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Evil Dead II (1987)
6 Plays2 seconds ago
This week on the Everything Actioncast, Zach and Chris face some Deadites and discuss Evil Dead II, as the latest entry in the series, as Evil Dead Burn hits theaters.
A "sequel" to the original The Evil Dead, the film stars Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams, who travels to a secluded cabin with his girlfriend, Linda (Denise Bixler). After playing a recording he finds from the cabin's owner, Professor Knowby (John Peaks), a demonic evil force is unleashed that possesses Linda and tries to possess Ash. Zach and Chris discuss how this is the middle ground between the first movie and Army of Darkness, Bruce Campbell's amazing physical comedy, Ted Raimi literally sweating buckets as Henrietta, what the Deadites/Evil actually wants to accomplish, and more.
You can watch Evil Dead II (and the rest of the series) on HBO Max. Next week, before we set out on The Odyssey, we're revisiting 2004's Troy for what happens prior to Odysseus trying to make the journey home.
We want to hear your comments and feedback. Send them all to contact@everythingaction.com. Also, let us know your movie suggestions for us to discuss.
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Transcript
Intro
Introduction: Evil Dead Franchise Overview
00:00:19
Zach Sheets
Hello and welcome to the Everything Action Cast, podcast week of July 6th, 2026. I'm your host, Zach.
00:00:25
Chris Prime
I'm your co-host, Chris.
00:00:27
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.
00:00:42
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.
Evil Dead 2: A Cult Classic
00:00:49
Zach Sheets
Like
00:00:51
Chris Prime
I think like... Yes, if you enjoy like the campy horror that like from a cinematic way, right?
00:01:02
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.
00:01:09
Zach Sheets
Yeah.
00:01:17
Zach Sheets
It's so many just like crazy innovative shots that people have
Innovative Filmmaking Techniques in Evil Dead
00:01:20
Zach Sheets
never seen before. Like the infamous like Sam Rae strapping that camera to like a 4x4 and like running through the woods with it.
00:01:21
Chris Prime
bright Right, right.
00:01:26
Zach Sheets
Mm-hmm.
00:01:26
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.
00:01:51
Zach Sheets
Well, what like one is like trying to be a straight-up horror movie.
00:01:54
Chris Prime
Yeah.
00:01:54
Zach Sheets
Army Darkness is like just a ridiculous, goofy action comedy.
00:01:57
Chris Prime
Comedy.
00:01:57
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.
00:01:58
Chris Prime
Yeah, yeah.
Horror-Comedy Blend in Evil Dead 2
00:02:06
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.
00:02:22
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.
00:02:38
Zach Sheets
hu
00:02:40
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.
00:02:50
Zach Sheets
I think, yeah safe say i think safe for me, Armory Darkers was like my introduction to like all this.
00:02:55
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.
00:03:11
Chris Prime
Now it's just like a silly... Again, not silly silly, but it's just like over-the-top effects.
00:03:21
Zach Sheets
Yeah.
00:03:22
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?
00:03:35
Chris Prime
Maybe three if you count the shed.
Character Evolution: Ash from Evil Dead 2 to Army of Darkness
00:03:38
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.
00:03:59
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.
00:04:08
Zach Sheets
Groovy. he he He says groovy and then says like suck on this at the end.
00:04:13
Chris Prime
Or, like, Let's Go, but he says it really quick.
00:04:14
Zach Sheets
Mm-hmm.
00:04:16
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.
00:04:33
Chris Prime
And then because you kind of have to negate the first movie, which is also
Licensing Challenges and Film Continuity
00:04:38
Chris Prime
let's get into that. Like you don't need to see the first movie to understand
00:04:39
Zach Sheets
Yeah.
00:04:43
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.
00:04:51
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.
00:04:58
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.
00:05:11
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.
00:05:23
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.
Evil Dead 2: Remake or Continuation?
00:05:35
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...
00:06:03
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.
00:06:25
Zach Sheets
Yeah, the first the first act is just like a one-man show with Bruce Campbell just like fighting himself, basically.
