Evil Dead II
Encyclopedia
Evil Dead II, also known as Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, is a 1987 horror comedy film directed by Sam Raimi
. It is a retcon
sequel to the 1981 film The Evil Dead
. The film was written by Raimi and Scott Spiegel
, produced by Rob Tapert and starring Bruce Campbell
as Ash Williams
. Raimi and Spiegel wrote the script during production of Crimewave
.
Filming took place in Michigan and North Carolina in 1986 and the film was released in the United States on March 13, 1987. It was a minor box office success, achieving just under $6 million. As of 2006, the total US box office gross is $10.9 million. It also received critical acclaim. Observers praised Raimi for the direction and Campbell for his role in the film. Evil Dead II was eventually followed by the 1992 film Army of Darkness
.
(Bruce Campbell
) and his girlfriend Linda (Denise Bixler) take a romantic vacation to a seemingly abandoned cabin in the woods. While in the cabin, Ash plays a tape of an archeology professor (the cabin's previous inhabitant), reciting passages from the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis (or "Book of the Dead"), which he has discovered during an archaeological dig. The recorded incantation unleashes an evil force which kills and later possesses the body of Linda. Ash is then forced to decapitate his girlfriend for his own safety. After he buries her, a spirit is seen on the hunt for Ash. Ash becomes briefly possessed by the demon, but when day breaks the spirit is gone, and Ash is back to normal. Ash finds little chance of safety, however, as the bridge leading to the cabin is destroyed. To make things worse, Ash is forced to sever his right hand, which has become possessed.
While Ash is dealing with this force, the professor's daughter, Annie, and her research partner, Ed Getley, return from the dig with more pages of the Necronomicon in tow, only to find the destroyed bridge. They enlist the help of Jake and Bobby Joe to guide them along an alternate trail to the cabin. The four of them find an embattled Ash, who is, seemingly, slowly being driven insane due to his encounter with the evil force, such as hallucinating that the inanimate objects in the cabin are laughing at him.
At first, he is mistaken for a murderer by the four people because he shoots at them through the door (mistaking them as the Evil Force), but they find out the truth after listening to a recording of Annie's father, Professor Knowby (John Peaks), that talked about how his wife Henrietta was possessed and buried in the cabin's cellar rather than dismembered. Ed is possessed and is soon killed by Ash. Bobby Joe tries to escape, but is attacked by the trees and dragged to her death. Ash is possessed once again and turns on his remaining companions, incapacitating Jake. Annie retreats to the cabin and accidentally stabs Jake and drags him to the cellar door, where he is killed by Henrietta in a bloodbath. Ash tries to kill Annie, but returns to normal when he sees Annie's necklace, which reminds him of Linda.
Ash, with Annie's help, modifies the chainsaw and attaches it to where his right hand had been. Ash eventually finds the missing pages of the Necronomicon and kills Henrietta, turned into a long-necked monster. Annie chants an incantation that sends the evil force back to where it came from. The incantation opens up a whirling temporal portal which not only
draws in the evil force, but nearby trees, the Oldsmobile, and Ash himself. Ash's possessed hand stabs Annie with the Kandarian dagger.
Ash and his 1973 Oldsmobile
land in what appears to be the Crusader-held Middle East in the year 1300 AD. He is then confronted by a group of knights who initially mistake him for a deadite
, but they are quickly distracted when a real one actually shows up. Ash blasts the harpy-like deadite with his shotgun and is hailed as a hero who has come to save the realm, at which point he breaks down and screams "No!"
to The Evil Dead was discussed during the location shooting on the first film. Sam Raimi wanted to toss his hero, Ash, through a time portal, back into the Middle Ages
. That notion eventually led to the third installment, Army of Darkness
.
After the release of Evil Dead, Raimi moved on to Crimewave
, a cross between a crime film
and a comedy
produced by Raimi and Joel and Ethan Coen
. Irvin Shapiro
, a publicist who was primarily responsible for the mainstream release of The Evil Dead, suggested that they next work on an Evil Dead sequel. Raimi scoffed at the idea, expecting Crimewave to be a hit, but Shapiro put out ads announcing the sequel regardless.
