMG and the disc was very disappointing. Fortunately, Momentum have finally given us the version we deserve. The film is great, picture and sound are the best they have ever been and there are also a couple of excellent extras. Highly recommended.

"Whilst visiting a secluded broken-down cabin in the woods, teenagers Ash and his girlfriend Linda play their professor`s tape of recitation of passages from the book of the dead. Evil supernatural powers are unleashed that turn Linda into a monstrous deadite and threatens Ash`s life. When the professor`s daughter and her friends arrive at the cabin, the night turns into a non-stop bloodbath with chainsaws, shotguns and flying eyeballs."

Now doesn`t that sounds peachy? No? Some people have no taste...

This highly loved and extremely popular follow up to "The Evil Dead" has become the most well known, and seen, cult film ever in my opinion (which can be wrong, sometimes) and has sprouted millions, well thousands, of deadite fans across the world. Me? I preferred the horror of the first but I still love this film, not on the same level as the first or the third for that matter but I do love it.

Now for some time the only way to get a good DVD version of "Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn" was to shop aboard, especially in America. The only release over here was a rather dreadful, cut, bare bones version of the film with so bad a picture I didn`t know what was going on. The only other viable alternative was Anchor Bay`s "Evil Dead 2" Limited Edition Tin version with a trailer, talent bios, galleries with both movie and behind the scene images, commentary track with Bruce Campbell, Sam Raimi, Scott Spiegel and Greg Nicotero and a documentary called "The Gore The Merrier".

Finally that is over! Momentum have released a new "Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn" DVD. It has everything you could want - 16x9/1.85:1 transfer, commentary track, trailer, "The Gore The Merrier", basically all of what`s on the Anchor Bay version just without the pictures or bios but who cares about those?

The video is extremely clear, no more horrid grainy washed out VHS quality for me. You can really see everything that is going on, the blacks are black, and everything is solid. There is hardly any grain and the film rivals nearly any of the new releases. The audio is also superb, the Dolby Digital 5.1 track really gives you a new feel for the way "Evil Dead 2" should be listened to.

Feature wise you have enough to keep you entertained for a couple of nights. The trailer is entertaining although a standard extra nowadays. The documentary is excellent and gives you a real inside view on the way the film was made along with some extra footage and a nice little "short" film type bit at the end. The commentary, however, is the real stand out feature. It will never get old, I must have listened to it over 10 times and I still want to listen to it again... In fact, I find it hard to watch the film without the commentary track on. Not only is it insightful but extremely funny and well paced with hardly any stops or pauses from anyone.

So should you buy this? Of course! It`s cheap (mine was £12.99 but on Play247.com it goes for £11.99) and extremely good value. Every deadite fan should own it now!

"Work shed!"

Evil Dead II is really quite an old movie, it was actually first distributed back in 1987. It centres on a character called Ash Shemp (Bruce Campbell) who is having a slight problem in his holiday cabin. You see he appears to be in a small cabin in the middle of nowhere - or to be more exact - a big woodland. The only apparent route to civilisation is via a bridge, which is um, conveniently out of order. The reason why these things are happening around this cabin is because one Professor Knowby decided to translate the scribing of Necronomicon - the book of the dead. In the process he had unfortunately awoken the Kandarian who possessed his wife, he had to lock her in the basement.

At this point it should be mentioned (and I'm sure you will have guessed this) that Evil Dead II is the sequel to a movie from New Line entitled "Evil Dead." In that movie, Ash went up on a trip with a bunch of friends to this very cabin and found that it wasn't quite the holiday that he was led to believe. I only really need to mention that they had a few problems with the woods being alive and nicking people, oh and there was quite a bit of chain saw action too!

It sure does sound like a film that takes itself way too seriously, doesn't it? Well that's the best bit, it doesn't! As well as being very suspenseful and sometimes even scary, on the whole Evil Dead II has got to be one of the funniest movies in its genre. It really doesn't take itself seriously and for that reason it is a very entertaining film that has lasted the changes in taste of the movie going public over the years.

