Evil Dead II

''Evil Dead II'' (also known in publicity materials as ''Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn'') is a 1987 American comedy horror film directed by Sam Raimi. It is considered both a remake and sequel (or "re-quel") to the 1981 film ''The Evil Dead'', and was written by Raimi and Scott Spiegel and produced by Robert Tapert. The film stars Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams, who vacations with his girlfriend to a remote cabin in the woods. He discovers an audio tape of recitations from a book of ancient texts, and when the recording is played, it unleashes a number of demons which possess and torment him.

After the critical and commercial failure of ''Crimewave'' (1985), Raimi, Tapert, and Campbell began work on a sequel to ''The Evil Dead'' at the insistence of their publicist Irvin Shapiro. Having endorsed the original film, author Stephen King brought the project to the attention of producer Dino De Laurentiis, with whom he had been making his directorial debut ''Maximum Overdrive'' (1986). De Laurentiis agreed to provide financial backing, and assigned the filmmakers a considerably larger budget than they had worked with on the original film. Although Raimi had devised a premise set in the Middle Ages and involving time travel, De Laurentiis requested that the film be similar to its predecessor.

''Evil Dead II'' was shot in Wadesboro, North Carolina and Detroit, Michigan in 1986, and featured extensive stop-motion animation and prosthetic makeup effects created by a team of artists that included Mark Shostrom, Greg Nicotero, Robert Kurtzman and Tom Sullivan, the latter of whom returned from the original film. The finished film was released in the United States on March 13, 1987; due to its high level of violence, it was released through a pseudonymous distributor to curb an anticipated X rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. Much like ''The Evil Dead'', it was widely acclaimed by critics, who praised its humor, Raimi's direction and Campbell's performance; many have considered it superior to its predecessor and similarly as one of the greatest horror films ever made. Despite being given a somewhat limited release, it was a minor box office success, grossing just under $6 million.

As with the first film, ''Evil Dead II'' has accumulated a large, international cult following. In 1992, it was followed by the direct sequel '' Army of Darkness'', which utilized Raimi's original premise; in 2013, it was followed by the soft reboot ''Evil Dead'', which served as a continuation; and in 2015, it was followed by the television series ''Ash vs Evil Dead''. ''Evil Dead Rise'', a sequel to the 2013 remake, will be released in 2023.

Plot

Ash Williams and his girlfriend, Linda, take a romantic vacation to a seemingly abandoned cabin in the woods. While in the cabin, Ash plays a tape of archaeologist Raymond Knowby, the cabin's previous inhabitant, reciting passages from the "Book of the Dead", '' Necronomicon Ex-Mortis'', which he has discovered during an archaeological dig. The recorded incantation unleashes an evil force (also known as the Kandarian Demon) that kills and later possesses Linda, turning her into a "deadite". Ash is then forced to decapitate her with a shovel and bury her in a shallow grave near the cabin. At dawn, the evil force throws Ash through the woods. He briefly becomes possessed by the demon, but when day breaks, he is inexplicably returned to normal.

He attempts to flee the area but finds that the bridge to the cabin has been destroyed. The spirit chases him back to the cabin, where Linda's revived head attacks him and bites his hand. He runs to the shed, where her headless body attacks him with a chainsaw, but he overpowers and slashes the deadite Linda to death. His right hand becomes possessed and tries to kill him, and he severs it with the chainsaw before attempting to shoot it with a shotgun, but the hand mocks him and ultimately escapes. Meanwhile, Knowby's daughter Annie, and her research partner, Ed Getley, return from the dig with the missing pages of the ''Necronomicon'', only to find the destroyed bridge. They enlist repairman Jake and his girlfriend Bobby Joe to show them another route to the cabin, where they find an embattled Ash covered in blood. Thinking that he murdered Annie's parents, Annie and the others lock him in the cellar.

