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Chad
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Posted: July 4, 2004 at 12:00am
The movie starts out with a very condensed recap of the first movie, which has been completely reshot and slightly rewritten for this sequel. This movie then picks up right from the closing moments of the original movie and goes from there. After being assaulted in the woods by the demon, Ash returns to the cabin and takes refuge, but this rinky-dink little cabin is no match for the demons that are after him. Meanwhile, Annie, the daughter of the man on the infamous tape-recorder from the first movie, has found some of the missing pages from the necronomicon, and plans to visit her father out in the cabin. She makes her way out there with her partner Ed, only to find the bridge demolished. They meet up with a pair of local rednecks (Jake and Bobbie Joe) who offer to show them a trail through the woods that leads to the cabin. When they finally arrive to the cabin and meet up with Ash, all sorts of hell breaks loose.
This movie was a great middle-ground for the trilogy, as it keeps most of the good horror aspects of the original, but also starts to bring in some of the humour found in "Army Of Darkness". This wasn't another attempt at a straight-out horror film, but it also wasn't the complete black comedy that the third movie ended up being. In keeping that nice balance, it doesn't come off feeling like a repeat of the original, nor does Army feel like a rehash of this one. Also, not too many sequels of movies pick up directly where its predecessor left off (this starts directly where Evil Dead ended, Army Of Darkness starts right where this finishes), and that was a very nice touch to keep the storyline flowing through three movies. Speaking of that storyline, it once again stays pretty basic... Ash is trapped in the cabin, joined by the kids who came out to visit Annie's father, and they have to fight the demons off in order to survive until dawn. The simplicity of the storyline works out nicely, as I could think of quite a few other directors who would have tried to throw some silly subplots or romance angles in here, which would have fucked everything up.
Then, there's the demons involved within the film. They're much more varied here than in Evil Dead, as it doesn't focus solely on possessing the people in the cabin. We now have the witch in the cellar, the return of the vines, a killer tree, and some other surprises to be found throughout. Not only do the humans get possessed here, but so does furniture and a mounted deer-head on the wall. I can't quite decide whether a killing deer-head would be overly silly or completely awesome, but since it and the furniture only served to drive Ash further into insanity, I suppose we won't find out. That was definitely one of the better scenes here, as it was very well shot and put together.
Another great thing about this film is the little things that add up to a better viewing experience. The camera-work and editing are really quite excellent, and pretty unique. The scenes with the jerky, rushing camera views returns from the original, as well as some other tricks left exclusive to this entry in the series. There's also some great lighting effects in a few scenes, especially when the sole light bulb becomes covered in blood and turns the entire room into a shade of deep crimson. These little things aren't involved with the actual storyline at all, nor do they serve any purpose other than eye-candy... but damned if they don't make things that much more interesting.
Overall, if you enjoyed either of the other two films in this series, you'd enjoy this one as well. It doesn't suffer from the sequel-sucks syndrome, it sticks to the same basic storyline and doesn't journey out into some crazy new stuff, but is also original enough to still be enjoyable. 10/10 from myself.
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Ginose
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Posted: September 9, 2005 at 5:47pm
This is where the comedy begins! The gore stays 1st though and the horror aspects were still very fresh. Army of Darkness was my favorite of the series. Still, this one has it's place on my list.
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Dametria
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Posted: April 24, 2007 at 11:33am
Its the first movie done better, thats all there is to it.
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Shakes
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Posted: January 22, 2009 at 1:16pm
10/10
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Lucid Dreams
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Posted: May 30, 2010 at 9:48pm
This is probably my favorite out of the series. 10/10
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Rest Easy Soul
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Posted: July 25, 2010 at 11:05am
Remake or not a remake this movie is epic. I like it better than the first simply because of one scene.. The effing dear head.
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Crispy
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Posted: January 27, 2011 at 1:12am
yeah I'd call this more of a remake than a sequel, but I couldn't tell you which I liked better. Like the first two Alien movies, they're too different to compare, but they both manage to be absolutely amazing.
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era68
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Posted: December 16, 2011 at 9:53am
The film that awakened my love for the genre. Perfect blend of comedy and gore. Thank you Sam, Bruce and Rob.
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