Transcript
Zach Sheets: Hello and welcome to the Everything Action Cast, podcast week of July 6th, 2026. I'm your host, Zach.
Chris Prime: I'm your co-host, Chris.
Zach Sheets: And this week we are fighting some deadites and talking about Evil Dead 2, because we got a new Evil Dead movie in theaters right now Evil Dead Burn, which is getting pretty great reviews. Apparently it's like a really gory, solid entry in the franchise.
Zach Sheets: But I think Evil Dead 2 is probably the one that people most people are like would consider their favorite or like it's like the most important one of the franchise.
Zach Sheets: Like
Chris Prime: I think like... Yes, if you enjoy like the campy horror that like from a cinematic way, right?
Chris Prime: But everyone, are like super film buffs love the first movie for just like how guerrilla filmmaking it is and then how like just the struggles it takes to make that movie.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Zach Sheets: It's so many just like crazy innovative shots that people have never seen before. Like the infamous like Sam Rae strapping that camera to like a 4x4 and like running through the woods with it.
Chris Prime: bright Right, right.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: And even just like the sound design for a cabin in the woods story. And it's it's like everything about that is amplified in this. But it's not not like not not like goofy version. But it's just a cleaner, like more like mainstream version of it.
Zach Sheets: Well, what like one is like trying to be a straight-up horror movie.
Chris Prime: Yeah.
Zach Sheets: Army Darkness is like just a ridiculous, goofy action comedy.
Chris Prime: Comedy.
Zach Sheets: And and then Evil Dead 2 is the blending of both because it still has some like scary stuff, but it also like has like wacky stuff in it too.
Chris Prime: Yeah, yeah.
Chris Prime: Yeah, and I think that's like the the two camps. It merges in this, where do you want a traditional evil dead where you don't really need to know what it is, just like horrible things are happening, right? Because there are movies that are just that.
Chris Prime: And then there are also horror movies that are, they're aware of how silly the premise is. Or they are aware that this is just like supernatural so that any rules that you think should establish any guideline, it just doesn't exist.
Zach Sheets: hu
Chris Prime: So like that, that's the, that's where I'm at where it's like this movie the blend of those. And I'm someone that came into the series from the third movie without watching the second one first.
Zach Sheets: I think, yeah safe say i think safe for me, Armory Darkers was like my introduction to like all this.
Chris Prime: And then it's it's hard because then you're like, whoa, this is actually... If you liked Army of Darkness, it's hard to go back a so step where it's less goofy comedy. Because at some point in the movie, it just stops being like a comedy.
Chris Prime: Now it's just like a silly... Again, not silly silly, but it's just like over-the-top effects.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: And then... The story is pretty much like, but like, the whole summary is just like a paragraph and that's it. It's like, how long can you stretch out this idea of these people being terrorized in two rooms?
Chris Prime: Maybe three if you count the shed.
Zach Sheets: It's also like, The Ash in our Army of Darkness, is like you you get you get him at like the very end of like Evil Dead 2. kind of like eventually gets there, but like he's not fully Ash, I don't think, until the end Evil Dead 2. And then definitely Army of Darkness is the Ash that we all know. With like, this is my boomstick, and Hail the King, and all that stuff.
Chris Prime: Yeah, yeah. So, like, there's no catch lines with him, really. In this one, there is, but, like, it's just three of them, maybe? It's it's great.
Zach Sheets: Groovy. he he He says groovy and then says like suck on this at the end.
Chris Prime: Or, like, Let's Go, but he says it really quick.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: But, like, it's not the same as the third movie, where... Straight up, he is just saying like one liners and has like the confidence that like he's done this before, even though in the timeline it's only been a day.
Chris Prime: And then because you kind of have to negate the first movie, which is also let's get into that. Like you don't need to see the first movie to understand
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Zach Sheets: No, this this this could be, this you could just start here and you get everything you need to know about like anything Evil Dead Deadites and deadite all that stuff.
Chris Prime: I think just for licensing reasons, they wanted to add two. This could have just been called the evil dead, something like they do these days. And it would have been fine.
Zach Sheets: Well, from what i read is that... like Sam Raimi wanted to do, like basically do like his idea for the second one was Army Darkness. like He wanted to do like the medieval ash. like He gets into medieval times and all that stuff.
Zach Sheets: But then, Dino de Laurentiis was producing this one. He's like, no, make it like the first one. like umm i'm I'm giving you the money. like I want the first one again.
Zach Sheets: So that's why it's like base kind of, like it feels like a remake of the first one, or it's like kind of similar setting and everything. And then he was able to like finally do the medieval stuff that Armored Ark does.
Chris Prime: Honestly, they could have condensed... the Okay, you know how, like, basically they keep condensing the a movie into, like, another movie? They could have done that, where every the every one of the, like, core cast is already in the beginning, and then halfway through then becomes Armory Darkness, somewhat, where they go into the past, and then there are deadites back then. And...
Chris Prime: it would have been fine, but because they wanted to kind of build up more of the like spooky story in the woods, it, it the first act is just straight up the first movie all over again. But even, even like just more Ash doing three Stooges skits by himself.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, the first the first act is just like a one-man show with Bruce Campbell just like fighting himself, basically.
Chris Prime: And you know, as a kid, I always thought this was so much longer. and it it's a good amount of screen time. i Bruce Campbell is an amazing actor. He sells the whole like stunt work and goofiness and you forget that it's just himself doing this to himself.
Zach Sheets: Oh, man, yeah. like the and the The physical like comedy and like the pratfalls, and then like he grabs like the scruff of his own neck and flips himself forward.
Chris Prime: That's hard to do.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Zach Sheets: And then like he actually like he bit me he makes you believe like his hand is like like independent of himself. and like It's like a new like creature fighting him. the actual like struggle. It's his hand.
Zach Sheets: But yeah, like it's it's I guess it's like the first 10 minutes is supposed to be like a recap of what happened in the first movie. But then there's like four characters that are...
Zach Sheets: like Or three characters that are admitted completely. They're
Chris Prime: It's Ash's sister and his like their common friends.
Zach Sheets: two friends. it's It's just him and Linda. And then it's the whole... like It's like Linda gets possessed and then he has to decapitate her with a shovel. And then... I guess from what I read in like INDB and something like that, like when when Ash actually gets possessed by the the evil, that's like kind of like where Evil Dead 2 starts. So it's like what it now now we're like Evil Dead 2 story. Yeah.
Chris Prime: Which makes sense, but that's a good like 15 minutes into the movie.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: Uh, so, i showed a few people who've never seen the Evil Dead series before, and I showed them the first one, and they okay. And then I showed them the second one, and then they were mad at me that I just showed them the second one.
Chris Prime: Because it's just like, it's this? Like, this is what I want. You know? Because they think of Army of Darkness, and I'm like, okay, let's start with the first one.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: And they're like, okay, when does get funny? I'm like, it doesn't. Check out this tree scene.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: Uh, then, and this I think they do reuse the same shot of Ash being possessed and then the evil dead spirits coming after him from behind.
Chris Prime: That is taken from the first movie. That or like the quality isn't. The footage of what I saw on DVD wasn't as good.
Chris Prime: yeah I bought these movies on DVD because it was just like, okay, hey, first I'm on DVD.
Zach Sheets: Yeah,
Chris Prime: I guess I'll buy them. And it wasn't like a set just because whatever licensing rules back then, it was just, okay, first two considered like a box set. Third one, gotta buy somewhere else.
Zach Sheets: yeah because Army Darkness was like owned by Universal has the rights to it, or like there's been weird rights issues. I think that also affected like Ash for Seed with Dead, because they couldn't they couldn't use Army of Darkness stuff really.
Chris Prime: Until the third, second season, some of that, when they got it back.
Zach Sheets: yeah Yeah, eventually they could like start referencing things like like, oh, I went back a time.
Zach Sheets: but like, yeah.
Chris Prime: Because then, yeah, yeah, that's why the, by the second season, Ash vs. Evil Dead is like, it finds its groove.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: So with Evil Dead 2, though, It really does simplify the point of the first movie. It's just there's some evil here. There's some crazy magic that you unleash by either reading something out loud or play a recording of it.
Zach Sheets: m
Chris Prime: I
Zach Sheets: it's it's It's also, it's it's actually the Necronicon this time, not like, i think it was like the Naturum Demento in like the first movie.
Chris Prime: forgot. Honestly, I just called it a Gnomicon just for all of them.
Zach Sheets: And it's, and and and it looks, but like it looks completely different in the first one because obviously like a cheaper, like, they like scratch a couple of things like on their budget of like no budget.
Chris Prime: Yeah. Maybe they just like built one out of dirt.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: This one, yeah, it's more like framed.
Zach Sheets: Like the evil that,
Chris Prime: It's a very big like, oh, we actually aren't going to open so much of it because like the recording does most of the work this time.
Zach Sheets: Which, there's also there's also recording the first one. but That's how like it kicks off the first one, too.
Chris Prime: Yeah, but like it's like a whole bunch of them like looking at the recording going, oh, when should we play this? And it like builds intention.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, like Smokey Pop like, oh man, let's listen to this creepy tape. That's a fun activity.
Chris Prime: Yeah, this one, for whatever reason, Ash is like, ooh, hey, let's get freaky and, uh, you know, why don't you get undress and let me play this recording?
Zach Sheets: yeah i mean I'm going to get distracted by this weird tape.
Chris Prime: Yeah, I mean, Ash is supposed to be in his 20s, let's just say.
Zach Sheets: Like college age, because they're like like Michigan State University where they they go do
Chris Prime: I know the previous one was just filmed, i don't know, like four years prior.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: So they're even younger. So it makes sense. And in that movie, Ash isn't really the main star yet.
Zach Sheets: huh
Chris Prime: It's like a whole group of them. And then he ends up, he just.
Zach Sheets: he's just yeah He's just like a dude. like He's a dude like with like the rest of the group.
Chris Prime: Yeah. But in this one, they really emphasize that he is oddly prepared for this to some degree. Or it's like, this is what Michigan people are. They're just like, okay, well, evil's here, so time to kick in any kind of survival instinct I have.
Zach Sheets: I feel like is is Ash the only person that's like got possessed and shook it off completely in the in the franchise?
Chris Prime: Yeah. But, no, no, no. Other people have gotten possessed. It just, like, either get un-possessed by something, or they've always been dead. But, yeah, this is, it went to his hand.
Zach Sheets: Well, he's saved at first because like dawn comes, so that like kind of burns off. like The evil can't exist in and the daylight, I guess, so he gets saved by that.
Chris Prime: So only at night he gets possessed.
Zach Sheets: Yeah. I think the evil can only exist in like the nighttime.
Chris Prime: So that's another thing about this movie. This, it it enters like a weird time portal. Because I can't figure out how it gets, remember because it rapidly gets dark at some point?
Chris Prime: So, is the Evil Dead control the time? They never do this again, but like,
Chris Prime: It's like, I didn't know, like, there was a time limit to their power.
Chris Prime: Oh, no, his girlfriend and in Army of Darkness gets possessed.
Zach Sheets: but But does she come back? Like, she doesn't shake it off, though, does she?
Zach Sheets: Well, so sometimes people will get possessed and then it's like the deadites fuck with them by like, making it seem like they're back normal and then they like then they go back to being deadites again.
Chris Prime: No, no. In the third movie, Ursula, she she gets possessed. And then she just stops.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, I guess maybe if you're like, if you have a strong enough will, you can like fight it or something. But it seems most people in the franchise, if you get like possessed by the but the evil, then you're toast.
Zach Sheets: Like you're done.
Chris Prime: Yeah, that that's it.
Zach Sheets: Yep.
Chris Prime: there's Okay, so in the reboot of Evil Dead, they kind of play with that idea that it is like a will thing.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: They do stop that in the other one.
Chris Prime: That other remake movie.
Zach Sheets: Rise.
Chris Prime: Rise, yeah, they stopped doing that.
Chris Prime: I don't know what Burn's going to do. Burn, they're just like, i don't know.
Zach Sheets: i think Burn is definitely like if you get possessed, you're done. and Like there's no coming back from it.
Zach Sheets: But like Ash gets possessed, like he like gets possessed twice and then like he's like able to like shake it off because like the first...
Chris Prime: But that's the thing I don't think it's... it's not I don't think it's a twice. I think it's still in him.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, because he comes back later and then he like looks at the necklace. He's like, oh, right. I love Linda. I'm going to turn it back into the ash again.
Chris Prime: And then... Yeah, I think it's a like a transformation thing, which I guess is a metaphor that like anyone can have evil, but it really depends on...
Chris Prime: how you handle it, how you fight it. But that's always like the the horror movie element. You know, it's like evil's everywhere. However, evil, like taking possession of your house and turning into like a hellish peewee's playhouse.
Chris Prime: Like that's different.
Zach Sheets: Yep.
Chris Prime: You know, like that.
Zach Sheets: Yep.
Chris Prime: I don't understand the deadites in this movie compared to the other ones, because like, I mean, in the actually, no, in the second one, that they are like Looney Tune villains.
Chris Prime: They they don't have like an agenda.
Zach Sheets: Yes.
Chris Prime: Their goal isn't to.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: Weaken anybody. They they just are having a great night, you know? like
Zach Sheets: They just want fuck with Ash. That's all they want to do.
Chris Prime: Yeah, yeah. Where usually in the third one, they were trying to conquer the land to take over the last kingdom, like the biggest kingdom. so that they wouldn't have like an opposing force to rule the Dark Ages.
Chris Prime: And then in the first movie, they just got unleashed, so they don't even have a goal. They're just messing around with people in the house.
Zach Sheets: Possessing everyone in the area. Yeah, kill everyone in the area.
