Evil Dead II (1987)

Having lost his girlfriend to the undead, Ash is forced to face the possessed corpse of his former lover Linda and cut her up with a chainsaw to stop him becoming her victim. However the demons in the cabin are not that easy to stop and soon his hand has become possessed as well. While he battles to stop his hand killing him, a group of four young people are heading to the cabin in seek of shelter for the night, only to find themselves trapped in the same fight as Ash as barely managed to survive thus far.

Despite that fact that Sam Raimi is now a "proper" director making summer blockbusters like his life depended on it, it is still heartening to see that his frenzied style is still present in his work, albeit it not dealing with such extreme material as that which made his name famous decades ago. While Evil Dead II may be a complete repeat of Evil Dead in terms of the basic narrative and content, it is still worth seeing because of Raimi's skill as director and writer of the film. In the UK Evil Dead earned notoriety for being one of the "video nasties" that the BBFC took such objection to and, in doing so, probably greatly boosted its cult appeal here, and to rerun this film is not a major problem because it does have enough energy and good qualities going for it to be worth a watch if you're into your horror.

However horror fans may find it a little tame by modern standards although I still found it to be pretty scary and gory – certainly considering it was made almost 20 years ago with a budget that would barely buy you an A-listed movie star these days. The film is also pretty funny and is full of dark humour and comic moments that make it more entertaining than a gory b-movie has any right being. But here's the thing, the success of this film and indeed the whole trilogy, is mainly due to two people – Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell. Raimi drives everything with his unique direction that places the action somewhere between a horror and a cartoon. It has great camera work, frantic shots and a real flair for the unreal; it is very hard to describe but it can be seen it many of his films.

Campbell's ongoing cult status has only been helped recently by Bubba Ho-tep but this is where it basically began and part II only sees his continue his good work as Ash becomes more of a hero than he was in the first film. He still has the cowardly quality that I loved in Ash but now has weapons and kiss-off lines to compliment his new status. As before his performance perfectly matches Raimi's direction and I can totally understand why the two have kept their close relationship decades later – they really seem to "get" each other here. Support from Berry, Hicks, DePaiva, Domeier and Bixler is just about passable for this type of b-movie stuff but really the cast is dominated by Campbell playing his best character to date.

Overall this is a gory, cheap horror movie that won't appeal to everybody but to those that get it, it will be a hugely enjoyable, gory film with a great sense of humour. Director Raimi and actor Campbell truly make the film work better than the material would suggest it should and, on the basis of any of the three films, it is no wonder that this is such a timeless cult horror.