Evil Dead II
Kiss your nerves goodbye!
Evil Dead II (1987)
Budget
$3 500 000
Revenue
$5 923 044
Director
Scenario
Composer
Joseph LoDuca
Producer
Actors
Sarah Berry
Annie
Dan Hicks
Jake
Kassie DePaiva
Bobby Joe
Ted Raimi
Possessed Henrietta
Denise Bixler
Linda
Richard Domeier
Ed
John Peakes
Professor Knowby
Short description
Evil Dead II follows Ash Williams, who takes his girlfriend Linda to a secluded cabin in the woods. There they find a tape recorder belonging to an archaeologist, Professor Knowby, who had translated passages from the Book of the Dead. Playing the recording unleashes a demonic force that turns Linda into a monster and traps Ash in the cabin, where he must fight off the possessed and figure out how to undo the curse. Annie, the professor's daughter, arrives with companions seeking her father's translation and the group ends up making a stand against the evil.
Sam Raimi directed and co-wrote the film with Scott Spiegel, and Robert Tapert produced it. It was Raimi's third feature as director, following Crimewave in 1985 and preceding Darkman in 1990. Bruce Campbell leads as Ash, with Sarah Berry as Annie, Dan Hicks as Jake, Kassie DePaiva as Bobby Joe, Ted Raimi as the possessed Henrietta, and Denise Bixler as Linda.
Released in March 1987, the film had a budget of four million dollars and took in about six million worldwide. Its reputation has grown over the decades: on IMDb it holds 7.7 out of 10 from 195,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.5 out of 10 from 3,659 votes. A critics' rating of 7.6 out of 10 from 84 reviews is close to the audience scores, showing broad agreement rather than a sharp divide between reviewers and viewers.
What's left behind the scenes
- The sounds made while the Deadites moved through the forest were a combination of the voice of director and screenwriter Sam Raimi and recordings of Orson Welles' voice, making 'Evil Dead 2' the last film in which Welles participated in some capacity (as a director, actor, and screenwriter).
- After watching the fully edited film, Dino De Laurentiis realized that it would definitely be given an 'X' rating. Sam Raimi, in turn, stated that if the film were re-edited for an 'R' rating, it would have to be cut down to just one hour of screen time. Ultimately, De Laurentiis decided to release the film under the name Rosebud Releasing Corporation. This trick allowed him to avoid contacting the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), and the film was released without its rating.
- The idea of the "living" hand was borrowed by Sam Raimi from Scott Spiegel's short film "Attack of the Helping Hand" (1981), in which he himself starred.
- The director's younger brother, Ted Raimi, appeared in the basement episode. He plays Henrietta, who is possessed by demons.
- To avoid an 'X' rating, the producers insisted on using different dyes when creating the fake blood, but the attempt proved futile, and the film was eventually released without an official rating.
- Henrietta, who became one of the Deadites, was played by Sam Raimi's younger brother, Ted. For the role, he had to wear a very uncomfortable latex suit covering his entire body. He also wore contact lenses and fake teeth, so only Ted's tongue was visible to the audience, and only when he opened his mouth. The filming took place in South Carolina, where the heat was unbearable, making it extremely difficult for Ted Raimi to film in the uncomfortable suit (and considering all the other nuances). He overheated and sweated profusely in the suit. By the end of the shooting day, the suit became so hot that the crew had to cool it down with water from plastic cups. In the film, in the scene where Henrietta attacks Annie, played by Sarah Berry, you can notice droplets of sweat on her ear.
- In the scene of the fight with his own hand, Bruce Campbell (who played Ash) improvised from beginning to end. His performance so pleased director Sam Raimi that the first take of the scene was included in the film.
- Stephen King was a big fan of Sam Raimi's "The Evil Dead" (1981). Once, over lunch, he persuaded Dino De Laurentiis (who was then working on the "Maximum Overdrive" project of 1986, a science fiction film directed by King himself based on his own screenplay) to have his company, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, finance the filming of "Evil Dead 2."
- Since the forest cabin from the first part burned down, its interior was recreated on the grounds of a school in Wadesboro, North Carolina, for the filming of the sequel. Moreover, to provide all possible camera angles for the operators, the shack was "raised" 2 feet above the ground.
- Many scenes were cut from the film for censorship reasons, in particular a scene where "Evil" Ash eats a squirrel caught in the forest.
- In one of the filmed scenes, where Ash is holding a chainsaw, director and screenwriter Sam Raimi decided that Ash should walk in the opposite direction in the shot, and he simply flipped the negative of the film.
- Sam Raimi intended to "transport" Ash to the Middle Ages as early as the second part, but due to time and budget constraints, it was postponed until the third film.
- The idea of a "living" hand was borrowed by Sam Raimi from Scott Spiegel's short film "Attack of the Helping Hand" (1979), in which he also starred.
- The smoke that came out of the chainsaw was actually tobacco smoke. Sam Raimi attached a rubber hose to the chainsaw that did not appear in the shot, and cigarette smoke was blown through this hose.
- The prototype for the attractive Bobby Joe (played in the film by Cassie DePava) was Holly Hunter. In the early 1980s, she lived with Sam Raimi, Joel Coen, and Frances McDormand in the same house. Once, Hunter was going to an audition where she hoped to get the role of a prostitute, so she looked accordingly (with unusual makeup and a short skirt). Raimi made some kind of quip about it, and she got angry. Later, Raimi made a lot of effort to get Hunter for the role of Bobby Joe, but the producers decided that someone even more 'appetizing' was needed for the role.
- One of the cool rooms in the school where filming took place was converted into a gym, and Bruce Campbell trained there under the guidance of a local bodybuilder. The results of this training can be seen in a scene near the end of the film, where Campbell's character is shown in a torn shirt.
- The scene where Ash is doused with a stream of blood from the wall was filmed as follows: Bruce Campbell lay on the floor, fake blood was poured over him, and the camera was placed on its side to create the impression that the actor was standing. So much fake blood was poured on Campbell that he felt like he was actually drowning, and for the next two weeks he blew his nose exclusively with red mucus. To top it all off, all the flies in the area flew to the actor due to the composition of the fake blood.
- Another piece of evidence supporting the claim that this film is not a remake of the original from 1981, but a sequel, is the fact that the script required the inclusion of footage from the original film and a brief retelling of its plot. When filming the first film in the franchise, Sam Raimi did not anticipate sequels (Ash died at the end of the film, or at least that's the impression the audience got), so he sold the distribution rights to the film to New Line Cinema for a small sum. Fortunately, the contract did not mention copyright to the storyline and characters, but when it came to filming the second film, he no longer had the rights to use footage from the original. Therefore, the beginning of the film justified the upcoming events (of the second film) without references to the plot of the first.
- When portraying the Deadites, the actors wore opaque contact lenses and could not see anything at all. They had repeatedly rehearsed their actions (where to go and how to move) in advance.
- Sam Raimi made the blood green to pass censorship.
- A hanging glove belonging to Freddy Krueger is visible in one of the scenes in the basement. This was the director's response to the use of footage from the first film in "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984).
- Some inconsistencies between the ending of the first part and the beginning of the sequel are explained by the fact that the company that owned the rights to the first part did not allow the director to use footage from the original to create its brief backstory in the sequel, as a result of which Raimi had to reshoot these pieces from scratch, having only Ash and Linda available as characters.
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