Chris Prime: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. The second one, yeah, the evil dead don't really have a plan. They're just like, oh, you unleash us? Cool. So we'll just murder everybody, and then we'll go to sleep?
Chris Prime: But that that's also evil in its own way. like It doesn't have to have a point.
Zach Sheets: But yeah, that that that scene where like everything starts coming to life and like laughing at Ash, and then he's like doing like the... like where's What's the... like well but like The Cuphead style like animation.
Chris Prime: The knee bend. Oh,
Zach Sheets: like He's doing a rubber band like dance, like basically.
Chris Prime: rubber band.
Chris Prime: Yeah, see, it's like 1920s, 19-something, like, early cartoon kind of, like, slapstick movement. And it's like a vaudeville thing.
Chris Prime: It's really based on, like, vaudeville comedy, which is, like, a derivative of, like, plays. And then, even then, like,
Chris Prime: the descendants later would just be like three stooges. So it's like of if you understand like how like the cinema is and all this like it pays off again showed this movie to a bunch of high school friends.
Chris Prime: They just did not give a shit. I was like super upset by that. I still remember it. One of them including Chris Ali, but he understood he just he just didn't really care that night.
Chris Prime: He's gotten better. i showed him sinners, he appreciated more. I was like, like evil dead. He wouldn't have this without evil dead first.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: Anywho, let's also mention that they really go into the Deccanomicon this time, where it's not just a random book in a house. It's like a anthropology professor. This is his cabin.
Zach Sheets: Well, that was the first one that had that, too.
Chris Prime: Man, I heard in the first and second one.
Zach Sheets: like he like he i think I just watched the first one like before we started recording, so I was like... I watched Evil Dead 2 yesterday after were recording this, and like I watched Evil Dead today.
Chris Prime: Okay, so, yeah, so that' that's mentioned that this is a book from, like, Africa?
Zach Sheets: Like, Kandaria or Kandaria or something. It's like...
Zach Sheets: Because all the demons are like Kandarian demons and like the dagger is like the Kandarian dagger and stuff like that. so But I think the Necronomicon is like a Sumerian version of like the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
Chris Prime: Oh, that makes sense, which. Sumeria, I think is like. Europe like. It's a vague placement of what modern day Europe is.
Zach Sheets: it was like It was like Mesopotamia. It was like one of the earliest like civilizations.
Chris Prime: Yeah, but like where?
Zach Sheets: and like In like the Middle East.
Chris Prime: Really?
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: OK.
Chris Prime: I mean, if you think about the cradle civilization, it's always like Africa because that was like the heart where like Pangea was. So everything kind of spread out.
Chris Prime: And then.
Chris Prime: I'm thinking like. It's always been around like evil spirits. It's just that this book wrote it down and this is how you summon them. And. The evil dead is always pissed that you do this. And I. Why? Because it's either this or you're still trapped in the book or you're not existing.
Zach Sheets: It's you awoken us, we're gonna kill you.
Chris Prime: Yeah, that's I'm like. That's why in Army in Darkness, it's the only one with like, cool, thank you. We're going to go do other things now. Like they had a plan.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: they They literally built an army.
Zach Sheets: our army of skeletons are going to storm storm the the camelot and kill everybody mm-hmm
Chris Prime: least that was something. They didn't just make the castle wall come to life and dance.
Zach Sheets: yeah I guess they did like make like a bunch of like tiny ashes to like fought him like escalating from like his hand
Chris Prime: Yeah, but I also think that's because it was whatever was like Ash, like whatever kind of weirdness in him, it amplifies.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: So the tiny ashes were basically his like impulses now manifested. where And that's why the evil ash is like completely like his his like all of those things about himself that he doesn't like in a new person.
Chris Prime: Where, again, i can go deeper in Armory Darkness just because I watch that more and there's so much more like little bits. But I do appreciate the bare bones structure of Evil Dead 2. where it's just a couple having a lovely retreat in an abandoned cabin that they somehow heard of, which makes them squatters.
Chris Prime: Like it, it kind of puts them in that like light of, Oh, they're lovers so they can get away with crime. And,
Zach Sheets: I guess you could just something like mid 80s you just like go to like a cabin and like oh it's abandoned like if the and they office just come back we'll say we got lost
Chris Prime: I mean, you could because it's like, where was this?
Zach Sheets: but's
Chris Prime: This is a long trek and the owners didn't lock the door.
Zach Sheets: oh which i like I love that it like it makes complete sense that when like like Annie Noby and like that group shows up like Ash looks like a like an absolute maniac and they're like oh he just got killed by parents
Zach Sheets: It's like, oh, yeah, they're totally justified like kicking him down the cellar. He looks like like an insane person. He's
Chris Prime: Yeah, he's got his face scratched, he's got one hand, he looks bloody.
Zach Sheets: cackling like a like a psycho. Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: And he was shooting at them. But, they also don't know, there's like, what the father? I don't remember seeing his body.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, i don't don't like we I don't think we know what happened to him. Because we know that like his wife Henrietta we got possessed and then he threw her in the basement. But then, yeah, he just disappeared. It's like I'm going to record everything and vanish.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, Henrietta is a fantastic like creature design. and like like The first the first like like really like distinctive like a cool deadite...
Chris Prime: I mean, there's there's that like boyfriend that we see and then just sort of goes away. i don't know what happened to him.
Chris Prime: you know what i'm talking about?
Zach Sheets: Like like like Annie's boyfriend?
Chris Prime: Yeah.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, he he just, like, he gets possessed and he kind of just, like, uh... Like... It's that shot of, like, he appears, like, the window something. And then, like, or it's like, oh, no, he's possessed.
Chris Prime: And that's it, right? We don't... Does he get killed?
Zach Sheets: I think oh Annie stabs him with a dagger.
Chris Prime: Oh.
Zach Sheets: Which, in the first movie, the dagger seemed like it was like kind of like a, like... cheat code if like if you'd stand like a dead eight with it like it really liked like like really hurt them and here's kind just like oh it's kind of annoys them a little bit like it's not like this movie is like it's the one where it's like we you have to like cut them to pieces like that's the only way you can like really like stop them chainsaw them
Chris Prime: Yeah, you have to, which is, this is, it's established with Linda first, because the head thing wasn't enough. It was like, all right, you really have to like mutilate the body, because then I guess there's nothing for the evilness to possess anymore.
Zach Sheets: Which, that's one of my favorite bits of the whole movie where like Ash brings her body into like the woodshed and like the chainsaw's missing. And then her body like bursts in with the chainsaw immediately.
Chris Prime: I think that freaked me out when I saw that later.
Zach Sheets: just like...
Chris Prime: i was like whoa, didn't expect that.
Zach Sheets: And Ash is doing one where he's like, Woodshed. Chainsaw. And it has like the chalk outline of the chainsaw.
Chris Prime: Uh-huh. Which, did the professor do that? he he He doodled an outline of this is where the chainsaw goes forever?
Zach Sheets: Don't forget, this is where the chainsaw goes.
Zach Sheets: But yeah, that whole scene is great, and then it's like, he has to fight this like headless slight corpse with a chainsaw, like flip it backwards, and cut it down.
Chris Prime: Well, it he only wins because the head doesn't know how balance itself.
Zach Sheets: Can't really... Yeah, it's so like on but unwieldy and unbalanced. The body like chops itself, basically.
Chris Prime: Yeah, i mean, it's a quick win because he doesn't really know a fight, so it's the best he can do for just panicking.
Chris Prime: Again, different type of Ash compared to the evil Armory Darkness one, right?
Zach Sheets: yeah
Chris Prime: it's It's just bare bones a guy doing his best, but... he does get better over time. And then he does become a typical action star, sort of. Like, he he's more confident in himself to do battle.
Chris Prime: But that's that's the third act, where it's just, like, upgrade for him.
Chris Prime: also played the Evil Dead video game, Hail to the King, that Resident Evil-style tank-control game that's pretty much a remake of this movie.
Zach Sheets: Oh, yeah.
Chris Prime: It's not good. I never beated it. I hated it.
Zach Sheets: I mean, were any of them good?
Chris Prime: Yeah, like the last one, Fistful Boomstick was a fun, like, brawler.
Zach Sheets: Is it the one is that the one where you have like a dwarf sidekick?
Chris Prime: Yeah.
Zach Sheets: Okay. Yep.
Chris Prime: That is honestly the best one. not if you want it for the scary, more atmospheric, because the game does not handhold and you run out of gas for your chainsaw. So...
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: It is really annoying. And that's the thing in this movie. It just seems like everyone is doing their best to survive and piece together. So it gets that more survival horror element.
Chris Prime: And there it it does really a good job on atmosphere because they they pretty much have to like like slowly open doors, look around them. like Everything about the cabin is amplified, even though it looks way more like a soundstage than ever.
Chris Prime: And then, like, then then they had, like, by the second act, or even end of the first one, when they introduce the other characters, the the, like, I guess the handyman?
Chris Prime: i don't know what...
Zach Sheets: It's Annie who's the daughter the professor and then it's her... like boyfriend who's also like a professor and then it's like the local the local like gas station owner and like his girlfriend Jake and Bobby Joe.
Chris Prime: Jake, Jake and Bobby Joe.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Zach Sheets: Because because they've this they find out they're trying to get to the cabin and and like like the the the evil has destroyed the bridge that leads to the cabin. So they but he's like, oh, I know like a trail get to the cabin. it's not like We'll have to walk there.
Zach Sheets: and then And when they get there, and we saw Ash shoots at them with a shotgun. and And they're like, oh, this maniac like might have killed my parents. like Throw them in the cellar.
Zach Sheets: And then they listen. There's a great thing. like They listen to the rest of the tape. It's like, the person's like, my wife got possessed. like I put her in the cellar. And then Ash is in the cellar. I think you he'd also hear it. It's like, oh, it's like what's down here with me?
Zach Sheets: And it's like crazy. It's crazy. Like Dead i Henrietta.
Chris Prime: AKA Ted Raimi.
Zach Sheets: Raimi. Especially like...
Chris Prime: No one really talks about it. I always appreciate Ted Raimi's like monster work. Very underappreciated for the mainstream, but if you know, you know.
Zach Sheets: especially It was like a full body of latex suit. And it was apparently like... they were like Because they shot it South Carolina, apparently there was like a massive heat wave going on.
Zach Sheets: So he was just like drenched in sweat. Like like over super overheated
Chris Prime: Ugh. Ugh.
Chris Prime: Like, don't feel comfortable during the summer wearing a jacket. I could imagine wearing a full wetsuit full of, like, latex like that.
Zach Sheets: The costume was filled with liters of sweat every day.
Chris Prime: Ugh, I must have smelled by day two.
Zach Sheets: yeah m Yeah, I think, I mean, everything about the shooting movie at apparently was like a nightmare. and i guess I guess you can you could see the sweat coming out of with like the costume's ears on film.
Chris Prime: That just adds to like the effect.
Zach Sheets: he's Yeah, it makes it even grosser.
Zach Sheets: but also, like, he see he seems to have a blast to be, like, this, like, you know, disgusting old lady. And then when she, like, transforms into, like, a different form, like the kind of, like, bird-like form.
Chris Prime: Yeah, so that's another thing. I don't know how the evil dead can do that. Like, it mutates.
Zach Sheets: Bodies.
Chris Prime: But, yeah. i I don't think they do that after this, right? Like, they don't become monster. Like, they they look like deadites, and then it's like, that's your form.
Chris Prime: Evil ash was one thing, but I feel like they don't, because, like, Henrietta wasn't, like, a special person.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, yeah no no one no one transforms, like, you know gets, like, a crazy, like, elongated neck or anything. Like, if anything, they kind of just, like, decompose more. They kind of just get more, like, more rotten and more disgusting.
Chris Prime: Yeah. Like lynt Linda decayed rapidly for a already dead body.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, like her like like, both her arms like were, like, immediately, like, bones, basically. Yeah.
Zach Sheets: But then, like, Ash, when he's possessed, it's kind of like he just is yeah like he just gets, like the like, white eyes and, like, kind of the sunken cheeks and stuff like that.
Chris Prime: Yeah, he looks more like a Frankenstein monster.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, like, Ash was evil dead, like, like most of the deadies were just, like, it was either, like, a you know, it was, like, corpse or it was like, yeah, like a a possessed person. And, they like, they just... were like doing crazy stuff, but they're still like a human-looking creature. Unless it was like a full-on demon or something.
Chris Prime: Right. But like, that's a demon. These are people possessed by demons, but then the demon can turn into more demon.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: So that that's my like, huh, didn't think about that until you see it. And you're like, huh, OK, like I get I get the spirits possessing something and turning it into like that, you know, like, like not to spoil much, but for whatever reason, by the end of the movie, there's like a demon tree.
Zach Sheets: Well, it's like, it's a giant, like, deadite head with, like, tree arms. Because, like, the trees are like, the hands coming into the cabin, like, trying to grab them, and there's, like, a giant head in the doorway.
Chris Prime: so But that that arm like look kind of reminds you of the first movie where there's like evil trees. Just...
Zach Sheets: like the that the evil, like, has control like, the entire, like, forest around the cabin, too. Like, it it can, like, manipulate everything around the cabin, like, everything in environments.
Chris Prime: I see.
Zach Sheets: Because it also destroys the bridge. like That's what destroys the bridge is like the evil. And the evil itself is like a physical force. cause it's It's like going through windows and breaking windows and breaking doors. Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: Well, that's another thing i like is that the viewer doesn't see what it is. If it's one in that chase form, we the the people see it and they freak out.
Zach Sheets: m
Chris Prime: But we, the viewer, never know what the odd, like the shape is.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, i think I think they eventually... like I think in Ash for the Dead that you see it in a rearview mirror finally, and it's like so like a black cloud.