After Crimewave was released to little audience or critical acclaim, Raimi and Tapert, knowing that another flop would further stall their already lagging careers, took Shapiro up on his offer. Around the same time, they met Italian movie producer Dino De Laurentiis
, the owner of production and distribution company DEG
. He had asked Raimi if he would direct a theatrical adaptation of the Stephen King
(written under his Richard Bachman
pseudonym) novel Thinner
. Raimi turned down the offer, but De Laurentiis continued to be interested in the young filmmaker.
The Thinner adaptation was part of a deal between De Laurentiis and King to produce several adaptations of King's successful horror fiction
. At the time, King was directing the first such adaptation, Maximum Overdrive
, based on his short story "Trucks
". He had dinner with a crew member who had been interviewed about the Evil Dead sequel, and told King that the film was having trouble attracting funding. Upon hearing this, King, who had written a glowing review of the first film that helped it become an audience favorite at Cannes
, called De Laurentiis and asked him to fund the film.
Though initially skeptical, De Laurentiis agreed after being presented with the extremely high Italian grosses for the first film. Although Raimi and Tapert had desired $4 million for the production, they were allotted only $3.6 million. As such, the planned medieval storyline had to be scrapped.
. Most of these films had been comedies, and Spiegel felt that Evil Dead II should be less straight horror than the first. Initially, the opening sequence included all five characters from the original film, but, in an effort to save time and money, all but Ash and Linda were cut from the final draft.
Spiegel and Raimi wrote most of the film in their house in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California
, where they were living with the aforementioned Coen brothers, as well as actors Frances McDormand
, Kathy Bates
, and Holly Hunter
(Hunter was the primary inspiration for the Bobby Jo character). Due both to the distractions of their house guests and the films they were involved with, Crimewave and Josh Becker
's Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except
, the script took an inordinately long time to finish.
Among the many inspirations for the film include The Three Stooges and other slapstick comedy films; Ash's fights with his disembodied hand come from a film made by Spiegel as a teenager, entitled Attack of the Helping Hand
, which was itself inspired by television commercials advertising Hamburger Helper
. The "laughing room" scene, where all the objects in the room seemingly come to life and begin to cackle maniacally along with Ash, came about after Spiegel jokingly used a gooseneck lamp to visually demonstrate a Popeye
-esque laugh. Scott Spiegel's humorous influence can be seen throughout the film, perhaps most prominently in certain visual jokes; for instance, when Ash traps his rogue hand under a pile of books, on top is A Farewell to Arms
(adding to the joke, the author is listed as "Stubby Kaye
").
, not far from De Laurentiis' offices in Wilmington
. De Laurentiis had wanted them to film in his elaborate Wilmington studio, but the production team felt uneasy being so close to the producer, so they moved to Wadesboro, approximately three hours away. Steven Spielberg
had previously filmed The Color Purple
in Wadesboro, and the large white farmhouse used as an exterior location in that film became the production office for Evil Dead II. Most of the film was shot in the woods near that farmhouse, or J.R. Faison Junior High School, which is where the interior cabin set was located.
The film's production was not nearly as chaotic or strange as the production of the original, largely because of Raimi, Tapert and Campbell's additional film making experience. However, there are nevertheless numerous stories about the strange happenings on the set. For instance, the rat seen in the cellar was nicknamed "Señor Cojones" by the crew ("cojones
" is Spanish slang
for "testicles").
Even so, there were hardships, mostly involving Ted Raimi
's costume. Ted, director Sam's younger brother, had been involved in the first film briefly, acting as a fake Shemp
, but in Evil Dead II he gets the larger role of the historian's demon-possessed wife, Henrietta. Raimi was forced to wear a full-body, latex
costume, crouch in a small hole in the floor acting as a "cellar", or on one day, both. Raimi became extremely overheated, to the point that his costume was literally filled with liters of sweat
; special effects artist Gregory Nicotero
describes pouring the fluid into several Dixie cups so as to get it out of the costume. The sweat is also visible on-screen, dripping out of the costume's ear, in the scene where Henrietta spins around over Annie's head.
The crew also sneaked various in-joke
s into the film itself, such as the clawed glove of Freddy Krueger
, the primary antagonist of the A Nightmare on Elm Street series
of slasher film
s, which hangs in the cabin's basement and toolshed. This was, at least partially, a reference to a scene in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street
where the character Nancy Thompson (portrayed by Heather Langenkamp
), watches the original Evil Dead on a television set in her room. In turn, that scene was a reference to the torn The Hills Have Eyes
poster seen in the original Evil Dead film, which was itself a reference to a torn Jaws
poster in The Hills Have Eyes.