This disc really is one of those that everyone should really add to their collection, even if you aren't familiar or even dislike the horror genre. After all, it is more of a slapstick comedy than a horror movie!

Go buy this disc now!

Evil Dead a horror film classic and no mistake. It is has been given a rarely decent treatment here with a fairly good picture and sound, and the audio commentary alone is worth the price of the DVD.

Bruce Campbell rules!!

Evil Dead: Dead by Dawn. A thousand arguments have started over this film, is it a sequel or a prequel or a remake. In my eyes there is no definition for this film, a lot of people beleive it is a prequel and a lot of people think its a remake or a sequel. it is very hard to define which it is. i beleive Evil Dead 2 IS Evil Dead 2. Great effects, sounds and a rocking, but funny film. Evil Dead 2 adds a whole different plane to the evil deads.

MOVIE
The follow up to the stunning Evil Dead is neither a straight out sequel or a remake, it lies somewhere in the middle. ITs an odd way of going about making a part 2, but there you go, thats Sam (Raimi) for you. Instead, the filmakers have basically got Ash to the cabin, with just Linda this time, and have compacted the whole of the first film into five minutes, and from then on go completely OTT. This film is comedy horror through and through, it is relentless. It is very unscary, but such a great movie to watch with your mates. THe plot is highly convoluted, but it doesn`t matter, its the true cult classic, worth the watch for the scene with the laughing deer alone.

VIDEO
A vast improvement over the first films transfer, and a sign of its larger budget, this is generally a good transfer, getting the right ratio this time, and good colours. Of course there is some grain, but on the whole its as good as it could be.

AUDIO
Only in DD5.1 as apposed to the DTS present on Evil Dead, but it is unnecessary as it was made in stereo. ITs good tho, with good front stage and some surround use. Its perfect really, just not reference

EXTRAS
Nowhere near as comprehensive as Evil Dead, but it does feature the wonderful commentarys as there is on all three films. These commentaries are always good, and this is no exception, being hilarious. There is also a short featurette and then a trailer, but its the commentary that makes this set

OVERALL
The best of the three, mixing the horror of the first with the comedy of the last film perfectly, and a great after pub movie.

Arguably better than Evil Dead, according to some people. I am not one of those people. The original is still the best by far and always will be. The plot in Evil Dead 2 is basically the same as the first one infact, it`s a remake or a silly, even more comical re-hash if you like to call it that. However, this time Ash becomes a hero (eventually) not a coward. Evil Dead 2 adds more comical value than the first and IMO, this film has the most memorable quote in the trilogy... "Groovy!".

Video- Present in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. I was expecting better but this is not the case for a rather disappointing transfer to a superior format to VHS. To start it off, the colours are slightly washed out(no proper re-mastering done), the entire video is grainy and many of the scenes are dark and can be particularly hard to see. I guess this maybe intentional to give the film it`s spooky characteristics, who knows. Overall, an acceptable transfer.

Audio- Sound has been pumped up to DD 5.1 and much like the video department it is also disappointing. Dialogue can be very hard to hear at times and the remix sounds some-what hollow at times. I recommended using subtitles or putting up the volume(I did both). There are also dubs in different languages in mono only. It`s a pity that the original mix isn`t included.

Extras- A commentary from Raimi, Campbell, SFX artist Nicotero and co-writter Spiegel. This audio commentary is a bona fide live session unlike some commentaries which feature seperate recordings or interviews conducted and then cut and pasted to make a feature length commentary. It`s a very lively conservation between these bunch and can be quite confusing who`s talking. Anyways, it`s worth listening to as the 4 talk through their (weird) anecdotes.

There is also a 30 min featurette called the "The gorier the merrier". Features interviews from cast and crew. For a single featurette, it`s quite long. This one speaks for itself.

Because there is a lack of extras in here, it won`t get a mark higher than a 2. Let`s leave at that.

Overall- Slightly disappointing extras but a good follow up to the original Evil Dead. Best to buy Evil Dead 2 as part of the trilogy boxset.