It's official: this is my favourite horror film of all time. So yes, there is a small chance of bias in this review. However, it is not undeserved. This film to me sums up exactly what needs to be done to make a great horror film. It doesn't take itself seriously, it has a very simple plot, it has few characters, all of whom have that beautiful horror film naivety, the effects and make-up are cheap and nasty, it has some kick-ass one-liners, and best of all, it has that fine balance between horror and comedy that is so hard to achieve (incidentally, the Scream movies tried it by being so obivously self-referential, but it just doesn't work - nothing beats Bruce Campbell smashing plates on his head).
The plot synopsis doesn't take long - Ash, sole survivor of the first film, takes his girlfriend out to the cabin, mistakenly awakens the Evil by way of the Necronomicon Ex Mortus (Book of the Dead), and must stop it from engulfing the world, or some such. He ends up running into a few more characters who are somewhat expendable (ie. they don't survive, and noone expects them to). What results of all this, is a load of deadites, a tonne of fake blood, and one very scary grandmother. One important thing to remember about this movie is that it's not strictly a sequel. It's more of a bigger budget remake of the first one (which took four years to make due to repeatedly running out of money). That's why Ash is going back to the cabin, and that's also why most of the plot from the first one also happens again in this one.
Speaking as a fan of the series, there's a number of reasons why I think this is the best one. One of the most prominent, is that the Ash character truly becomes defined in this instalment. In the first one he's just a terrified twenty-something like all the other characters, he just happens to survive longer. In this one he begins to build that Ash persona which has been copied so many times since; and most significantly of all his character developments, Ash loses his hand to the Evil, and attaches the chainsaw. Groovy. Second of all, the slapstick comic talents of Bruce Campbell really come to light in this film, best demonstrated in the possessed hand sequence. Also, the deadites are at their funniest and most impressive in this one, particularly Henrietta (played of course, by Sam Raimi's brother Ted).
This film can only be looked at from a B-grade trash point of view, because that's the type of film it is. I have personally seen this film convert three people who didn't like horror films at all to quite the opposite in the last six months alone. I recommend this to everyone that gets a chance to see it. Simple as that.
Score: 9.5/10
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