At the film's wrap party, the crew held a talent contest, where Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell sang The Byrds
' "Eight Miles High
", with Nicotero on guitar
.
. On a similar website Metacritic
, it holds a score of 69/100 (generally favorable) with a user rating of 9.2/10. Empire
magazine praised the film saying "the gaudily gory, virtuoso, hyper-kinetic horror sequel/remake uses every trick in the cinematic book" and confirms that "Bruce Campbell and Raimi are gods" and Caryn James of The New York Times
called it "genuine, if bizarre, proof of Sam Raimi's talent and developing skill." Leonard Maltin originally rated the film with two stars, but later increased the rating to three stars.
Entertainment Weekly
ranked the film #19 on their list of "The Top 50 Cult Films."
Sight and Sound ranked it #34 on their 50 Funniest Films of All Time list. In 2008, Empire magazine included Evil Dead II on their list of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time, ranked #49.
Sam Raimi
Samuel Marshall "Sam" Raimi is an American film director, producer, actor and writer. He is best known for directing cult horror films like the Evil Dead series, Darkman and Drag Me to Hell, as well as the blockbuster Spider-Man films and the producer of the successful TV series Hercules: The...
. It is a retcon
Retcon
Retroactive continuity is the alteration of previously established facts in a fictional work. Retcons are done for many reasons, including the accommodation of sequels or further derivative works in a series, wherein newer authors or creators want to revise the in-story history to allow a course...
sequel to the 1981 film The Evil Dead
The Evil Dead
The Evil Dead is a 1981 horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi, starring Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, and Betsy Baker. The film is a story of five college students vacationing in an isolated cabin in a wooded area...
. The film was written by Raimi and Scott Spiegel
Scott Spiegel
Scott Spiegel is an American screenwriter, film director, producer and actor. He is best known for co-writing the screenplay for the movie Evil Dead II with longtime friend, film director Sam Raimi, with whom he attended Wylie E. Groves High School in Birmingham, Michigan...
, produced by Rob Tapert and starring Bruce Campbell
Bruce Campbell
Bruce Lorne Campbell is an American film and television actor. As a cult movie actor, Campbell starred as Ashley J. "Ash" Williams in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series of films and he has starred in many low-budget cult films such as Crimewave, Maniac Cop, Bubba Ho-tep, Escape From L.A. and Sundown:...
as Ash Williams
Ash Williams
Ashley J. "Ash" Williams is the protagonist in the Evil Dead horror film franchise, played by Bruce Campbell, and created by director Sam Raimi. Throughout the series, Ash has to face off against his loved ones inside an abandoned cabin as they are possessed by "deadites", the evil souls of the dead...
. Raimi and Spiegel wrote the script during production of Crimewave
Crimewave
Crimewave is a 1985 comedy film directed by Sam Raimi, an unusual slapstick mix of film noir, black comedy and several eras, starring Reed Birney, Paul L. Smith, Louise Lasser, Brion James, Bruce Campbell, and Sheree J. Wilson. It was Raimi's first studio film following the success of The Evil Dead...
.
Filming took place in Michigan and North Carolina in 1986 and the film was released in the United States on March 13, 1987. It was a minor box office success, achieving just under $6 million. As of 2006, the total US box office gross is $10.9 million. It also received critical acclaim. Observers praised Raimi for the direction and Campbell for his role in the film. Evil Dead II was eventually followed by the 1992 film Army of Darkness
Army of Darkness
Army of Darkness, also known as Evil Dead III: Army of Darkness or simply Evil Dead III, is a 1992 horror comedy fantasy action film directed by Sam Raimi. It is the third and final installment in The Evil Dead trilogy. The film was written by Raimi and his brother Ivan, produced by Robert Tapert,...
.
Plot
Ash WilliamsAsh Williams
Ashley J. "Ash" Williams is the protagonist in the Evil Dead horror film franchise, played by Bruce Campbell, and created by director Sam Raimi. Throughout the series, Ash has to face off against his loved ones inside an abandoned cabin as they are possessed by "deadites", the evil souls of the dead...