00:06:33
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.
00:06:51
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.
00:07:00
Chris Prime
That's hard to do.
00:07:01
Zach Sheets
Yeah.
00:07:02
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
Simplicity of Evil Dead's Plot: Terror in a Cabin
00:07:11
Zach Sheets
fighting him. the actual like struggle. It's his hand.
00:07:18
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...
00:07:31
Zach Sheets
like Or three characters that are admitted completely. They're
00:07:35
Chris Prime
It's Ash's sister and his like their common friends.
00:07:38
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.
00:07:58
Chris Prime
Which makes sense, but that's a good like 15 minutes into the movie.
00:08:02
Zach Sheets
Yeah.
00:08:04
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.
00:08:18
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.
00:08:22
Zach Sheets
Yeah.
00:08:26
Chris Prime
And they're like, okay, when does get funny? I'm like, it doesn't. Check out this tree scene.
00:08:30
Zach Sheets
Yeah.
00:08:31
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.
00:08:43
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.
00:08:51
Chris Prime
yeah I bought these movies on DVD because it was just like, okay, hey, first I'm on DVD.
00:08:53
Zach Sheets
Yeah,
00:08:55
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.
00:09:08
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.
00:09:20
Chris Prime
Until the third, second season, some of that, when they got it back.
00:09:24
Zach Sheets
yeah Yeah, eventually they could like start referencing things like like, oh, I went back a time.
00:09:30
Zach Sheets
but like, yeah.
00:09:30
Chris Prime
Because then, yeah, yeah, that's why the, by the second season, Ash vs. Evil Dead is like, it finds its groove.
00:09:37
Zach Sheets
Mm-hmm.
00:09:40
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.
00:09:56
Zach Sheets
m
00:09:57
Chris Prime
I
00:10:00
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.
00:10:07
Chris Prime
forgot. Honestly, I just called it a Gnomicon just for all of them.
00:10:08
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.
00:10:14
Chris Prime
Yeah. Maybe they just like built one out of dirt.
00:10:20
Zach Sheets
Mm-hmm.
00:10:22
Chris Prime
This one, yeah, it's more like framed.
00:10:22
Zach Sheets
Like the evil that,
00:10:25
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.
00:10:32
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.
Exploring Horror Elements: Possession and Necronomicon
00:10:36
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.
00:10:41
Zach Sheets
Yeah, like Smokey Pop like, oh man, let's listen to this creepy tape. That's a fun activity.
00:10:47
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?
00:10:57
Zach Sheets
yeah i mean I'm going to get distracted by this weird tape.
00:11:01
Chris Prime
Yeah, I mean, Ash is supposed to be in his 20s, let's just say.
00:11:07
Zach Sheets
Like college age, because they're like like Michigan State University where they they go do
00:11:13
Chris Prime
I know the previous one was just filmed, i don't know, like four years prior.
00:11:17
Zach Sheets
Yeah.
00:11:18
Chris Prime
So they're even younger. So it makes sense. And in that movie, Ash isn't really the main star yet.
00:11:23
Zach Sheets
huh
00:11:23
Chris Prime
It's like a whole group of them. And then he ends up, he just.
00:11:25
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.
00:11:27
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.
00:11:47
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?
00:11:53
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.
00:12:06
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.
00:12:16
Chris Prime
So only at night he gets possessed.
00:12:18
Zach Sheets
Yeah.
Time Manipulation in Evil Dead
00:12:18
Zach Sheets
I think the evil can only exist in like the nighttime.
00:12:22
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?
00:12:34
Chris Prime
So, is the Evil Dead control the time? They never do this again, but like,
00:12:40
Chris Prime
It's like, I didn't know, like, there was a time limit to their power.
00:12:45
Chris Prime
Oh, no, his girlfriend and in Army of Darkness gets possessed.
00:12:52
Zach Sheets
but But does she come back? Like, she doesn't shake it off, though, does she?
00:12:58
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.
