Just a Few 'Til October (Evil Dead II)

 For more written about Sam Raimi's sequel to Evil Dead (1981): We'll Swallow You're Soul  and Evil Dead II

On the blog, there is no surprise that I've written about "Dead by Dawn" (1987) more than once. Like a lot of 80s kids and 90s teenagers, this was indeed a mainstay in my VCR. But this was the very first viewing of the Anchor Bay Blu ray of the film. This print didn't look all that cleaner than some cable viewings of the film in the past. But that's okay. I sort of prefer the film to remain a bit dirty, a bit weathered. The special effects, especially the stop motion demons and dancing girlfriend of Bruce (the demon hand), and the demon makeup for those possessed, and the out of control "monster forest" pounding and damaging the cabin in the woods, are definitely the standard for 1987 and not at all sophisticated. But I don't remember at all complaining back when I was introduced to this outrageous horror film, and the subsequent viewings have an appeal still to me because they are very much of their time. Geniuses behind the best technology money can buy could whip up what Raimi and his team concocted on ten times less the budget. But I can remember all the different colors of blood that geysers and splashes, gushes and spatters, all over the place. I think there was red, black, green, and yellow blood, and a great deal lot of it blasted poor Campbell in the face. He's often drenched in it. I swear the walls basically flood Campbell's face like a firetruck water hose set on blast. But the entire house laughing at Campbell, with him eventually joining them remains such a ridiculous, zany highlight, and yet Raimi and his production didn't dare stop there. A lamp, books on a shelf, a deer head, doors, and even a clock on the wall join in to laugh away. That a giant tree with eyes and a mouth using its limbs as a hand that grabs Campbell is really to be expected. When Sarah Berry recites the missing pages from the Necronomicon, and this parallel vortex opens to suck into it the demonic evil set off by her professor father, there is actually the car and a stove pulled from the cabin and area to some medieval period...I was just waiting to see the kitchen sink pop up, too. But I love the demonic face and white eyes...quite hideous. 

The film includes two locals, a couple representing hick stereotypes with even chew and a spit or two, and Berry's blond boyfriend, as fodder for the demons more less. Thankfully, this sequel, which sort of took some of the same outline from the first film and sort of repackaged it, doesn't repeat the wilderness rape, although DePaiva is wrapped, with sticks even piercing her flesh and face, before dragging her away to her doom. The late Dan Hicks (who died this year) doesn't fare well at all. That skull head dagger (with a blade with quite a reach) into his stomach and rotted mama pulling him into the dreaded cellar to shred him to a skeleton...he does splash Berry with a lot of blood...who knew the human body could explode that much blood.

Speaking of Campbell's face (and his noggin), the poor guy takes a lot for the team. That handsome face goes into walls, doors, plates, floor, steps, and fists. And he bent and flexed those muscles in that face for all their worth. A drink to him for the punishment.