Evil Dead II Blu-ray Review
Well we wouldn’t want to accuse the Evil Dead series of cashing in on a disc release (How many Army of Darkness editions is there now?), but with the new vision of the franchise hitting cinemas this month it is only inevitable that we should get this.
The good news is that this Blu-ray edition of Evil Dead II comes loaded with some truly terrific bonus material. But first we should warn the uninitiated what they could be in for.
Evil Dead naturally is the follow up to the 1981 horror classic from director Sam Raimi and star Bruce Campbell. That film saw a group of youngsters chased by a demonic force in the woods as they spent their weekend at a cabin. Made 6 years later, Evil Dead II recaps the original (sort of) in its opening 6-7 minutes leading into a shot where the original ended and then continues the story as Ash (Campbell) struggles against the evil forces as it tries to possesses him.
The difference this time round is that there are a lot of black laughs to be had. Clearly there is a comic element along with the scares and gore that has helped this film become an absolute cult classic. Raimi’s inventive direction is also something else to behold.
The bad news though is that, despite this looking a bit better that a DVD version, the Blu-ray hasn’t been cleaned and polished to a standard that people might hope for. Expect a heck of a lot of soft focus and grain present. So fans of the format may have to wait until it occurs to someone to spend a bit of money restoring the film (not to mention the other two as well).
That aside the extras are to die for! You do get a decent chat-track (featuring star, director and others) pulled over from a previous laser disc release, but you also get an excellent 90 minute documentary charting the making of the film. Sam Raimi may be absent from it, but pretty much every notable name from that set appears to tell tales about the film.
There is also a few little other extras including archival footage and galleries. If anything, these extras are needed to sell the disc we have mentioned, this isn’t the polish we deserve. This though is still recommended if you have never owned it, and for collectors it is very much worth it for the documentary. But anyone who has not seen the film before really need to buy this disc for the film itself as this is still truly a classic and holds up very well today and still gets full marks.
Steven Hurst