Evil Dead II

"Kiss your nerves goodbye!"

1987 1h 24m EN

🙌

7.5

BANGER

🍅

88%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.7

IMDB

★7.5TMDB · 3,687🍅88%Rotten Tomatoes●72Metacritic★7.7IMDB · 193,621

HorrorComedyFantasy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Ash Williams and his girlfriend Linda find a log cabin in the woods with a voice recording from an archeologist who had recorded himself reciting ancient chants from "The Book of the Dead." As they play the recording an evil power is unleashed taking over Linda's body.

“Kiss your nerves goodbye!”

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Cast

Bruce Campbell
Ash
Sarah Berry
Annie
Dan Hicks
Jake
Kassie DePaiva
Bobby Joe
Ted Raimi
Possessed Henrietta
Denise Bixler
Linda
Richard Domeier
Ed
John Peakes
Professor Knowby

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Sam Raimi
Writers: Scott Spiegel, Sam Raimi
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

84 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $3.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

39 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Evil Dead Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Sam Raimi, shot by Peter Deming. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Joseph LoDuca. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Kaye Davis shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Bruce Campbell and Sarah Berry and Dan Hicks carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Sam Raimi directs. Peter Deming behind the camera. Joseph LoDuca scores. Kaye Davis cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

184 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Shot for just $3.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
339 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Part of the "Evil Dead Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by Sam Raimi, shot by Peter Deming. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Joseph LoDuca. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Kaye Davis shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Bruce Campbell and Sarah Berry and Dan Hicks carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Kiss your nerves goodbye!".
10IMDB entry: tt0092991 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 22 themes, including "shotgun", "halloween", "deer", "sequel".
12Released under 20 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Peter Deming
Original score: Joseph LoDuca
Editing: Kaye Davis
Makeup / hair: Howard Berger
Stunt coordinator: Gary Jensen
Runtime: 84 min · 1h 24m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $3,500,000
Box office: $5,932,279
Return: 169% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Evil Dead II (1987)
Rotten Tomatoes: 88% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 72/100
IMDB rating: 7.7/10 · 193,621 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

1 win & 5 nominations total

Part of

Evil Dead Collection

Supernatural horror-comedy franchise revolving around the Necronomicon and the demons summoned once its incantations are read.

Also by

Sam Raimi

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2015-10-18
★ 8/10
The Flaming Groovy! Yes indeed, Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell are back to shake some action with this remake of their own The Evil Dead (1981), only this time with more money and more overt humour. A quick prologue sets things up nicely, then BAM! Ash (Campbell) and his squeeze are in the cabin of doom and about to be part of a night of unholy demonic terror. It's a nightmare of the black comedy kind, where Raimi and Campbell invite us to a party and then gleefully pummel us into submission - and we sado-masochistically enjoy it! Ash has grown a pair of cojones and decides to fight back against the demonic forces, cue mucho action with chainsaw and shotgun. There's a quip on the tongue for our hero as well, even as he is battered from pillar to post to make the action work. Raimi isn't interested in extraneous scenes or exposition, he strips it bare as the pic hurtles along, all while he brings his technical skills with camera and sound design to the fore. The humour is often outrageous, dementedly so, while it's nice to find a group of film makers who don't feel the need to now throw blood and guts at the screen every other scene just to make a formulaic impact. Bonkers, chilling and devilishly funny. 8/10
Wuchak2018-02-12
★ 6/10
RELEASED IN 1987 and written & directed by Sam Raimi, “The Evil Dead” chronicles events when two Michigan State students (Bruce Campbell & Denise Bixler) travel to a remote cabin in western Tennessee for spring break wherein they discover a copy of the Book of the Dead and an audiotape whose incantations resurrect demons in the woods. The daughter of the archeologist who made the tape (Sarah Berry) also visits the cabin with her beau (Richard Domeier) and a couple of dubious locals (Dan Hicks & Kassie Wesley DePaiva). The first film was low-budget, cartoony and extreme, but it was serious horror. This sequel is also cartoony and extreme, but it’s decidedly comedy horror. It’s entertaining for what it is, but it’s hindered by a confusing opening “recap” that doesn’t match the previous film. Raimi stated that he didn’t have the rights to use material from the original movie so he did a 7-minute recap with only two people instead of five (with Denise Bixler taking over the role of Linda). But there are other inconsistencies: The Book of the Dead and audiotape is found in a room rather than the basement and Ash (Campbell) later “rediscovers” that the bridge is out, which he already knew via events in the first film. Once you get past the awkward and perplexing set-up, the movie settles into an entertaining over-the-top gory horror comedy, which is so creative it’s as if it was made by a lunatic. Bixler is a great replacement in the role of Linda, but her part is too brief and you only catch glimpses of her stunning beauty. It took me a while to warm up to Annie (Berry), but I eventually did and she’s a worthy secondary protagonist. There are several amusing and thrilling sequences, like the demonic hand scenes. THE FILM RUNS 1 hour & 24 minutes and was shot in Wadesboro and (studio) Wilmington, North Carolina, with supplementary work done in Detroit. ADDITIONAL WRITER: Scott Spiegel. GRADE: B-/C+
tmdb400113702019-11-26
★ 9/10
Not really much of a fan of slasher/gore films, but friends suggested I give this a try purely because the film does not try to take itself too seriously, and despite the fact there is lots of gore here, none of it looked particularly realistic and only adds to the extremely black humour of the whole affair. But what attracted me to this film was the charisma of the lead actor Ash, played by Bruce Campbell. He is not a great actor by any stretch, but he does have a rather boyish charm that moves the film along, even if the script is as creaky as the rocking chair in his cabin! Definitely made on a shoestring budget, and the sfx (no cgi here!) are not all that great, but it doesn't matter because you're just there for the ride; and to be fair there are some very good fx splashed around throughout, and the first person camera-eye of the Evil Spirit in the Wood, is also well done. Groovy!