Chris Prime: Yeah, they don't watch that show again.
Zach Sheets: I feel like they were like they were like driving away in like a truck or something, and then they like they looked in the rearview mirror, and you like yeah actually saw what they were like they were seeing behind them. Yeah,
Chris Prime: It's just like the lost smog.
Zach Sheets: like in the it was like yeah it was like an evil like storm cloud chasing them.
Zach Sheets: which is It's definitely better if you like it it just you'd have no idea what it is. It's like this like weird, crazy, invisible force that smashed your doors and smashed your cars.
Chris Prime: Yeah.
Zach Sheets: and
Chris Prime: Well, I mean, i like that it's like never shown to the audience. So whatever it is, it's like unspeakable horror.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, it's like Lovecraft. You see and you go insane.
Chris Prime: Technically, Evil Dead is very close to a Lovecraftian story.
Zach Sheets: I mean, i think Dexter Namakon comes from Lovecraft. That's where it originated.
Chris Prime: Makes sense.
Chris Prime: The only thing that, to make it a true modern Lovecraft story, it would be like there's a society of like, I don't alternate people and then they're just doing business.
Zach Sheets: Deadite cult or something. Hmm.
Chris Prime: Yeah, a cult and then there's still like an economy between them. That's like modern day Lovecraftian stuff. It's always like... Like Call of Cthulhu and stuff and all those Cthulhu games. Eventually it's like... Or it's like The Sinking City.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, they want they want to like like do some sort ritual to bring like one of the old that old gods back.
Chris Prime: But like... it It's not just a simple, okay, we just have the resources. It's like, okay, we've been gathering it by like... Building around a society. And like... supporting the infrastructure of this business.
Chris Prime: That's I'm like, huh, you just, you you know i mean? Like you always need a rich benefactor in one of those.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: I mean, listen, this, even the like fam, the rich family, they, they were rich enough for like the daughter to go to school or whatever. And then like they had enough money to own a second home in Michigan, like and in the woods. Yeah.
Zach Sheets: They're going to like exotic places to find artifacts.
Chris Prime: Yeah, like, poor people don't do this. This is such a rich person hobby.
Chris Prime: Or it's a rich person's study.
Chris Prime: That's what i like about Ash. Ash isn't, like, trying to understand. He's literally just like, will shoot whatever this is and we'll figure it out.
Zach Sheets: I'm just a dude. I'm a regular dude.
Chris Prime: Yeah. caught in an anthropological study of the century, but it's just terrible if you know about it.
Zach Sheets: but then But then he's also he's also like the chosen one.
Chris Prime: Yeah, the the the twist of that it's like a destiny is interesting.
Zach Sheets: Eventually.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, like the like the teasing in this one of Armory of Darkness where they like they're looking through like pages and they find like the drawing of Ash. And he's just like, oh, that guy that guy is fucked up.
Chris Prime: Yeah, he looks and goes, huh, I have a blue shirt. like He doesn't even register that this is a 12th century like interpretation. And he's wearing a modern day like collar shirt in that photo.
Zach Sheets: And holding a shotgun.
Chris Prime: They're just like, oh, that's new it's weird. Nowadays, you could be like, that's AI art. like Who hallucinated this image? But because it's like Old, you know, it's more revered back then.
Zach Sheets: And then, that's also where they get, like, they find, because, like, because Annie has missing pages. They, like, so they found the original book, but then Annie was on a different expedition. She found, like, the rest of the pages. Those pages, like, tell them how to, like, open a portal that will suck all the evil to, like, another time.
Chris Prime: Yeah, she found the instructions to clean out the evil.
Zach Sheets: Which, in the first one, it's just Ash burns the book, and then they all, like, kind of burn up. That destroys any deadites that were around, because, like, the book's destroyed.
Zach Sheets: Which seems like a much easier way to go about things instead of trying to do this like crazy chant and open a portal.
Zach Sheets: And then this is this is also like when like Ash like finally like like like kind of like goes full Ash. like He attaches the chainsaw to was his stump and guess cuts down the shotgun to make it like a sawed-off shotgun.
Chris Prime: Which
Zach Sheets: he says He says groovy.
Chris Prime: which is interesting because I think in in the expanded lore, like Ash was a studying to be an engineer. So that's why he kind of knows how to do some of this like mechanical stuff of like attaching an arm stump thing.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, and he's he's also like i don' like, it's only in this movie that I don't think it ever comes back again. like He's also like a pretty good piano player. like He plays the piano to be in the movie, and like it never comes back.
Chris Prime: Well, think also it's it's a double because not only is it like, oh, watch him be like classically trained, it's that he uses both hands.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: And then that's going to like that's gonna come back to haunt him for having like a very like skillful hand.
Zach Sheets: Well, and also the Knights taunt him too by like having the piano play itself, the same song he was playing.
Chris Prime: Yeah, yeah so like it's yeah. It's like Raimi knows how to set up things and have it pay off.
Chris Prime: We'll get into another Raimi movie, one of my other favorites, but having having this be the you know the classic Raimi some people have framed it as.
Chris Prime: You know what's interesting? It's that Midwest film school people that if you see this and then you see a movie like Fargo or even other...
Zach Sheets: Well, they were all roommates.
Chris Prime: Right, right.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: that's fair like There's there's like a tone in their stories about these like misunderstood heroes or like just situational problems that only exist in this perfect like perfect storm scenarios.
Chris Prime: The Coen brothers are masters at that. But so also Sam Raimi.
Chris Prime: I'm always wondering, like, they like What do they all witness at the same time? Be like, we need to make movies based on this weird incident. like Did they all read the same news article? Did they have one common friend that told them insane stories and they all just wrote it down and went, okay, let's interpret this in different ways.
Zach Sheets: We got to do stories where like normal people just get caught up in horrible sort like circumstances and then they just keep getting worse worse and worse.
Chris Prime: And then their friends and loved ones are always in danger and there's always that someone that dies.
Zach Sheets: Yep.
Chris Prime: That's like the formula between a Sam Raimi movie and a Coen Brothers movie.
Zach Sheets: Like violently die too.
Chris Prime: Yeah. Like, I know we're skipping ahead, but I saw Spider-Man 2 and I was just like, huh.
Chris Prime: Did Sam Raimi also do Drag Me to Hell?
Zach Sheets: Yeah, he did
Chris Prime: Okay, yeah. So, it's almost like an Evil Dead in that one. But it's like, what if... What if Ash was just sort of like... Nah, this isn't happening.
Zach Sheets: did. Yeah, what if what if he just couldn't do way anything about it
Chris Prime: Yep. Couldn't attach a chainsaw. And the deadites were just like... Just picking off all his friends.
Chris Prime: But... See, that's the problem about this movie. Is that like... It's very good... It's just that like the plot is watching people get tortured for
Zach Sheets: Yeah, it's it's it's it's all about like set pieces. like there's like The plot is very simple, and it's just just you're just in it for like the like the scenes. like you like scene of Ash fighting his hand, like slamming plates on his head, and the like the laughing everyone scene, and then like him suiting up and fighting Henrietta and and the giant head.
