Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn
- Jun 7
- 2 min read
Film director Sam Raimi has made no secret of the fact that growing up he adored the films of The Three Stooges, the great comedy team of Moe, Larry and Curly—and later Shemp and Curly Joe. They made nearly 200 short films between 1930 and 1970. For generations of fans, The Stooges’ brand of slapstick, screwball comedy mixed with wonderfully idiotic physical mayhem proved irresistible. For Raimi, the influence of the Stooges was so great that when it was time for him to make a sequel to his successful horror film The Evil Dead, he made sure that it would be as much a horror film as a wild, no-holds-barred comedy in the style of the Stooges. The result is Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, a bloody, giddy comedy horror classic.
Released in 1987 and starring Bruce Campbell as Ash, Evil Dead 2 is about a young couple who arrive at a remote cabin in the woods for a romantic getaway. When they innocently turn on a tape recorder that plays the voice of someone reading a passage from The Book of the Dead, an ancient evil spirit is unleashed and takes possession of Ash’s girlfriend. With her eyes bugging out like hubcaps and her teeth bared to devour her boyfriend, Ash is forced to kill her and then bury the poor girl’s corpse in the woods. Problem over, right? Uh…not quite!
Two other couples show up at the cabin and before long more demon spirits are on the prowl, ready to join the party and raise hell. At that point, the film launches like a whiplash roller-coaster of action as Ash and the others fight for their lives, and the genuine moments of horror that ensue collide rapid-fire with a lunatic brand of humor that will make you shudder, cringe, and laugh—maybe all at the same time.
Raimi’s affection for the slapstick of The Three Stooges is evident at every turn.
Raimi’s affection for the over-the-top slapstick of The Three Stooges is evident at every turn. Such as when a gooseneck desk lamp and other inanimate objects in the cabin come to life, mocking Ash. Or when one of the demons bites Ash’s hand and the infected body part turns against him, smashing plates over his head. Bruce Campbell gives a deliciously hammy performance as he wages war to stop his demonic fingers from beating the hell out of him and dragging him toward the fruit cellar where other buried demons await. Campbell’s crazed hysteria is vintage Three Stooges.
From Raimi’s acrobatic, menacing camerawork to the funhouse maze of shocks that terrorize Ash, the movie is a delightful, gruesome gem for those who dare to enter its spell and stick around for its surprise ending!
I give Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn three and one-half out of four stars. The Three Stooges would be proud.
