Director: Sam Raimi
Year: 1987
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Possession; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Heading off to a cabin in the woods, the reading of a demonic book unleashes a horde of vicious demons that plague a man and others who arrive there looking to translate the work, forcing them all to fend off the demonic beings from taking control of their souls.
Review:
This one is easily among the top films in the genre. What works so well for this one is that there's far more emphasis on this one being unbelievably funny and hysterical as it utilizes physical slapstick comedy to do its terrorizing and torture, resulting in this one containing numerous side-splitting gags. The possessed-hand material is superb slapstick comedy, from it striking him in the head with plates and grabbing at his face while the scenes of him hunting the disarticulated hand around the cabin are hilarious, Ash being tormented by the baying laughter and howling from the stuffed animals and furniture in the room and the over-the-top reaction to the situation by dumping gallons of blood from minor wounds.
As well, there are tons of times here involving him tripping and stumbling over something, beating himself into the walls or with furniture to dislodge something stuck to him, or putting on numerous factional distortions that are all quite hilarious. Still, beyond the hilarity this is still first and foremost a horror film so there's a lot of big scenes here that go for the chills and jumps quite effectively, from the opening battle with the possessed girlfriend in the woods and the ensuing POV chase through the woods into the cabin, a great battle with the reanimated body and the series of attacks down in the cellar all provide plenty of that. The finale is where all the best action is, as the possessed individuals become much more bold and daring in tormenting the remaining survivors, the humor gets dropped and the pace quickens substantially which not only highlights the nearly flaws-less make-up on the possessed, deformities and wounds as well as the fantastic finale that mixes some rather impressive action alongside the black magic workings featured here which makes this one all the more fun.
There's really only one area here that holds this down, which is the clumsy way this brings everyone together, letting him stay there alone for a long period of time and sloppily bringing the group in later on. The cutaways don't do much and make it seem like forever before they get there. As well, especially early in the movie, not much made sense. One character is possessed by the creatures and remains so for the early part of the movie, then in the middle, it disappears and never comes up again. It's weird that something that powerful could be gone just that easily. Otherwise, there's not much this one gets wrong.
Overview: *****/5
Just as demented and crazy as its predecessor, this is a standout follow-up that proves to be just as worthwhile in sacrificing scares for laugh-out-loud moments mixed together with the scares. Those with an interest in the series, appreciate the original, or are just genre fans in general, will have a lot to like here, while most others might want to heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment