The Sequel Was Better? The Evil Dead vs. Evil Dead II

The Sequel Was Better? is a series of reviews looking at famous movies with sequels that are considered, rightly or wrongly, to be better than the original movies. Typically, sequels are a step down in quality, acting, and/or production value. But not always. See other reviews here.

The Evil Dead (1981) written and directed by Sam Raimi

Five friends (including Bruce Campbell as Ash) drive out to a remote cabin for a fun weekend out in the middle of nowhere. Too bad the cabin was previously used by an archeologist whose research into ancient Sumeria led him to discover The Book of the Dead, which includes incantations that bring demons into the world. The friends stumble upon the professor's research and play a tape he recorded, including the part where he recites the incantations. Outside the cabin, things start to go bump in the night (including the bridge they drove across, which is destroyed, leaving them stuck at the cabin). One by one, the friends get possessed and turn on their unpossessed companions. Bloody, gory mayhem and horror ensue with most of the cast dying in horrible agony as possessed monsters. Only Ash survives to the morning, but as he leaves the cabin the evil force runs him down on his way to the car. Yep, this is one of those horror movies where no one survives.

The movie is a cult classic that established Sam Raimi as a director and Bruce Campbell as a b-movie star. The gore level is so high that the film doesn't have an MPAA rating (it's certainly deep in NC-17 territory by today's standards). The budget was miniscule because, as Raimi's first movie, he raised money by pitching investments to almost anyone with cash to spare. The makeup is surprisingly fake and horrifying at the same time. The characters get possessed by demons and turn into white-eyed, grey-skinned, bloated versions of themselves.

What makes the film stand out is the creativity. Raimi uses a lot of weird angles and camera moves that enhance the atmosphere. The point-of-view shots of the evil presence traveling through the woods work especially well. Those shots are even creepier with the sound effects, which are generally excellent throughout the movie. The actors' voices are altered when they become demon-infested and that effect helps to sell the less convincing makeup.

The movie became infamous when it was released on video tape. The censors in England put it on the list of the video nasties, a list of films that were called "obscene" that had bypassed the UK's ratings board as they were released on video cassette rather than in theaters. The availability to children was the issue, since video rentals were much more readily available.

Evil Dead II (1987) co-written and directed by Sam Raimi

In perhaps the earliest example of a reboot, this sequel repeats the basic story beats of the first film in ten or fifteen minutes. Ash and his girlfriend Linda (Denise Bixler, the other three friends are nowhere to be seen) drive out to a remote cabin across a bridge. Their plans for a fun night end when he plays a tape left there by an archeologist that summons a demon that possesses Linda. Evil Linda has some fights with Ash. Ash survives to the morning, only to be run down by the evil force which possesses him on and off throughout the movie.

Meanwhile, the archaeologist's daughter has found more pages from the Book of the Dead and is rushing to the cabin to rejoin her father and mother to decipher more mysteries. She and her brother are stymied by the destroyed bridge and enlist a local redneck couple to guide them on a footpath to the cabin. They arrive to find an unconscious, bloody Ash and no parents. Naturally, they think he's killed them. Soon enough they discover the possessed body of the mother in the cabin's fruit cellar. Bloody, gory mayhem and horror ensue with most of the cast dying in horrible agony as possessed monsters. The movie ends with Ash being sucked through a portal to the year 1300, where he is enlisted to fight the "deadites" by the local knights, something recorded in The Book of the Dead (thus setting up Army of Darkness as sequel).

The movie benefits from a much larger budget and the same creative team working both behind and in front of the camera. They came up with new and creative ways to scare an audience but with a much more humorous and less sadistic edge.

So is the sequel better? Let's look at some points of comparison.

• SCRIPT--The first movie has a fairly lean script that's more about setting up horror scenarios and squalid scenes of suffering and death. It's almost like a haunted house amusement that has no restraints on what watchers can experience. As I said, the first movie is abridged and recreated in the first few minutes of the sequel, leaving out massive amounts of gore and three other characters. The story is then expanded with new and different characters, not just a bunch of late teen/early twenties horror fodder. The archeologist's daughter has more to do than just scream and be attacked by the possessed horrors (including her own mother, poor woman). She helps with incantations to get the evil out of the present day and back to the middle ages, where they had a more ready belief in demons and were more ready to deal with them. The second film has a lot more script to it, so advantage Evil Dead II.
• ACTING--The first film has a cast of mostly non-professional talent. They do a good job considering the circumstances and give good performances. The second film is more of a showcase for Campbell, who is more cartoonish and silly (and does a better acting job, too). His performance sets the tone for the film, which is a lot lighter than the first film. The other actors do a fine job with the more substantial roles given to them. Slight advantage to Evil Dead II.
• ADVANCES THE STORY/MYTHOLOGY--The second film swallows up the first's storyline and adds in a lot more content about The Book of the Dead. It references the film before and sets up the third film. The demons are more specific in their goals--beyond the sadistic torment, they definitely want to drag more human souls to Hell with them. The sequel also sets up more convincing ways to fight against the demons, making what little mythology there is in the Evil Dead franchise richer. Advantage Evil Dead II.
• SPECIAL EFFECTS--The low budget of the first film is most obvious in the makeup. While the all-white contact lenses are freaky-looking, a lot of the other makeup effects are less convincing. At the end of the film, some of the possessed characters rot away or disintegrate in obvious stop-motion gore that's disgusting but also a little unconvincing. In the sequel, Linda does a little bit of dancing which is reprised by her corpse after she is killed in a fascinating and creative stop-motion animation sequence. The dance sequence does not seem particularly realistic but does have a sense of humor. A lot of other visual effects (like ghostly apparitions or the forest coming alive) look much better thanks to the expanded budget. Advantage to the higher-budgeted sequel that uses its money well.
• VISUAL STYLE--The first film is very creative in its camera shots and various set-pieces designed to horrify the audience. There's a bit of humor but a lot more stuff to gross viewers out or make them jump from their seats or squirm in their seats. Occasionally the film seems too mean-spirited, especially in the infamous forest rape scene. The second film has a slightly lower level of gore and a much higher level of humor. The forest scene is reprised without the horrible ending. The biggest indication of the thematic switch is the scene in the sequel where Ash has to cut off his hand because "it's turned bad." While still attached to his arm, the hand tries to kill Ash (though smashing plates on his head is definitely more comic than horrifying). Ash uses a chainsaw to cut off the hand; he bandages his stump with some cloth and duct tape. He then has to battle his disembodied hand as it scurries around looking for some way to kill him. The scene is completely ridiculous and the filmmakers know it, so they play it for laughs rather than for shivers. The tonal shift toward humor makes for a much more palatable film. Advantage Evil Dead II.
• THE BIG FINALE--The first movie ends with an all out splattery, disintegrating goo fest that's more stomach-churning than legitimately scary. The very last scene of Ash being chased down by the evil force gives a bleak note to the self-described "ultimate experience in grueling horror" (Check the end credits, that's how they describe the film). The second movie ends with Ash being sucked into a portal that leaves him as a prophesied hero to the band of medieval knights who find him. Ash definitely thinks he's in a horrible finale but it is definitely less worse than being possessed by the evil force. Advantage Evil Dead II.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I watched The Evil Dead for only the second time in order to write this review. While the creativity is impressive, the film goes over the top as much as it can with the gore and the squirm-inducing horror. I admire what they accomplished on a micro-budget but can't really say that I enjoy the film. Evil Dead II I watched for the fourth time. The lighter tone makes it much easier to enjoy and a lot of elements (the effects, the story, the acting) are of a higher quality. Unless you prefer gut-wrenching gore, I don't see how you could prefer the first film.