(Bruce Campbell
Bruce Campbell
Bruce Lorne Campbell is an American film and television actor. As a cult movie actor, Campbell starred as Ashley J. "Ash" Williams in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series of films and he has starred in many low-budget cult films such as Crimewave, Maniac Cop, Bubba Ho-tep, Escape From L.A. and Sundown:...
) and his girlfriend Linda (Denise Bixler) take a romantic vacation to a seemingly abandoned cabin in the woods. While in the cabin, Ash plays a tape of an archeology professor (the cabin's previous inhabitant), reciting passages from the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis (or "Book of the Dead"), which he has discovered during an archaeological dig. The recorded incantation unleashes an evil force which kills and later possesses the body of Linda. Ash is then forced to decapitate his girlfriend for his own safety. After he buries her, a spirit is seen on the hunt for Ash. Ash becomes briefly possessed by the demon, but when day breaks the spirit is gone, and Ash is back to normal. Ash finds little chance of safety, however, as the bridge leading to the cabin is destroyed. To make things worse, Ash is forced to sever his right hand, which has become possessed.
While Ash is dealing with this force, the professor's daughter, Annie, and her research partner, Ed Getley, return from the dig with more pages of the Necronomicon in tow, only to find the destroyed bridge. They enlist the help of Jake and Bobby Joe to guide them along an alternate trail to the cabin. The four of them find an embattled Ash, who is, seemingly, slowly being driven insane due to his encounter with the evil force, such as hallucinating that the inanimate objects in the cabin are laughing at him.
At first, he is mistaken for a murderer by the four people because he shoots at them through the door (mistaking them as the Evil Force), but they find out the truth after listening to a recording of Annie's father, Professor Knowby (John Peaks), that talked about how his wife Henrietta was possessed and buried in the cabin's cellar rather than dismembered. Ed is possessed and is soon killed by Ash. Bobby Joe tries to escape, but is attacked by the trees and dragged to her death. Ash is possessed once again and turns on his remaining companions, incapacitating Jake. Annie retreats to the cabin and accidentally stabs Jake and drags him to the cellar door, where he is killed by Henrietta in a bloodbath. Ash tries to kill Annie, but returns to normal when he sees Annie's necklace, which reminds him of Linda.
Ash, with Annie's help, modifies the chainsaw and attaches it to where his right hand had been. Ash eventually finds the missing pages of the Necronomicon and kills Henrietta, turned into a long-necked monster. Annie chants an incantation that sends the evil force back to where it came from. The incantation opens up a whirling temporal portal which not only
draws in the evil force, but nearby trees, the Oldsmobile, and Ash himself. Ash's possessed hand stabs Annie with the Kandarian dagger.
Ash and his 1973 Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile was a brand of American automobile produced for most of its existence by General Motors. It was founded by Ransom E. Olds in 1897. In its 107-year history, it produced 35.2 million cars, including at least 14 million built at its Lansing, Michigan factory...
land in what appears to be the Crusader-held Middle East in the year 1300 AD. He is then confronted by a group of knights who initially mistake him for a deadite
The Evil Dead (franchise)
The Evil Dead is a trilogy of horror films created by Sam Raimi. The films focus on the protagonist, Ashley "Ash" J. Williams, played by Bruce Campbell, who deals with "deadites", which are undead antagonists created by the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. The film series has since expanded into other...
, but they are quickly distracted when a real one actually shows up. Ash blasts the harpy-like deadite with his shotgun and is hailed as a hero who has come to save the realm, at which point he breaks down and screams "No!"
Cast
- Bruce CampbellBruce CampbellBruce Lorne Campbell is an American film and television actor. As a cult movie actor, Campbell starred as Ashley J. "Ash" Williams in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series of films and he has starred in many low-budget cult films such as Crimewave, Maniac Cop, Bubba Ho-tep, Escape From L.A. and Sundown:...
as Ash J. WilliamsAsh WilliamsAshley J. "Ash" Williams is the protagonist in the Evil Dead horror film franchise, played by Bruce Campbell, and created by director Sam Raimi. Throughout the series, Ash has to face off against his loved ones inside an abandoned cabin as they are possessed by "deadites", the evil souls of the dead...