00:13:08
Chris Prime
No, no. In the third movie, Ursula, she she gets possessed. And then she just stops.
00:13:18
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.
00:13:30
Zach Sheets
Like you're done.
00:13:30
Chris Prime
Yeah, that that's it.
00:13:31
Zach Sheets
Yep.
00:13:31
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.
00:13:39
Zach Sheets
Mm-hmm.
00:13:41
Chris Prime
They do stop that in the other one.
00:13:44
Chris Prime
That other remake movie.
00:13:46
Zach Sheets
Rise.
00:13:47
Chris Prime
Rise, yeah, they stopped doing that.
00:13:50
Chris Prime
I don't know what Burn's going to do. Burn, they're just like, i don't know.
00:13:53
Zach Sheets
i think Burn is definitely like if you get possessed, you're done. and Like there's no coming back from it.
00:13:57
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...
00:14:03
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.
00:14:10
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.
00:14:16
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...
00:14:28
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.
00:14:41
Chris Prime
Like that's different.
00:14:41
Zach Sheets
Yep.
00:14:42
Chris Prime
You know, like that.
00:14:43
Zach Sheets
Yep.
00:14:43
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.
00:14:55
Chris Prime
They they don't have like an agenda.
00:14:56
Zach Sheets
Yes.
00:14:58
Chris Prime
Their goal isn't to.
00:14:58
Zach Sheets
Mm-hmm.
00:15:01
Chris Prime
Weaken anybody. They they just are having a great night, you know? like
00:15:06
Zach Sheets
They just want fuck with Ash. That's all they want to do.
00:15:09
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.
00:15:22
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.
00:15:30
Zach Sheets
Possessing everyone in the area. Yeah, kill everyone in the area.
00:15:32
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?
00:15:44
Chris Prime
But that that's also evil in its own way. like It doesn't have to have a point.
00:15:49
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.
00:15:57
Chris Prime
The knee bend. Oh,
00:16:01
Zach Sheets
like He's doing a rubber band like dance, like basically.
00:16:01
Chris Prime
rubber band.
00:16:05
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.
00:16:15
Chris Prime
It's really based on, like, vaudeville comedy, which is, like, a derivative of, like, plays. And then, even then, like,
00:16:28
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.
00:16:42
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.
00:16:55
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.
00:17:03
Zach Sheets
Mm-hmm.
00:17:04
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
Necronomicon: Background and Influences
00:17:12
Chris Prime
house. It's like a anthropology professor. This is his cabin.
00:17:19
Zach Sheets
Well, that was the first one that had that, too.
00:17:21
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.
00:17:21
Chris Prime
Man, I heard in the first and second one.
00:17:32
Chris Prime
Okay, so, yeah, so that' that's mentioned that this is a book from, like, Africa?
00:17:39
Zach Sheets
Like, Kandaria or Kandaria or something. It's like...
00:17:45
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.
00:18:01
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.
00:18:15
Zach Sheets
it was like It was like Mesopotamia. It was like one of the earliest like civilizations.
00:18:19
Chris Prime
Yeah, but like where?
00:18:20
Zach Sheets
and like In like the Middle East.
00:18:22
Chris Prime
Really?
00:18:23
Zach Sheets
Yeah.
00:18:23
Chris Prime
OK.
00:18:25
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.
00:18:34
Chris Prime
And then.
00:18:36
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.
00:18:57
Zach Sheets
It's you awoken us, we're gonna kill you.
00:19:00
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.
00:19:07
Zach Sheets
Mm-hmm.
00:19:10
Chris Prime
they They literally built an army.
00:19:14
Zach Sheets
our army of skeletons are going to storm storm the the camelot and kill everybody mm-hmm
00:19:19
Chris Prime
least that was something. They didn't just make the castle wall come to life and dance.
00:19:25
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
00:19:32
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.
00:19:40
Zach Sheets
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:19:40
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.
00:19:58
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.
00:20:18
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,
00:20:25
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
00:20:34
Chris Prime
I mean, you could because it's like, where was this?
