Halloween Horrors: EVIL DEAD II

EVIL DEAD II: DEAD BY DAWN  (1987)
Directed by Sam Raimi
Starring Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks, Kassie DePaiva, Denise Bixler, Ted Raimi
R for unspecified reasons (strong bloody violence and gore throughout.)
SCAREmeter: 7/10
GOREmeter: 10/10
OVERALL: 3.5 out of 4 stars 

People often think of film series as decreasing in quality with each subsequent chapter, which is funny because most film series stop at becoming a trilogy, and of the most iconic film trilogies, nearly all of them are though to have peaked at the second installment.  Of course, sometimes a great movie is made and then the creators move on to other things while the studios churn out lackluster sequels thus creating this negative stereotype, such as for THE FRENCH CONNECTION and JAWS, but there's many great examples of sequels the surpass their predecessors, including THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, THE DARK KNIGHT, TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY, MAD MAX 2: THE ROAD WARRIOR and THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and... EVIL DEAD II: DEAD BY DAWN.  Those last two may be the only well-thought of sequels in the horror genre in all of film, at least, in all of American film anyway; perhaps because of the horror genre's dependence on "shock and awe," it's more difficult to scare, whilst also returning to the world of the original.
EVIL DEAD II is a highly-unconventional sequel though.  It's establishment within the timeline of events regarding the original is unclear, as the film is part-remake and part-continuation, without clear identification of where these parts begin and end.
Once again, the trilogy's hero, Ashley "Ash" Williams (Bruce Campbell), is found driving to the old cabin, but this time it's only him and his girlfriend, Linda (Denise Bixler).  In the 1981 original, the ill-fated Linda was played by Betsy Baker, and as in the first film, Ash gives her a necklace, the same necklace, when they're at the cabin.  There is no indication of any of the characters being aware of the first film's events.
Much more quickly than things played out in the original though, Ash and Linda discover the Necronomicon (Book of the Dead) in the cabin, bound in human skin and inked in blood, along with a a recorded incantation from the book, which, of course, they play, awakening evil demons of the netherworld.  Again, Linda is possessed, and again, Ash decapitates her with a shovel, then buries the body.  The possessed body isn't done yet, and again it attacks Ash, and the severed head bites down on Ash's hand, spreading the poison to his hand, but just his hand.  Meanwhile, the daughter of the professor who owned the cabin and was studying the Necronomicon there, Annie Knowby (Sarah Berry), is trying to get to the cabin (after the forest demons wrecked the bridge to the only road), with the help of Jake and Bobby Joe (Dan Hicks and Kassie DePaiva, respectively), a crass hillbilly couple.
The best moments in the film, which most define the trilogy as a whole, involve Ash's possessed hand, which include excellent extreme slapstick moments as the hand with a mind of its own smashes dishes against Ash's head and drags Ash unconscious across the floor to reach a meat cleaver for nefarious purposes. 
Other favorite moments include a trickle of blood pouring from a hole in the wall then becoming a thick geyser of gallons of blood that blasts Ash across the room, the just-as-funny-as-it-is-creepy-as-hell possessed room laughing hysterically at Ash, and of course, the awesome chainsaw prosthetic.
EVIL DEAD II is as gory and depraved as the original, but hits its notes more accurately, and even pays homage to the infamous "tree-rape" from the original, but with a slight ambiguity that avoids the feeling that accompanied the scene in the original.  With more experience and just a little bit more money, but not enough to not still necessitate technical creativity, Raimi perfects the EVIL DEAD formula.

"Who's laughing now?"