Chris Prime: Well, that happens that happens a little bit later, man. You skip the part where, like, Bobby Joe runs to the woods and then we just never see her again.
Zach Sheets: Well, yeah, they because they they did do a toned-down version of the tree scene from the first movie, where she just kind of gets dragged off by like the limbs. She doesn't get like sexually assaulted by the tree.
Chris Prime: And then Jake...
Zach Sheets: i think that i think they i think they they like they drag her so fast that they slam her against the tree, and then that's she's just dead. think that's how and guess so how she dies.
Chris Prime: Oh. The this slam that was Because I was wondering, like, what happened to her? it's implied that the forest has her.
Chris Prime: But, Jake, he freaks out and pulls the, like, wild card, like, oh, I'm gonna go crazy now.
Zach Sheets: he He gets the gun. He's like, where you go we gotta go search for Baba Joe.
Zach Sheets: And then I think he gets stabbed by Annie, but he's like...
Chris Prime: Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're skipping a part where Ash reveals that he's possessed and then they all freak out.
Zach Sheets: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: That's where, like, Bobby Joe runs away and then... What's her name?
Zach Sheets: Annie.
Chris Prime: Annie. Annie runs back in. And then... Yeah, then she pulls out the dagger because she's like, alright, this is my only weapon that's in the house now.
Chris Prime: And then she stabs Drake by accident. But that doesn't kill him.
Zach Sheets: Yeah. He's like, she's like, Oh, I'm sorry. I guess like, will like we'll, we'll get on the trip the trail and like we'll in the morning and we'll like, we'll get out of here.
Zach Sheets: he' like He's like, I'm good, i'm good, bleeding out, but I'm good
Chris Prime: I mean, he just doesn't want to get hit by the door anymore.
Zach Sheets: good. Yeah, why why was why was she slamming in the door on him, like, constantly?
Chris Prime: She's freaking out.
Zach Sheets: There is a lot of like like, they also like are freaking out when they're trying to, get like, get Ash out of the cellar, they're trying to unlock the block, and and he's like, well, because he's, like, slamming the door up and down and then Jake is trying to open the lock and then it's just like the lock's got getting like pulled up and down constantly because Ash is drinking up and down. It's like everyone calm down. like Just open the lock.
Zach Sheets: Which is like everyone's everyone's like freaking out about like everything. Understandably because it's just like demons running around.
Zach Sheets: But yeah, the final battle is pretty awesome. That giant head is just much better. It probably was the entire budget of the first movie. It's going to just make that head...
Chris Prime: That's, I mean, that head effect is pretty good. It's dated now, and depending on how you watch this movie, you could definitely tell, like, some of the rough editing.
Chris Prime: this This is another movie where, like, if they ever did a 4K restoration, which I don't know if they did or not,
Zach Sheets: umm I'm sure there is.
Chris Prime: Let me tell you, the free version you see online, saw this movie on like Philo. it's like a h It's like a VHS rip.
Zach Sheets: jeez. The H.O. Max version is is pretty looks pretty good.
Chris Prime: Okay.
Chris Prime: But yeah, I saw this on a lower quality and I'm like, ooh.
Chris Prime: i'm I'm pretty sure like the 9mm version probably looks better than this one.
Zach Sheets: And i guess i guess that head i guess i guess the head was the first part of the ritual, or the chant like the incantation, because it was it makes the like evil take physical form, you can fight it, I guess.
Chris Prime: Or eight millimeter.
Zach Sheets: And then you open a portal and suck it in
Zach Sheets: So that's it's that's how you defeat it?
Chris Prime: So, okay, so you have to manifest it and then throw it, I guess.
Zach Sheets: force it into like the the portal. say it it's like like You're kicking the can to another time. like let Let the medieval times deal with it. we' say We're fine. but's weird it it It's weird because there's not really any sort of... like You just open a portal. You're not really controlling like where you're sending it to or like what time period you're sending it to.
Chris Prime: So is it like it's almost like a like a loop movie, right? But the paradox, because the future had ascended to the past and the past has to keep it in order for the future to have it.
Zach Sheets: o
Chris Prime: So it's like secretly evil dead movies are a time paradox movie.
Zach Sheets: but Yeah, because they felt like Ash is reading the book that shows that he's already he went to the past already.
Chris Prime: I mean, it's one of those fascinations as a kid. I was like, it put me in of those like thought glitches where I just couldn't stop thinking about it. And other movies since then have done a better idea.
Chris Prime: But whenever it comes to prophecies, it's a little bit weird because it's like, who wrote the prophecy? Because it had to happen once to for the prophecy to come true. So was it magic or is it like an actual loop?
Chris Prime: But that's the thing. You can't have sci-fi, high sci-fi, and then magic. Because the moment you introduce magic, any plot hole can get solved by just saying magic.
Zach Sheets: It's like, oh, we'll use this spell in the Necromanicon. They'll solve it.
Chris Prime: like scientifically? No. Magic. Okay. Okay.
Zach Sheets: It's like, anytime you have a question like that, a wizard did it.
Chris Prime: Yep. I think the second movie, they kind of had a wizard. They're just like, oh, he's...
Zach Sheets: yeah had yeah They had the wise man, yeah. In the Army of Darkness, it was like, not Merlin, it was wise man.
Zach Sheets: But yeah, it's like like but yeah like they they defeat the the evil, but then like Ash gets sucked into the portal, and then we get like...
Chris Prime: As it was prophesied...
Zach Sheets: Yes! And we get like the sort like the beginning of Armory Darkness, but then they completely redo it in Armory Darkness.
Chris Prime: Which, again, as a kid, i was like, wait, that's not how that ends.
Zach Sheets: You get like Yeah.
Chris Prime: What's going on?
Zach Sheets: Yeah. He runs so much knights and then he he like kills like a flying deadite then they're like, oh, it's it's the hero this hero from the sky! That's prophesied. And then i deal love the other action is like, No! no
Chris Prime: Meanwhile, they're just like, yeah, no, like a yes where you're from.
Zach Sheets: I mean, he he gets pretty it's a pretty sweet gig once he, like, you know, it's his army darkness. like he like Like, he makes himself a new base new hand.
Chris Prime: He embraces it.
Zach Sheets: Like, he gets, like, cool stuff.
Zach Sheets: He's doing fine.
Chris Prime: mean, yeah, I mean, he's horrified that his girlfriend died, like, i don't know, a month ago in that movie.
Chris Prime: But in terms of, like, how much he shakes off the craziness, he does pretty well.
Chris Prime: And then we're also not gonna... Okay, so... It's also implied, i think, around this time he has a secret daughter?
Chris Prime: Like a secret wife? If you think about the TV show timeline? Or is it like a little bit after this?
Zach Sheets: Well, there's like, I mean, isn't it like 30 years between Army Darkness and the start of Astro Steel Dead?
