Ashley Williams goes to an isolated cabin in the forest with his girlfriend Linda on an exciting and terrifying journey. Ashley finds a recording tape of a professor and book about evil that has many secrets and will trigger a series of evil spirits that constantly terrorize Ashley and attack everyone. A journalist comes to the area to study the book of evil they found, but the demons will continue to attack them until morning despite many attempts to understand what is happening.
Evil Dead 2 is, pardon the expression, consistently lively -- a ghoulish splatter comedy that uses wildly excessive gore to provoke the kind of shock that lies between a laugh and a scream.
The pop-up humor and smirkiness suggest Raimi's aspiring to the fashionable company of the brothers Coen, though on the basis of this strained effort I'd say he's overshot the mark.
Good acting would not have served the material well, since it would have diluted the comedy quotient and made the campy elements seem cheap and cheesy.
Everything a sequel should be in terms of better but distractingly a reboot that means its predecessor should be wiped away. Two versions of the same thing by the same people is too many.
Just when things start getting too grisly, Raimi rushes in with a hilarious, sendup joke to remind us that all this blood and guts is meant in spooky Grand Guignol fun.
