Best Evil Dead?

[Blarg]

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I guess I'm in the minority here, but I thought 2 and 3 were both too over the top and campy, and didn't work for me as either comedy or horror. Whereas the first one scared the crap out of me like no movie has since.

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The problem with a movie that's been imitated so much is that if you don't see it when it first comes out, you're very likely to feel like it's "been there, done that" when you finally do, because by then you've already seen it ripped off a thousand times.

When Evil Dead first came out, nobody was saying it wasn't scary or original. It's a funny paradox, but original things and very well done things can seem derivative and low-impact after a while because people have seen so many of their imitators!

[TheCroShow]

while we're on the topic..did anyone notice Raimi's little nod to ED/ED2/AOD in Spiderman 2? The sequence when Doc Oc is owning up the people in the operating room. The way that entire scene is shot, it's similiar to when Ash picks out his new hand, or picks out his chainsaw...etc. etc.

[Marlow]

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ED2 just goes to new levels. It is self-conscious and campy without being completely over the top. It's scary but not preoccupied with making the viewer afraid. ED1 is an Ok movie, but ED2 takes all kinds of chances. And all of them pay off. Regardless of AoD, Raimi's direction is +EV for any movie.


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Very much agree, well said. That's what I wasn't articulate enough to say.

Any fans of Bruce Campbell, check out Bubba Ho-Tep if you have the chance. It's interesting to say the least.

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If there was ever any movie you couldn't possibly call NOT over the top, Evil Dead 2 was certainly it.

That was a big part of the fun. Don't tell me the extended sequences of Bruce fighting his own hand while it smashes plates against his head wasn't completely over the top. I thought I was going to die laughing, but hell, if that's not over the top, then Michael Jackson is both quite ordinary and obviously heterosexual. And I bet O.J. is going to catch that killer any time now!

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Hmmm... let's think about context here. In the horror movie universe, I'd say that it wasn't a particularly over-the-top film. It certainly exploited some of our expectations of what's supposed to happen in a scary movie and makes us laff our asses off as a result. But more specifically, it wasn't over the top as compared to AOD, which was just a shameful attempt to recreate those moments in ED2 that worked precisely because they were referring to standard B horror schlock. ED2 works because it's parody, but it doesn't beat you over the head (so to speak), like AOD does.

Oh, and I really liked what you had to say about ED1. Still noit in love with it, tho.

Marlow

[Marlow]

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while we're on the topic..did anyone notice Raimi's little nod to ED/ED2/AOD in Spiderman 2? The sequence when Doc Oc is owning up the people in the operating room. The way that entire scene is shot, it's similiar to when Ash picks out his new hand, or picks out his chainsaw...etc. etc.

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TOTALLY!!! So glad you saw that too! I literally jumped out of my seat with glee during that scene. What a f'n stroke of brilliance.

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[TheCroShow]

yep, when my bro and me were in the theater watching spiderman 2 we freaked out. i could almost hear Ash say "That one..."