Chris Prime: Is it?
Zach Sheets: i think so, yeah. So there's like there's a lot of time between those two things for stuff to happen.
Chris Prime: Okay. Okay.
Chris Prime: Okay, so it's like he comes back and it's like different. Okay.
Zach Sheets: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: I just thought like, huh. Do you have a secret starter around this time and he doesn't know? That's why he's out partying, doing whatnot.
Zach Sheets: But then then the weird thing Ashmore's Evil Dead is that they go back to like the first movie because like it's all it's like all those friends got killed at the cabin again. It's like, oh, like his sister and all those characters are back like in the canon and they think he killed them all.
Chris Prime: Yeah, the ashy slashy.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: I don't know.
Zach Sheets: So, yeah.
Chris Prime: yeah that's like the the The canonical truth of all this is like a mess, but as true fans, you're supposed to ignore all this? It's like selectively remember bits and pieces and that's your that's your lore?
Zach Sheets: It's like part parts of the first one, parts of the second one happened. Like some but some of it's true, some of it's not true. We're in
Chris Prime: And Sam Raimi never tells you. It's not like, okay. It's it's like Legend of Zelda, where like some parts make sense in the story and some parts aren't.
Zach Sheets: yes we're in like the who the hero fails timeline. was like like the multiple evil dead timelines.
Chris Prime: Yeah.
Zach Sheets: this is This is the Ash and his... like Ash Bernsnecker Comic-Con timeline. and This is the Ash who's selected in the Medieval Times timeline.
Chris Prime: And there's the ash that just says groovy during that other Evil Dead movie.
Zach Sheets: yeah, the the the soft reboot movie.
Zach Sheets: What was it? was it see like He was like he like showed up at the cabin? Or that it was it just supposed to be like...
Chris Prime: Oh, it was like like in the darkness.
Chris Prime: He just like looks up to the sky.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: He's like, groovy.
Zach Sheets: Yeah. So they're they're implying he was going to be in another one or something.
Chris Prime: Or he sensed that Evil Dead was back or something?
Zach Sheets: I remember there's a whole like there's a whole thing of like, i don't if this is going to be in the or like in a movie where people are like, oh, like they're going to like like Mia from the the remake and Ash are going to team up because they're two survivors.
Zach Sheets: They're going be in a movie or something.
Chris Prime: think it was a movie idea.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: But, like, that never took off because...
Chris Prime: something avarice decided to do other things
Zach Sheets: And now it's just a, it's an anthology. series now. Which, I mean, Evil Dead Rides was super fun. hopeful i Hopefully Evil Dead Burn is is good. i't i don't mind them like just like exploring new things.
Chris Prime: yeah I like the concept of possession stuff but I really, really enjoy like an evil, like a good versus evil, like you know with the score kind of thing, and it's like goofy.
Chris Prime: But the evil dead last two of the Dead movies have been straight up just horror movies.
Zach Sheets: there's even Did you know about the Creepshow episode?
Chris Prime: No.
Zach Sheets: So on the Shudder Creepshow, there's an episode it's in season two There's an episode, there's a story called like Public Television of the Dead that stars Ted Raimi, and it's basic it's basically like an Evil Dead story because he reads the Necronomicon and then people start getting possessed by the Deadites.
Zach Sheets: So it's it's like it's like an evil it's an Evil Dead like segment
Zach Sheets: it's like the actual Necronomicon prop and everything.
Chris Prime: Oh. So it's like canonical?
Zach Sheets: i don't know if it's like canonical, but like it's...
Zach Sheets: like it's it's it's It's similar like the two the two two most recent movies where it's just like another weird thing that happened with like Deadites. and think it's also set like the 70s or something, or 60s. it's like a a past version.
Zach Sheets: That was the fun when I was watching that, like, Creepshow was, like, coming out. was like, wait, what's happening? It's, like, but why is it the actual Necronomicon? It's, like, oh, it's it's Evil Dead? It's, like, actually Evil Dead?
Chris Prime: That's cool.
Zach Sheets: Because consric because Greg Nicotero, like, is, like, the showrunner for Creepshow.
Chris Prime: Like...
Zach Sheets: Like, he he was, like, the special effects guy for Evil Dead. mean i Definitely Evil Dead 2. I don't know if, like, some of the other, like, movies, but.
Zach Sheets: And then obviously went on to like do like a The Walking Dead and all that stuff.
Chris Prime: I mean, some of the effects in this do carry over from... date was it Day of the Dead?
Zach Sheets: Yeah, he worked on Day of the Dead.
Chris Prime: So there's like, you could tell there's splatter effects that have that like look and feel that I think like just the artist has that signature design.
Chris Prime: I mean, it's also the 80s, so there's only so much you could do with practical effects that was just how much supplies you could buy.
Zach Sheets: Oh, we forgot to mention too, like the Freddy Krueger glove that you can see in the the shed.
Chris Prime: Oh, yeah. that's It's a blink and you miss it moment. But it's nice that they're able to make like a homage to it. I don't know if that was planned that like, because that's not something you mean that you just buy, you know, you could just make that
Zach Sheets: Yeah. Well, there was a... There's a Hills Have Eyes poster in the the first one in the background. And then I think there and then there's like, that was that was a reference to like the Hills Have Eyes is like a Jaws poster.
Zach Sheets: So there was like all all these like filmmakers were like, just like dropping in jokes to each other. Like, I'm going to your thing in my thing.
Chris Prime: That was back when they could just have fun making stuff.
Zach Sheets: But it's like, like eventually, like, Ash just fought like everybody, right? He fought like Jason in the comics.
Chris Prime: Jason, he fought. Freddy.
Chris Prime: Dynamite was just like, you want to just make that? We'll just make it.
Chris Prime: Honestly, Dynamite comics really held the mantle of like like telling more Evil Dead and Ash Army of Darkness stuff. and that It's also weird because that was that time where they didn't have the rights of Evil Dead 2, so it was just all based on Army of Darkness lore.
Zach Sheets: Oh, yeah yeah he also fought like the Marvel Zombies.
Chris Prime: Yep.
Chris Prime: Which, under the Army of Darkness banner.
Zach Sheets: And Re-Animator.
Chris Prime: you know the it You don't really fight Re-Animator. You just sort of, oh, Re-Animator brought too many reanimated things to life, and then you just fight those.
Chris Prime: But again, Re-Animator is based on a Lovecraft story, and it's just a person who is overeducated, but just has like crazy ambitions, decides to play God.
Zach Sheets: hu
Chris Prime: never like the working people. It's always some high society people or someone from high society that messes with them. Messes with evil.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: But yeah, Evil Dead 2, back to the point of this whole review. it's a great like so like It's a great fall movie.
Chris Prime: I think like watching it during the summer is a little weird just because it's like not the right setting. you need like cold weather. I feel like if you watch as in the woods during the summer, it's probably better, but not in like Jersey. it just It's so hot. you know You're just like watching horror movie that has to do with a cabin in the woods. and andm just It's like I really had to put myself in the mood to empathize.
