Sam Raimi makes gore funny without making it harmless, and Bruce Campbell submits to the punishment with marvellous precision. The supporting characters barely register, but this is a horror comedy we recommend with a strong stomach.
Sam Raimi wants to make us jump, laugh and then wonder why we laughed at that. Evil Dead II succeeds often enough, and with enough variety, to earn an enthusiastic recommendation for anyone comfortable with its gore. Its story offers little beyond Ash’s struggle against monsters, and the screenplay by Raimi and Scott Spiegel does not give us much reason to worry about anybody else. That would sink a film relying on suspense for 84 minutes. Here, the next ridiculous assault is usually sufficient reason to keep watching.
Bruce Campbell makes that possible. As Ash, he treats bodily punishment with the seriousness that farce requires, never asking us to admire how hard he is working. His physical commitment allows the violence to become ludicrous without losing its sting. The performance gives us somebody to follow when the story has effectively become a succession of attacks. We need him to react convincingly to the monsters, however unconvincing the monsters might look.
Peter Deming’s cinematography is central to the joke. An unbroken point-of-view shot sends an unseen force racing through the woods and into the cabin, giving the attack a speed and persistence that no visible creature could match. We laughed, then felt ourselves tense up: the charge keeps coming when a sensible film would have cut away. Raimi’s lens tricks and forced perspectives repeatedly make distance difficult to judge. They keep us watching the edges of the image as well as Campbell.
Kaye Davis’s editing keeps this pace from becoming merely tiring, though the barrage does eventually narrow the range of feelings available. Jokes need just enough time for us to register what has happened, and the cutting generally allows it before the next indignity arrives. Joseph LoDuca’s music supports the menace without making the comedy feel apologetic. We found the film funniest when the craft treated a ridiculous attack as something worth taking seriously.
The latex monsters and stop-motion effects are often plainly artificial, and some viewers will find that a barrier to being frightened. Their visible construction suits the violence, giving the impossible bodily damage the freedom of a cartoon. The cabin also provides a useful fixed space amid the moving camera and distorted perspectives. However extravagant the attack, there is still a recognisable place for Ash to be trapped.
The weakness is the writing around Ash. Sarah Berry’s Annie and the other supporting characters have little chance to become people we care about, so their presence cannot supply much beyond fresh opportunities for danger. Raimi and Spiegel seem content with that, but it leaves the film with few ways to vary its momentum. After a while, another attack can feel like an interruption of a joke we were already enjoying.
As a horror comedy, Evil Dead II gets away with the imbalance because the comedy is so physically precise. It does not require us to believe in the creatures for a joke to work, and it rarely waits around for approval after a gag. There is less sustained dread here than a horror purist might want. If rubber monsters are likely to spoil the evening, this is not the film to change your mind.
