Evil Dead II

Ash Williams, the lone survivor of an earlier onslaught of flesh-possessing spirits, holes up in a cabin with a group of strangers while the demons continue their attack.

This is the one movie in the series that I have had the biggest problem with, up until Burn I guess. For whatever reason I enjoyed the comedy in Army of Darkness and the more straightforward horror of The Evil Dead, but never could get into the structure and comedy of 2 (ii).

I have seen this movie a few times now and it has really grown on me. It still ends up middle of the pack but if I did this rating a year ago it would have only had two stars.

The effects in this film are really a lot of fun and you can see how this would eventually turn into Army of Darkness. Not having access to the first film in recapping really makes for a strange viewing experience the first time through but where it ends up going works for me.

Originally I was not much of a fan of the fact that Ash is possessed. It does not seem necessary as I would expect people who found him in their cabin would be suscpicious of him anyway. I did not mind the same thing in Evil Dead (2013) for some reason which I do not really get. Something to consider later.

For now, I really enjoy the battle Ash has with his own hand. This works more for me than the mini-Ashs from Army of Darkness. I think you could have just thrown people into this movie and skipped the recap but then it is not obvious where to start. I like that more of the archeologist and his wife are discussed as this feels like building out the world rather than just a rinse and repeat of what happened before.

There is something fun about never actually being able to beat the evil. Defeat one thing and the next worse thing appears.

The tree monster is ridiculous and great. It did remind me of the other from Dead Alive but I guess it might have inspired that monster. I guess I get to add that to the list of movies to discuss.

This movie seems to be well regarded amongst fans of the franchise and I think I finally get why. It probably will never rank higher than this for me but I cannot see these films in a different order than I saw them.

Now I just want to see a bunch of gifs from this film. The deer laughing, the lamp laughing, the deadite snap and camera zoom, so much of Ash.

This is day 68 of 100 Days To Offload.

This is day 15 of Blaugust 2026.