00:20:34
Zach Sheets
but's
00:20:36
Chris Prime
This is a long trek and the owners didn't lock the door.
00:20:40
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
00:20:56
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
00:21:00
Chris Prime
Yeah, he's got his face scratched, he's got one hand, he looks bloody.
00:21:05
Zach Sheets
cackling like a like a psycho. Mm-hmm.
00:21:08
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.
00:21:18
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.
00:21:38
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...
00:21:50
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.
00:22:00
Chris Prime
you know what i'm talking about?
00:22:01
Zach Sheets
Like like like Annie's boyfriend?
00:22:03
Chris Prime
Yeah.
00:22:03
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.
00:22:18
Chris Prime
And that's it, right? We don't... Does he get killed?
00:22:21
Zach Sheets
I think oh Annie stabs him with a dagger.
00:22:24
Chris Prime
Oh.
00:22:26
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
00:22:48
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.
00:23:05
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.
00:23:18
Zach Sheets
just like...
00:23:18
Chris Prime
I think that freaked me out when I saw that later.
00:23:20
Chris Prime
i was like whoa, didn't expect that.
00:23:23
Zach Sheets
And Ash is doing one where he's like, Woodshed. Chainsaw. And it has like the chalk outline of the chainsaw.
00:23:32
Chris Prime
Uh-huh. Which, did the professor do that? he he He doodled an outline of this is where the chainsaw goes forever?
00:23:41
Zach Sheets
Don't forget, this is where the chainsaw goes.
00:23:45
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.
00:23:54
Chris Prime
Well, it he only wins because the head doesn't know how balance itself.
00:23:57
Zach Sheets
Can't really... Yeah, it's so like on but unwieldy and unbalanced. The body like chops itself, basically.
00:24:04
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.
00:24:11
Chris Prime
Again, different type of Ash compared to the evil Armory Darkness one, right?
00:24:14
Zach Sheets
yeah
00:24:15
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.
00:24:32
Chris Prime
But that's that's the third act, where it's just, like, upgrade for him.
Survival Horror Atmosphere in Evil Dead 2
00:24:37
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.
00:24:49
Zach Sheets
Oh, yeah.
00:24:50
Chris Prime
It's not good. I never beated it. I hated it.
00:24:54
Zach Sheets
I mean, were any of them good?
00:24:58
Chris Prime
Yeah, like the last one, Fistful Boomstick was a fun, like, brawler.
00:25:03
Zach Sheets
Is it the one is that the one where you have like a dwarf sidekick?
00:25:06
Chris Prime
Yeah.
00:25:06
Zach Sheets
Okay. Yep.
00:25:08
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...
00:25:18
Zach Sheets
Mm-hmm.
00:25:19
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.
00:25:29
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.
00:25:48
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?
00:26:02
Chris Prime
i don't know what...
00:26:03
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.
00:26:17
Chris Prime
Jake, Jake and Bobby Joe.
00:26:18
Zach Sheets
Yeah.
00:26:20
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.
00:26:35
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.
00:26:44
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?
00:27:00
Zach Sheets
And it's like crazy. It's crazy. Like Dead i Henrietta.
00:27:03
Chris Prime
AKA Ted Raimi.
00:27:04
Zach Sheets
Raimi. Especially like...
00:27:07
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.
00:27:17
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.
00:27:27
Zach Sheets
So he was just like drenched in sweat. Like like over super overheated
00:27:33
Chris Prime
Ugh. Ugh.
00:27:35
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.
00:27:45
Zach Sheets
The costume was filled with liters of sweat every day.
00:27:48
Chris Prime
Ugh, I must have smelled by day two.
00:27:48
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.
00:28:03
Chris Prime
That just adds to like the effect.
00:28:03
Zach Sheets
he's Yeah, it makes it even grosser.
00:28:07
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.
00:28:21
Chris Prime
Yeah, so that's another thing. I don't know how the evil dead can do that. Like, it mutates.
00:28:28
Zach Sheets
Bodies.
00:28:28
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.