Zach Sheets: When it's like 90 degrees out.
Chris Prime: Yeah, yeah. It's like, ugh.
Zach Sheets: We're in this like kind of fall-esque, chilly autumn setting.
Chris Prime: I mean, that's only like four months away, so I can't wait. But... Man, I'm just like... It's a... For me, I watched this movie like a few times. And then, yeah, when I showed to people who just didn't understand cinema or how to appreciate it, it's like... Evil Dead 2 is like that caliber.
Chris Prime: This is the like... It's a little bit for everybody. But... It is the mix of the classic grunge movie making, horror movie making, which is is, you see it now and then. It comes in like every decade. There's like a new version of it.
Chris Prime: Same thing like Obsession and, yeah, Backrooms.
Zach Sheets: Backrooms. Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: And it was like, we're back to subtle horror. It doesn't need to be like super explained, but I haven't seen Backrooms yet. So I don't know if Backrooms explains too much of the lore and it loses the mystery.
Chris Prime: Or is it just gonna be like a mine melt mind-bending horror? i think the first movie was just like shock for how well they were able to make all these like scenes and for like the budget.
Chris Prime: Evil Dead 2, you are getting the best where it's like there's money in the production. But at the core, it's they're just these like very limited scope.
Chris Prime: So they're trying to use as much as possible with it. And I think it does use it well. like it every Every character is like haggard or dead. like you know there're They are completely exhausted from just battling all these things. And then there is a paranoia.
Chris Prime: in them, especially when Jake decides to, like, freak out, and then he he just, like, is just a madman. But, like, we understand where he's coming from. He's not, like, and like there's no complex character to him besides he loves his wife, you know?
Chris Prime: It's not like he's secretly, like, a bank robber or something.
Chris Prime: So it's...
Zach Sheets: but mean I mean, the whole movie could have been just like Bruce Campbell like by himself and it still would have been pretty entertaining because like that whole the whole first half where it's just him like in the cabin like is like so good.
Chris Prime: it
Chris Prime: And that's why like, it really depends on how you want, how do you like your flavor of Evil Dead? Do you like it subtle and and just like obscene with like how over the top the violence gets or just like situation with no comedy?
Chris Prime: Evil Dead 1 is that easier than that, right?
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: And then if you like it more goofy and just like silly with the premise, Armour Darkness, but Evil Dead 2, again, stressing it, like, it's, we're we're very, like, I know we're saying a lot repeated stuff, but it's because, like, that's the movie, like, that's the whole point, is that it's just this one situation, and you can't really do much, and that's the point, you're trapped with this evil thought, or trapped with this evil darkness that,
Chris Prime: Uh, it doesn't really have a goal. I brought that, to I realized that, it's like, it doesn't, it's not like Evil Tree, and then it destroys Ash, and then it's on to conquer the world? Like, I don't even know, like, by the morning, does it just go away?
Zach Sheets: Yeah, like, if if ever if it possessed everybody, like, what would it do next? Like, would send them out to, like, other, like, surrounding areas and, like, attack more people?
Chris Prime: if that was the case, why would it destroy the bridge?
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: when the bridge allowed more people to come back and just get caught in the evil?
Zach Sheets: i think i mean I think in the first one and this one, like characters say like it doesn't want us to leave. It just wants to like keep them there and torture them and kill them there for for whatever reason.
Chris Prime: I think I think in like one version i read or I saw where it's like the evil did have to like lower your sanity and then you're it' it's able to take over.
Chris Prime: It has to like mess with you so that you lose a grip on reality. So when then you...
Zach Sheets: but that But then it also seems like if you get like some sort of physical injury from them, then you get possessed. Like, you know, Ash's hands get bit and then it turned that his hand turns evil.
Chris Prime: Oh yeah.
Chris Prime: See? But that's the thing about like a horror fantasy movie is that like it doesn't need rules. Like the more thought you put into it, like you're putting way more thought than you should.
Zach Sheets: that's That's more like a zombie thing where it's like, oh, I got bit. Now I'm turning into a zombie. Yeah.
Chris Prime: Yeah, straight up Zahn movies would be weird if they follow the Deadite rule where sometimes you need to be like bit or touched, or if you're just sad, it it makes you into evil. Because Because that kind of happens in Rise. It's like, oh, I'm emotionally like weak, and then it's like, now the Deadite got you.
Zach Sheets: Dead Eights are cut they're kind of like a mix of like a demonic possession and a zombie because they they're like kind of like... they get Their appearance is like they're like a rotting corpse, but they also but they're like you know they're intelligent and like taunting people and doing all kinds of other stuff. So it's like they're like a mix of like both monsters.
Chris Prime: I mean, demons... they basically saw Exorcist and said, hey, well, we got a whole bunch of them just together.
Zach Sheets: Like the Exorcist. Yeah.
Chris Prime: And occasionally one of them turns into a bird monster.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, I guess i guess i guess Reagan basically looks like a deadite in The Exorcist.
Zach Sheets: Eventually. it's it's like it's like It's like a gradual transformation when she gets possessed.
Chris Prime: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, they keep saying soul. You know, I think this is just a response where...
Zach Sheets: Yeah. I'll swallow your soul! I'll swallow your soul! I'll swallow your soul!
Chris Prime: And I'm surprised they didn't puke the vomit on... But they puke blood. There's a lot of blood seen, you know
Zach Sheets: like the scene where like ash like is like trying to shoot his hand in the wall and then like he hits it but then all a sudden like the entire like cabs are gushing blood on him
Chris Prime: Again, cool effects.
Zach Sheets: but yeah still still super fun movie uh uh if it's i think they're all the evil dead movies are on it's joe max like one two army darkness and the remake and i think rise also so if you want to watch all those they're on hbo max i think the first one also just got like this week got a like a 4k because it's i think this year's technically is like the 45th anniversary of the first one even though it was like came out in like one theater in october 1981
Zach Sheets: Like I said, it's official release.
Zach Sheets: And yeah, looking forward to Evil Dead Burn. I'm hoping you're going to see it like me this weekend or early next week. Then hopefully have a review on the site.
Zach Sheets: And come back next week, we're going to be heading into the Trojan War because we got the Odyssey hitting theaters, probably one of the most anticipated movies of the year. But we're going jump back to what happened before the Odyssey, which was 2001's Troy? But yeah, the the Brad Pitt movie, Troy, which you know is the Iliad, what happened before the Odyssey.
Zach Sheets: so we'll We'll dive into all that epic historical action next week.
Zach Sheets: And head over to the site. We got a bunch of stuff out there. We got our review of Too Many Games. You can check out everything we saw and did at Too Many Games recently. And tons of trailers. There's a bunch of trailers attached to different movies. I got bunch of trailers out this week.
Zach Sheets: And all sorts of other stuff. Head over to check all that stuff out. And yes, for Chris, I'm Zach. And we will see you next week.
