Benjamin Jackson discusses his love of the 1987 horror movie, Evil Dead II, and just how much the Sam Raimi splatstick influenced popular culture after its release.
00:00Now, I often get asked, Benji, what's your favourite band of all time? And I'll say, I can't answer that. How about you tell me who your favourite child is? And sometimes I get responses I shouldn't.
00:12But when it comes to being asked what my favourite horror movie is, especially one as an entry point for some of the nascent gore hounds out there, I always come back to one. One that I have fond memories of even before I started watching it for the first time.
00:28It's the perfect blend of horror, gore and comedy, with some of the most well-known catchphrases that have permeated into popular culture and is now considered one of the definitive horror movies to watch, especially over the Halloween season.
00:42I talk, of course, about Showgirls. No, wait. That's the wrong script for the wrong video.
00:49Ah, I'm talking, of course, about this bad boy, Evil Dead 2, released in 1987.
00:56And the somewhat follow-up to the classic video nasty slash won't someone think of the children moral panic of the 80s, the Evil Dead.
01:04And while some argue that, yeah, the first one really did ramp up the tension in terms of gore, yeah, there was plenty of it, but Halloween's meant to be fun and games, right?
01:15And in a world where we actually use the phrase gore-no and torture porn to describe some cinematic feats of endurance for us to view it,
01:24isn't it nice to have something that partly shocked and yet definitely makes you laugh a lot of the time?
01:29Thank you for that, in real life, Benji. I'll take over from here, though.
01:35Maybe it is the fact that he and I are getting gentler in our old ages, or perhaps marriage has led us to be not so much the gore hounds that we once were.
01:46No, I think it's the age thing, but considered one of the first cases of splatstick, a portmanteau, that is exactly how it sounds.
01:55Evil Dead 2 starts out as somewhat of a requel of the first, owing to the complex rights issues that future Spider-Man director Sam Raimi encountered after the release of his first film.
02:08So initially, for fans of the first, it is somewhat of a recap, but for newer fans, it is the all-important origin story to contextualise what's about to take place next.
02:19We discover Ashley Williams, played by a living legend and man with a chin of granite, Bruce Campbell, and how he came to become our unlikely hero.
02:29But rather than zombies attacking him, instead we're dealing with evil spirits.
02:34Deadites, as they're referred to in the Evil Dead universe, who enjoy nothing more than possessing anyone that comes into contact with them, including Ash's love interest.
02:44Now, Q-Chainsaw's appendages being locked off copious amounts of blood and guts, and an ending that perfectly sets up for the next film of the trilogy.
02:53Which I won't go into, because hey, if I was in a video store and spoiled the recommendation for you, I'd be a bit of a scumbag for doing so, wouldn't I?
03:01What you do need to know, though, is the importance of the film across popular culture.
03:06Not just on me and my life, which you can read an entire article about that, but on popular culture as a whole.
03:13Now, while the original Evil Dead was a straightforward, brutal horror film, brutal being the operative word,
03:21Raimi used the larger budget for the sequel to amp up the gore to such an absurd degree that it became comedic, in a sense.
03:28It used over-the-top cartoon-like violence, nodding to the three stooges, for example.
03:34And like the famous scene with the possessed hand, it uses the violence to get laughs as much as it does to elicit screams.
03:42And the film cemented Ash as a pop culture icon.
03:46In the first film, he's the terrified final guy, who survives, well, by pure luck.
03:51In Evil Dead 2, he becomes the macho-wise cracking hero with his iconic chainsaw hand and boomstick.
03:57And the shift made him a beloved figure in horror, and a rare example of a horror hero.
04:03In a genre where a lot of people mainly focus on the horror villains.
04:08Raimi's frenetic and highly stylized camera work is a hallmark of this film.
04:14The shaky cam effect, often called the Raimi cam, puts the audience in the perspective of the evil force,
04:20creating a sense of frantic kinetic energy.
04:24And the style has influenced countless of horror and action films since.
04:28And it can even be seen in some of Raimi's later films, the aforementioned Spider-Man,
04:33or his work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Doctor Strange.
04:38The film's practical effects and stop-motion animation are also a testament to the creativity of the filmmakers.
04:45Now, the evil ash makeup and the grotesque visuals of the Deadites are both horrifying,
04:50and yet somewhat comical, contributing to the film's unique tone.
04:56And above all else, Evil Dead 2 did legitimize the fact that horror could be intentionally funny without being a parody.
05:03It showed that a film could have real stakes in genuine terror,
05:07while also embracing a darkly comedic tone.
05:10And it paved the way for a new generation of horror-comedy hybrids,
05:14including Peter Jackson's Brain Dead, or Dead Live if you're in the United States,
05:19and Edgar Wright's classic Shaun of the Dead.
05:23So, if you're looking for something to throw on the television set this Halloween
05:27that won't have you calling, I don't know, NHS 111 for a prospective panic attack,
05:32might I suggest, nay,
05:34might I highly recommend Evil Dead 2.
05:36It is, for lack of a better term, and to borrow a phrase from our hero,
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