00:28:42
Chris Prime
Evil ash was one thing, but I feel like they don't, because, like, Henrietta wasn't, like, a special person.
00:28:50
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.
00:28:59
Chris Prime
Yeah. Like lynt Linda decayed rapidly for a already dead body.
00:29:01
Zach Sheets
Mm-hmm.
00:29:07
Zach Sheets
Yeah, like her like like, both her arms like were, like, immediately, like, bones, basically. Yeah.
00:29:15
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.
00:29:22
Chris Prime
Yeah, he looks more like a Frankenstein monster.
00:29:27
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.
00:29:47
Chris Prime
Right. But like, that's a demon. These are people possessed by demons, but then the demon can turn into more demon.
00:29:50
Zach Sheets
Yeah.
00:29:56
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.
00:30:15
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.
00:30:25
Chris Prime
so But that that arm like look kind of reminds you of the first movie where there's like evil trees. Just...
00:30:34
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.
00:30:43
Chris Prime
I see.
00:30:44
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.
00:30:55
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.
00:31:01
Zach Sheets
m
00:31:03
Chris Prime
But we, the viewer, never know what the odd, like the shape is.
00:31:08
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.
00:31:17
Chris Prime
Yeah, they don't watch that show again.
00:31:18
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,
00:31:26
Chris Prime
It's just like the lost smog.
00:31:27
Zach Sheets
like in the it was like yeah it was like an evil like storm cloud chasing them.
00:31:31
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.
00:31:34
Chris Prime
Yeah.
00:31:39
Zach Sheets
and
00:31:40
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.
Lovecraftian Influences in the Evil Dead Series
00:31:48
Zach Sheets
Yeah, it's like Lovecraft. You see and you go insane.
00:31:53
Chris Prime
Technically, Evil Dead is very close to a Lovecraftian story.
00:31:58
Zach Sheets
I mean, i think Dexter Namakon comes from Lovecraft. That's where it originated.
00:32:02
Chris Prime
Makes sense.
00:32:04
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.
00:32:15
Zach Sheets
Deadite cult or something. Hmm.
00:32:16
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.
00:32:31
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.
00:32:37
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.
00:32:52
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.
00:32:57
Zach Sheets
Yeah.
00:32:58
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.
00:33:15
Zach Sheets
They're going to like exotic places to find artifacts.
00:33:19
Chris Prime
Yeah, like, poor people don't do this. This is such a rich person hobby.
00:33:24
Chris Prime
Or it's a rich person's study.
00:33:27
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.
00:33:36
Zach Sheets
I'm just a dude. I'm a regular dude.
00:33:37
Chris Prime
Yeah. caught in an anthropological study of the century, but it's just terrible if you know about it.
00:33:48
Zach Sheets
but then But then he's also he's also like the chosen one.
00:33:51
Chris Prime
Yeah, the the the twist of that it's like a destiny is interesting.
00:33:52
Zach Sheets
Eventually.
00:33:58
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.
00:34:08
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.
00:34:22
Zach Sheets
And holding a shotgun.
00:34:24
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.
00:34:39
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.
00:34:57
Chris Prime
Yeah, she found the instructions to clean out the evil.
00:35:00
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.
00:35:08
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.
00:35:16
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.
00:35:29
Chris Prime
Which
00:35:29
Zach Sheets
he says He says groovy.
00:35:32
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.
00:35:47
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.
00:35:58
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.
00:36:05
Zach Sheets
Mm-hmm.
00:36:06
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.
00:36:13
Zach Sheets
Well, and also the Knights taunt him too by like having the piano play itself, the same song he was playing.
00:36:18
Chris Prime
Yeah, yeah so like it's yeah. It's like Raimi knows how to set up things and have it pay off.
00:36:27
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.
00:36:41
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...
00:36:52
Zach Sheets
Well, they were all roommates.
00:36:53
Chris Prime
Right, right.
00:36:53
Zach Sheets
Mm-hmm.
00:36:53
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.
00:37:08
Chris Prime
The Coen brothers are masters at that. But so also Sam Raimi.