The four new arrivals listen to the rest of Knowby's recording, detailing how his wife Henrietta was possessed by the Kandarian Demon, and that he killed her and buried her in the cellar. Henrietta, now a deadite, possesses Ed; Ash dismembers him with an axe. Bobby Joe tries to escape, but demonically possessed trees attack and drag her to her death. Annie translates two of the ''Necronomicon''s pages before Jake turns on them and throws the pages into the cellar, forcing them at gunpoint to find Bobby Joe. Ash becomes possessed once again and attacks Jake. Annie retreats to the cabin and accidentally stabs Jake (mistaking him for the possessed Ash) before Henrietta kills him. Deadite Ash tries to kill Annie, but returns to his normal self upon seeing Linda's necklace.

With Annie's help, Ash modifies the chainsaw, attaches it to the stump of his right arm, and cuts the shotgun's barrel. After finding the missing pages of the ''Necronomicon'' in the cellar, Ash kills Henrietta. The trees outside begin to destroy the cabin. Annie reveals that she has only read the first half of the incantation and attempts to finish the second half. As she reads it, Ash's severed hand uses a Kandarian dagger to stab her in the back. She manages to complete the incantation before succumbing to her wound. The incantation opens up a whirling temporal vortex which not only draws in the demon, but also Ash and his Oldsmobile Delta 88.

Ash and his Oldsmobile land in the Middle Ages. A group of knights confront him and initially mistake him for a deadite, but are quickly distracted when a real harpy-like deadite appears. Ash blasts it with his shotgun and they hail him as a hero who has come to save them, causing him to break down and scream in anguish.

Cast

Production

Development

The concept of a sequel to ''The Evil Dead'' was discussed during location shooting on the first film. Irvin Shapiro, the film's publicist, pushed writer/director Sam Raimi to devise a premise for such a film. Working with screenwriter Sheldon Lettich, Raimi settled on a story in which Ash was sucked through a time portal to the Middle Ages, where he would encounter more deadites. Shapiro was enticed by the concept, and took out advertisements in trade magazines to promote the project, then titled ''Evil Dead II: Evil Dead and the Army of Darkness'', in May 1984. After Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox passed on it, the sequel was shelved in favor of Raimi's next film, ''Crimewave'' (1985), a comedy/crime film co-written with Joel and Ethan Coen.

After ''Crimewave'' was released to critical and audience disinterest, Raimi and his partners at Renaissance Pictures, producer Robert Tapert and actor/co-producer Bruce Campbell, took Shapiro up on his sequel offer, knowing that another flop would further stall their already-lagging careers. Development of ''Evil Dead II'' initially began in collaboration with Embassy Pictures, which had co-financed and distributed ''Crimewave'', but the filmmakers eventually felt that they were being stalled after five months' pre-production work, and began conducting interviews with prospective cast and crew members. Around this time, producer Dino De Laurentiis, the owner of production and distribution company De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG), asked Raimi if he would be interested in directing an adaptation of the Stephen King novel '' Thinner''. Raimi turned down the offer, but De Laurentiis remained in touch with 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 novels and short stories. At the time, King was directing the first such adaptation, ''Maximum Overdrive'' (1986), based on his short story "Trucks". He had dinner with a crew member who had been among those interviewed by Raimi and his colleagues about ''Evil Dead II'', 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. While he was initially skeptical, De Laurentiis met with Renaissance, who highlighted the first film's extremely high revenue in the Italian market. Within twenty minutes, De Laurentiis agreed to finance ''Evil Dead II'' for $3.6 million. Raimi and Tapert had desired $4 million for the production, but De Laurentiis requested a film that was similar to its predecessor instead of their original medieval-themed proposal, which was instead used for the second sequel, '' Army of Darkness'' (1992).

Writing

Despite Raimi's crew having 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 mm films they had produced during their childhood in Michigan. 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 of the original film's characters; however, in an effort to save time and money, all but Ash and Linda were cut from the final draft. The film went through several other drafts, including a group of escaped convicts holding Ash captive in the cabin while searching for buried treasure.

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 (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 a long time to finish.

Among the film's many inspirations include the Three Stooges and slapstick comedy films. Ash's fights with his disembodied hand come from a film made by Spiegel as a teenager titled '' 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

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