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One of the best movies of its type ever made and a veritable filmmaking recruiting tool for any high school kid who thinks that exploding zombies and strong, silent types with chainsaws for arms are awesome, Evil Dead 2 is not a movie many recover from ñ thank God.
Without a recommendation from someone in the club, most kids approach the film the same way. It looks like just another horror film on the shelf, so you pick it up along with Sleepaway Camp and Friday the 13th to watch on a Friday night with your buddies (that's how it happened with me). You watch the other two ñ not bad, but not great ñ and then when Evil Dead 2 comes on, it's like a faucet has been turned on in the back of your mind that you never knew had access to water before.
The first pang usually comes with Bruce Campbell. Without a doubt the best B-movie actor of our time, Bruce in Evil Dead 2 is a bona fide encyclopedic example of how a man reacts to flying gore and rabid undead assholes in the middle of a forest. In case any of us get in a similar situation in our lives, all we have to do is act like Bruce and we'll be fine. With penchants both for John Wayne seriousness and Three Stooges tomfoolery, Bruce Campbell screams into the abyss and laughs insanely along with deer mounts and rocking chairs with equal verisimilitude (it makes sense if you've seen the movie).
And then there's Sam Raimi. Before he was making Earth's most wallet-busting pictures, Sam Raimi was another of us film nerds with a bent for tracking shots and fast cars who knew a good zombie killer when he saw one. There's a control and an authorial punch in Evil Dead 2 that not even the first Evil Dead film contains. Like a stoic and confident senior showing us freshmen how it's really done, Sam Raimi directs Evil Dead 2 with the spot-on accuracy of an Olympic archer. Stunning.
The only downside to this new incarnation of Evil Dead 2 on DVD, though, is that it's been released 300,000 times in 200,000 different editions. It's not quite as flagrant a DVD overpopulation as Army of Darkness, but there are now at least two special editions of Evil Dead 2 on the market. So do you keep your old one in a tin or do you upgrade?
Follow me into the forest . . .
The Video: How Does The Disc Look?
This Divimax 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer of Evil Dead 2 looks marginally more impressive than Anchor Bay's last one, but there's not a sea of difference. Black levels are particularly rich and dense ñ that's what is most noticeable here ñ but the reality of the situation is that Evil Dead 2 succeeds in spite of its technical shortcomings and doesn't necessarily need to rest in the laurels of fancy-schmancy DVD transfers. Color contrast here is as good as it probably can be, the quality of this print is relatively without blemish or grime, and fine detail quality is fairly strong as well. Not a jaw-dropping transfer, but then again, Evil Dead 2 never looked jaw-droppingly great.
The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?
The mixes are similar in quality to the last edition's. From Jason Spear's DVDfile review of the Evil Dead 2 tin edition:
ìThe English 5.1 and 2.0 surround tracks pack quite a punch with directional sound effects to match the restless camera work. Fidelity of the remasters was better than I was expecting. The formless thing in the woods now fills all the speakers with a deep rumbling. The dialogue is a bit muffled at times, it sounds limited compared to the sound effects. Surrounds are used effectively without being totally gimmicky. A nice effort from Anchor Bay that doesn't betray the film's origins like other remasters so often have.î
Also included are English Closed Captions.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There?
The good news is that the new featurette, Evil Dead 2: Behind-the-Screams is a goofy and fun look at the design and production of the special effects for the film. The bad news? Everything else here is a holdover from the last edition. The screen-specific audio commentary really is one of the better ones you'll ever hear, but it was on the last DVD release (and that was the same as the commentary on the LaserDisc release). And The Gore the Merrier featurette was around last time, as were the film's theatrical trailer and talent bios.
Most impressive, though, is the packaging of this release. When you squeeze the eye on the cover, it screams. Awesome.
Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?
No DVD-ROM features have been included.
Final Thoughts
A wonderful movie with a redundant yet enjoyable presentation on DVD, Evil Dead 2: The Book of the Dead 2 is a must-have for those who never bought any other version of the film on DVD and a recommended title for those who already have. The transfer and mix here are both great, the bonus features are mostly holdovers, but delicious ones, and the packaging of this one makes it totally worthy of a high recommendation.
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