00:37:13
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.
Coen Brothers' Influence on Sam Raimi
00:37:31
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.
00:37:38
Chris Prime
And then their friends and loved ones are always in danger and there's always that someone that dies.
00:37:42
Zach Sheets
Yep.
00:37:43
Chris Prime
That's like the formula between a Sam Raimi movie and a Coen Brothers movie.
00:37:48
Zach Sheets
Like violently die too.
00:37:50
Chris Prime
Yeah. Like, I know we're skipping ahead, but I saw Spider-Man 2 and I was just like, huh.
00:38:00
Chris Prime
Did Sam Raimi also do Drag Me to Hell?
00:38:02
Zach Sheets
Yeah, he did
00:38:03
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.
00:38:17
Zach Sheets
did. Yeah, what if what if he just couldn't do way anything about it
00:38:20
Chris Prime
Yep. Couldn't attach a chainsaw. And the deadites were just like... Just picking off all his friends.
00:38:27
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
00:38:38
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.
00:38:56
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.
00:39:05
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.
00:39:16
Chris Prime
And then Jake...
00:39:17
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.
00:39:25
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.
00:39:35
Chris Prime
But, Jake, he freaks out and pulls the, like, wild card, like, oh, I'm gonna go crazy now.
00:39:43
Zach Sheets
he He gets the gun. He's like, where you go we gotta go search for Baba Joe.
00:39:49
Zach Sheets
And then I think he gets stabbed by Annie, but he's like...
00:39:54
Chris Prime
Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're skipping a part where Ash reveals that he's possessed and then they all freak out.
00:39:58
Zach Sheets
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:40:02
Chris Prime
That's where, like, Bobby Joe runs away and then... What's her name?
00:40:08
Zach Sheets
Annie.
00:40:09
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.
00:40:19
Chris Prime
And then she stabs Drake by accident. But that doesn't kill him.
00:40:23
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.
00:40:31
Zach Sheets
he' like He's like, I'm good, i'm good, bleeding out, but I'm good
00:40:35
Chris Prime
I mean, he just doesn't want to get hit by the door anymore.
00:40:38
Zach Sheets
good. Yeah, why why was why was she slamming in the door on him, like, constantly?
00:40:41
Chris Prime
She's freaking out.
00:40:43
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.
00:41:07
Zach Sheets
Which is like everyone's everyone's like freaking out about like everything. Understandably because it's just like demons running around.
00:41:19
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...
00:41:32
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.
00:41:46
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,
00:41:53
Zach Sheets
umm I'm sure there is.
00:41:55
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.
00:42:02
Zach Sheets
jeez. The H.O. Max version is is pretty looks pretty good.
00:42:06
Chris Prime
Okay.
00:42:08
Chris Prime
But yeah, I saw this on a lower quality and I'm like, ooh.
00:42:14
Chris Prime
i'm I'm pretty sure like the 9mm version probably looks better than this one.
00:42:21
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.
00:42:22
Chris Prime
Or eight millimeter.
00:42:37
Zach Sheets
And then you open a portal and suck it in
00:42:40
Zach Sheets
So that's it's that's how you defeat it?
00:42:41
Chris Prime
So, okay, so you have to manifest it and then throw it, I guess.
00:42:48
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.
00:43:08
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.
00:43:22
Zach Sheets
o
00:43:23
Chris Prime
So it's like secretly evil dead movies are a time paradox movie.
00:43:29
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.
00:43:38
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.
00:43:49
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?
00:44:04
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.
00:44:18
Zach Sheets
It's like, oh, we'll use this spell in the Necromanicon. They'll solve it.
00:44:22
Chris Prime
like scientifically? No. Magic. Okay. Okay.
00:44:26
Zach Sheets
It's like, anytime you have a question like that, a wizard did it.
00:44:29
Chris Prime
Yep. I think the second movie, they kind of had a wizard. They're just like, oh, he's...
00:44:33
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.
00:44:45
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...