A common guy who travels to the cabin in the woods to spend the weekend with his girlfriend Linda. As the story follows, he must defeat the evil powers around him that keep growing. After enough attacks, he decides to take the evil head-on equipped with a shotgun and a chainsaw and sets out to face the enemy. - Sarah Berry as Annie Knowby, Professor Knowby's daughter. She travels to the cabin looking forward to share her discoveries of the book of the dead with her father. She thinks Ash murdered her parents at first, but when the evil spirits unleash against them, she realizes the truth and finds out her only way to survive is to help Ash defeat the spirits.
- Danny HicksDan Hicks (actor)Dan Hicks is an American actor. He is best known for starring roles in Evil Dead II and Intruder as well as appearing in various other horror films. He is a close friend of Sam Raimi and often has parts in his movies.-Selected filmography:-External links:...
as Jake, a white trash guy who freaks out before the evil spirits. When things turn bad, he thinks they have to escape before they all get killed. - Kassie WesleyKassie DePaivaKassie DePaiva is an American soap opera actress and singer. She was credited prior to 1996 as Kassie Wesley.-Private life:...
as Bobby Joe, Jake's foul-mouthed, self-centered girlfriend. She tries to escape the cabin, only to get killed by the woods themselves (in a similar fashion Cheryl got raped in the first filmThe Evil DeadThe Evil Dead is a 1981 horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi, starring Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, and Betsy Baker. The film is a story of five college students vacationing in an isolated cabin in a wooded area...
). - Ted RaimiTed RaimiTheodore "Ted"/"Half Ted" Raimi is an American actor, perhaps best known for his roles as Lieutenant Tim O'Neill in seaQuest DSV and Joxer the Mighty in Xena: Warrior Princess/Hercules: The Legendary Journeys...
as Possessed Henrietta, Annie's possessed mother who uses her memories to lure her in order to kill her and everybody else, but gets killed when Ash stabs her through the chest with his chainsaw. - Denise Bixler as Linda, Ash's girlfriend. She gets possessed, then tries to kill Ash. In a desperate effort, he beheads her with a shovel before burying her. Later on, her corpse raises from the grave and resumes her intentions to kill Ash. He finally gets rid of her when he slashes her head with his chainsaw.
- Richard Domeier as Professor Ed Getley, Professor Knowby's associate and Annie's boyfriend. After being attacked by the possessed Henrietta, he gets possessed by another spirit. He meets his doom when Ash dismembers him with an axe.
- John Peaks as Professor Knowby, the archeologist who found the book of the dead. When he took it to his cabin to translate it, he unleashed its evil spirits by accident. His fate remains unknown, since he only appears as a floating head from another plane of existence.
- Lou Hancock as Henrietta Knowby, Professor Knowby's wife. She gets possessed when her husband accidentally unleashes the evil spirits of the book of the dead.
Production
The concept of a sequelSequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
to The Evil Dead was discussed during the location shooting on the first film. Sam Raimi wanted to toss his hero, Ash, through a time portal, back into the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. That notion eventually led to the third installment, Army of Darkness
Army of Darkness
Army of Darkness, also known as Evil Dead III: Army of Darkness or simply Evil Dead III, is a 1992 horror comedy fantasy action film directed by Sam Raimi. It is the third and final installment in The Evil Dead trilogy. The film was written by Raimi and his brother Ivan, produced by Robert Tapert,...
.
After the release of Evil Dead, Raimi moved on to Crimewave
Crimewave
Crimewave is a 1985 comedy film directed by Sam Raimi, an unusual slapstick mix of film noir, black comedy and several eras, starring Reed Birney, Paul L. Smith, Louise Lasser, Brion James, Bruce Campbell, and Sheree J. Wilson. It was Raimi's first studio film following the success of The Evil Dead...
, a cross between a crime film
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...
and a comedy
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
produced by Raimi and Joel and Ethan Coen
Coen Brothers
Joel David Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers...
. Irvin Shapiro
Irvin Shapiro
Irvin Shapiro was an American producer, film importer and distributor who was responsible for introducing a number of influential foreign films to the United States, as well as handling the early work of some noted directors....
, a publicist who was primarily responsible for the mainstream release of The Evil Dead, suggested that they next work on an Evil Dead sequel. Raimi scoffed at the idea, expecting Crimewave to be a hit, but Shapiro put out ads announcing the sequel regardless.
After Crimewave was released to little audience or critical acclaim, Raimi and Tapert, knowing that another flop would further stall their already lagging careers, took Shapiro up on his offer. Around the same time, they met Italian movie producer Dino De Laurentiis
Dino De Laurentiis
Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis was an Italian film producer.-Early life:He was born at Torre Annunziata in the province of Naples, and grew up selling spaghetti produced by his father...
, the owner of production and distribution company DEG
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group was a production company/distribution unit founded by producer Dino De Laurentiis.The company is notable for producing Manhunter, Blue Velvet, the horror films Near Dark and Evil Dead II, King Kong Lives , and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, as well as...
. He had asked Raimi if he would direct a theatrical adaptation of the Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
(written under his Richard Bachman
Richard Bachman
Richard Bachman is a pseudonym used by horror fiction author Stephen King.-Origin:At the beginning of Stephen King's career, the general view among publishers was such that an author was limited to a book every year, since publishing more would not be acceptable to the public...
pseudonym) novel Thinner
Thinner (novel)
Thinner is a 1984 novel by Stephen King, published under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman. It would be the last novel which King released under the Richard Bachman pseudonym until the release of The Regulators in 1996 . The photo is claimed to have been taken by Claudia Inez Bachman...
. Raimi turned down the offer, but De Laurentiis continued to be interested in the young filmmaker.
The Thinner adaptation was part of a deal between De Laurentiis and King to produce several adaptations of King's successful horror fiction
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
. At the time, King was directing the first such adaptation, Maximum Overdrive
Maximum Overdrive
Maximum Overdrive is a 1986 American action-horror-science fiction film written and directed by novelist Stephen King. The screenplay was inspired by and loosely based on King's short story, Trucks, which was included in King's first collection of short stories, Night Shift.Maximum Overdrive is...
, based on his short story "Trucks
Trucks (short story)
"Trucks" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the June 1973 issue of Cavalier magazine, and later collected in King's 1978 collection Night Shift.-Setting:"Trucks" takes place in a truck-stop in the United States...
". He had dinner with a crew member who had been interviewed about the Evil Dead sequel, and told King that the film was having trouble attracting funding. Upon hearing this, King, who had written a glowing review of the first film that helped it become an audience favorite at Cannes
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
, called De Laurentiis and asked him to fund the film.
Though initially skeptical, De Laurentiis agreed after being presented with the extremely high Italian grosses for the first film. Although Raimi and Tapert had desired $4 million for the production, they were allotted only $3.6 million. As such, the planned medieval storyline had to be scrapped.
Script
Though they had only recently received the funding necessary to produce the film, the script had been written for some time, having been composed largely during the production of Crimewave. Raimi contacted his old friend Scott Spiegel, who had collaborated with Campbell and others on the Super-8 films they had produced during their childhood in MichiganMichigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. Most of these films had been comedies, and Spiegel felt that Evil Dead II should be less straight horror than the first. Initially, the opening sequence included all five characters from the original film, but, in an effort to save time and money, all but Ash and Linda were cut from the final draft.
Spiegel and Raimi wrote most of the film in their house in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California
Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California
Silver Lake is a hilly neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California east of Hollywood and northwest of Downtown Los Angeles. Silver Lake is inhabited by a wide variety of ethnic and socioeconomic groups, but it is best known as an eclectic gathering of hipsters and the creative class.The...
, where they were living with the aforementioned Coen brothers, as well as actors Frances McDormand
Frances McDormand
Frances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...
, Kathy Bates
Kathy Bates
Kathleen Doyle "Kathy" Bates is an American actress and director.After several small roles in film and television, Bates rose to prominence with her performance in Misery , for which she won both the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe...
, and Holly Hunter
Holly Hunter
Holly Hunter is an American actress. Hunter starred in The Piano for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She has also been nominated for Oscars for her roles in Broadcast News, The Firm, and Thirteen...
(Hunter was the primary inspiration for the Bobby Jo character). Due both to the distractions of their house guests and the films they were involved with, Crimewave and Josh Becker
Josh Becker
Josh Becker is a writer and director, of films and television, whose credits include episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess and his collaborations with Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi.-Writing:...
's Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except
Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except
Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except, given theatrical release in Detroit as Stryker's War, is an American low budget action / horror film, originally released in 1987. The film was written by Josh Becker and Scott Spiegel, with a story by Becker, actor Bruce Campbell, and Sheldon Lettich...
, the script took an inordinately long time to finish.
Among the many inspirations for the film include The Three Stooges and other slapstick comedy films; Ash's fights with his disembodied hand come from a film made by Spiegel as a teenager, entitled Attack of the Helping Hand
Attack of the Helping Hand
Attack of the Helping Hand is a 1979 short film written and directed by Scott Spiegel and starring Linda Quiroz and Sam Raimi.-Plot:Linda Quiroz plays a woman at home who buys herself a "Hamburger Helper", which is an oven mitt. It comes to life and tries to strangle her. She tries drowning it in...
, which was itself inspired by television commercials advertising Hamburger Helper
Hamburger Helper
Hamburger Helper is a line of packaged food products primarily consisting of boxed pasta bundled with a packet or packets of powdered sauce/seasonings. The contents of each box are combined with browned ground beef, water and milk to create a complete dish. The product line also features products...
. The "laughing room" scene, where all the objects in the room seemingly come to life and begin to cackle maniacally along with Ash, came about after Spiegel jokingly used a gooseneck lamp to visually demonstrate a Popeye
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, who has appeared in comic strips and animated cartoons in the cinema as well as on television. He first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929...
-esque laugh. Scott Spiegel's humorous influence can be seen throughout the film, perhaps most prominently in certain visual jokes; for instance, when Ash traps his rogue hand under a pile of books, on top is A Farewell to Arms
A Farewell to Arms
A Farewell to Arms is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Ernest Hemingway concerning events during the Italian campaigns during the First World War. The book, which was first published in 1929, is a first-person account of American Frederic Henry, serving as a Lieutenant in the ambulance...
(adding to the joke, the author is listed as "Stubby Kaye
Stubby Kaye
Stubby Kaye was an American comic actor. He was born Bernard Kotzin in New York City on the last day of the First World War, at West 114th Street in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan to first generation Jewish-Americans originally from Russia and Austria...
").
Filming
With the script completed, and a production company secured, filming could begin. The production commenced in Wadesboro, North CarolinaWadesboro, North Carolina
Wadesboro is a town in Anson County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 5,780 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Anson County.-Geography:Wadesboro is located at ....
, not far from De Laurentiis' offices in Wilmington
Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington is a port city in and is the county seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population is 106,476 according to the 2010 Census, making it the eighth most populous city in the state of North Carolina...
. De Laurentiis had wanted them to film in his elaborate Wilmington studio, but the production team felt uneasy being so close to the producer, so they moved to Wadesboro, approximately three hours away. Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
had previously filmed The Color Purple
The Color Purple (film)
The Color Purple is a 1985 American period drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Alice Walker. It was Spielberg's eighth film as a director , and was a change from the summer blockbusters for which he had become famous...
in Wadesboro, and the large white farmhouse used as an exterior location in that film became the production office for Evil Dead II. Most of the film was shot in the woods near that farmhouse, or J.R. Faison Junior High School, which is where the interior cabin set was located.
The film's production was not nearly as chaotic or strange as the production of the original, largely because of Raimi, Tapert and Campbell's additional film making experience. However, there are nevertheless numerous stories about the strange happenings on the set. For instance, the rat seen in the cellar was nicknamed "Señor Cojones" by the crew ("cojones
Cojones
Cojones is a vulgar Spanish word for testicles, denoting courage when used in the phrase "tener cojones" . It is considered a curse word when use by itself as an expletive in Spanish...
" is Spanish slang
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
for "testicles").
Even so, there were hardships, mostly involving Ted Raimi
Ted Raimi
Theodore "Ted"/"Half Ted" Raimi is an American actor, perhaps best known for his roles as Lieutenant Tim O'Neill in seaQuest DSV and Joxer the Mighty in Xena: Warrior Princess/Hercules: The Legendary Journeys...