00:44:51
Chris Prime
As it was prophesied...
00:44:52
Zach Sheets
Yes! And we get like the sort like the beginning of Armory Darkness, but then they completely redo it in Armory Darkness.
00:45:01
Zach Sheets
You get like Yeah.
00:45:01
Chris Prime
Which, again, as a kid, i was like, wait, that's not how that ends.
00:45:05
Chris Prime
What's going on?
00:45:06
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
00:45:22
Chris Prime
Meanwhile, they're just like, yeah, no, like a yes where you're from.
00:45:27
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.
00:45:33
Chris Prime
He embraces it.
00:45:35
Zach Sheets
Like, he gets, like, cool stuff.
00:45:38
Zach Sheets
He's doing fine.
00:45:40
Chris Prime
mean, yeah, I mean, he's horrified that his girlfriend died, like, i don't know, a month ago in that movie.
00:45:47
Chris Prime
But in terms of, like, how much he shakes off the craziness, he does pretty well.
00:45:55
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?
00:46:04
Chris Prime
Like a secret wife? If you think about the TV show timeline? Or is it like a little bit after this?
00:46:11
Zach Sheets
Well, there's like, I mean, isn't it like 30 years between Army Darkness and the start of Astro Steel Dead?
00:46:17
Chris Prime
Is it?
00:46:18
Zach Sheets
i think so, yeah. So there's like there's a lot of time between those two things for stuff to happen.
00:46:19
Chris Prime
Okay. Okay.
00:46:25
Chris Prime
Okay, so it's like he comes back and it's like different. Okay.
00:46:28
Zach Sheets
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:46:29
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.
00:46:38
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.
00:46:53
Chris Prime
Yeah, the ashy slashy.
00:46:55
Zach Sheets
Yeah.
00:46:56
Chris Prime
I don't know.
00:46:57
Zach Sheets
So, yeah.
00:46:57
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?
00:47:11
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
00:47:20
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.
00:47:26
Zach Sheets
yes we're in like the who the hero fails timeline. was like like the multiple evil dead timelines.
00:47:31
Chris Prime
Yeah.
00:47:36
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.
00:47:45
Chris Prime
And there's the ash that just says groovy during that other Evil Dead movie.
00:47:51
Zach Sheets
yeah, the the the soft reboot movie.
00:47:56
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...
00:48:00
Chris Prime
Oh, it was like like in the darkness.
00:48:02
Chris Prime
He just like looks up to the sky.
00:48:02
Zach Sheets
Yeah.
00:48:04
Chris Prime
He's like, groovy.
00:48:05
Zach Sheets
Yeah. So they're they're implying he was going to be in another one or something.
00:48:09
Chris Prime
Or he sensed that Evil Dead was back or something?
00:48:14
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.
00:48:27
Zach Sheets
They're going be in a movie or something.
00:48:28
Chris Prime
think it was a movie idea.
00:48:30
Zach Sheets
Yeah.
00:48:32
Chris Prime
But, like, that never took off because...
00:48:35
Chris Prime
something avarice decided to do other things
00:48:40
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.
00:48:53
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.
00:49:08
Chris Prime
But the evil dead last two of the Dead movies have been straight up just horror movies.
00:49:14
Zach Sheets
there's even Did you know about the Creepshow episode?
00:49:18
Chris Prime
No.
00:49:19
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.
00:49:38
Zach Sheets
So it's it's like it's like an evil it's an Evil Dead like segment
00:49:43
Zach Sheets
it's like the actual Necronomicon prop and everything.
00:49:46
Chris Prime
Oh. So it's like canonical?
00:49:49
Zach Sheets
i don't know if it's like canonical, but like it's...
00:49:53
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.
00:50:06
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?
00:50:18
Chris Prime
That's cool.
00:50:18
Zach Sheets
Because consric because Greg Nicotero, like, is, like, the showrunner for Creepshow.
00:50:19
Chris Prime
Like...
00:50:24
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.
00:50:33
Zach Sheets
And then obviously went on to like do like a The Walking Dead and all that stuff.