's costume. Ted, director Sam's younger brother, had been involved in the first film briefly, acting as a fake Shemp
Fake shemp
Fake Shemp or simply, "Shemp," is the term for someone who appears in a film under heavy make-up, filmed from the back, or perhaps only showing an arm or a foot.-Origin:...
, but in Evil Dead II he gets the larger role of the historian's demon-possessed wife, Henrietta. Raimi was forced to wear a full-body, latex
Latex
Latex is the stable dispersion of polymer microparticles in an aqueous medium. Latexes may be natural or synthetic.Latex as found in nature is a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants . It is a complex emulsion consisting of proteins, alkaloids, starches, sugars, oils, tannins, resins,...
costume, crouch in a small hole in the floor acting as a "cellar", or on one day, both. Raimi became extremely overheated, to the point that his costume was literally filled with liters of sweat
SWEAT
SWEAT is an OLN/TSN show hosted by Julie Zwillich that aired in 2003-2004.Each of the 13 half-hour episodes of SWEAT features a different outdoor sport: kayaking, mountain biking, ice hockey, beach volleyball, soccer, windsurfing, rowing, Ultimate, triathlon, wakeboarding, snowboarding, telemark...
; special effects artist Gregory Nicotero
Gregory Nicotero
Gregory Nicotero is an American special effects creator and actor. In 1988, along with Robert Kurtzman and Howard Berger, he formed KNB Efx Group, a special effects studio which has gone on to work on over 400 film and television projects...
describes pouring the fluid into several Dixie cups so as to get it out of the costume. The sweat is also visible on-screen, dripping out of the costume's ear, in the scene where Henrietta spins around over Annie's head.
The crew also sneaked various in-joke
In-joke
An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or in joke, is a joke whose humour is clear only to people who are in a particular social group, occupation, or other community of common understanding...
s into the film itself, such as the clawed glove of Freddy Krueger
Freddy Krueger
Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,...
, the primary antagonist of the A Nightmare on Elm Street series
A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American horror franchise that consists of nine slasher films, a television show, novels, and comic books. The franchise began with the film series created by Wes Craven. The franchise is based on the fictional character Freddy Krueger, introduced in A Nightmare on...
of slasher film
Slasher film
A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
s, which hangs in the cabin's basement and toolshed. This was, at least partially, a reference to a scene in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American slasher film directed and written by Wes Craven, and the first film of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The film features Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Robert Englund, and Johnny Depp in his feature film...
where the character Nancy Thompson (portrayed by Heather Langenkamp
Heather Langenkamp
Heather Langenkamp is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her role as Nancy Thompson from the A Nightmare on Elm Street films...
), watches the original Evil Dead on a television set in her room. In turn, that scene was a reference to the torn The Hills Have Eyes
The Hills Have Eyes (1977 film)
The Hills Have Eyes is a 1977 American horror film directed by Wes Craven and starring Susan Lanier, Michael Berryman, and Dee Wallace. It is about a family on a road trip who become stranded in the Nevada desert, and are hunted by a clan of deformed cannibals in the surrounding hills...
poster seen in the original Evil Dead film, which was itself a reference to a torn Jaws
Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
poster in The Hills Have Eyes.
At the film's wrap party, the crew held a talent contest, where Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell sang The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
' "Eight Miles High
Eight Miles High
"Eight Miles High" is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by Gene Clark, Jim McGuinn, and David Crosby and first released as a single on March 14, 1966 . The single managed to reach the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 and the Top 30 of the UK Singles Chart...
", with Nicotero on guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
.
Reception
Evil Dead II received very positive reviews from critics and audience members; it holds a 98% "Certified Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. On a similar website Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, it holds a score of 69/100 (generally favorable) with a user rating of 9.2/10. Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
magazine praised the film saying "the gaudily gory, virtuoso, hyper-kinetic horror sequel/remake uses every trick in the cinematic book" and confirms that "Bruce Campbell and Raimi are gods" and Caryn James of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called it "genuine, if bizarre, proof of Sam Raimi's talent and developing skill." Leonard Maltin originally rated the film with two stars, but later increased the rating to three stars.
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
ranked the film #19 on their list of "The Top 50 Cult Films."
Sight and Sound ranked it #34 on their 50 Funniest Films of All Time list. In 2008, Empire magazine included Evil Dead II on their list of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time, ranked #49.
External links
- Evil Dead II at Book Of The Dead