00:50:37
Chris Prime
I mean, some of the effects in this do carry over from... date was it Day of the Dead?
00:50:47
Zach Sheets
Yeah, he worked on Day of the Dead.
00:50:49
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.
00:51:00
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.
00:51:08
Zach Sheets
Oh, we forgot to mention too, like the Freddy Krueger glove that you can see in the the shed.
00:51:16
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
00:51:33
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.
00:51:48
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.
00:51:57
Chris Prime
That was back when they could just have fun making stuff.
00:52:01
Zach Sheets
But it's like, like eventually, like, Ash just fought like everybody, right? He fought like Jason in the comics.
00:52:05
Chris Prime
Jason, he fought. Freddy.
00:52:09
Chris Prime
Dynamite was just like, you want to just make that? We'll just make it.
00:52:14
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.
00:52:33
Zach Sheets
Oh, yeah yeah he also fought like the Marvel Zombies.
00:52:36
Chris Prime
Yep.
00:52:39
Chris Prime
Which, under the Army of Darkness banner.
00:52:41
Zach Sheets
And Re-Animator.
00:52:43
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.
00:52:51
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.
00:53:04
Zach Sheets
hu
00:53:06
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.
00:53:14
Zach Sheets
Yeah.
00:53:17
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.
00:53:28
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.
00:53:58
Zach Sheets
When it's like 90 degrees out.
00:54:00
Chris Prime
Yeah, yeah. It's like, ugh.
00:54:02
Zach Sheets
We're in this like kind of fall-esque, chilly autumn setting.
00:54:09
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.
00:54:27
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.
00:54:43
Chris Prime
Same thing like Obsession and, yeah, Backrooms.
00:54:47
Zach Sheets
Backrooms. Mm-hmm.
00:54:49
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.
00:55:00
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.
00:55:14
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.
00:55:26
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.
00:55:44
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?
00:55:58
Chris Prime
It's not like he's secretly, like, a bank robber or something.
00:56:03
Chris Prime
So it's...
00:56:03
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.
00:56:03
Chris Prime
it
00:56:16
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?
00:56:32
Chris Prime
Evil Dead 1 is that easier than that, right?
00:56:34
Zach Sheets
Mm-hmm.
00:56:35
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,
00:57:06
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?
00:57:21
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?
00:57:29
Chris Prime
if that was the case, why would it destroy the bridge?
00:57:32
Zach Sheets
Yeah.
00:57:33
Chris Prime
when the bridge allowed more people to come back and just get caught in the evil?
Evil Entities' Ambiguous Goals in the Series
00:57:39
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.
00:57:51
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.
00:58:04
Chris Prime
It has to like mess with you so that you lose a grip on reality. So when then you...
00:58:08
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.
00:58:15
Chris Prime
Oh yeah.
00:58:19
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.
00:58:30
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.
00:58:34
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.
00:58:55
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.
00:59:15
Chris Prime
I mean, demons... they basically saw Exorcist and said, hey, well, we got a whole bunch of them just together.
00:59:20
Zach Sheets
Like the Exorcist. Yeah.
00:59:24
Chris Prime
And occasionally one of them turns into a bird monster.
00:59:26
Zach Sheets
Yeah, I guess i guess i guess Reagan basically looks like a deadite in The Exorcist.
00:59:32
Zach Sheets
Eventually. it's it's like it's like It's like a gradual transformation when she gets possessed.
00:59:38
Chris Prime
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, they keep saying soul. You know, I think this is just a response where...
00:59:42
Zach Sheets
Yeah. I'll swallow your soul! I'll swallow your soul! I'll swallow your soul!
00:59:46
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
00:59:54
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
01:00:03
Chris Prime
Again, cool effects.
01:00:06
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
01:00:34
Zach Sheets
Like I said, it's official release.
01:00:39
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.
01:00:49
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.
01:01:17
Zach Sheets
so we'll We'll dive into all that epic historical action next week.
01:01:22
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.
01:01:39
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.