“Groovy.”

After the big success with the original The Evil Dead, Sam Raimi and his financial team were able to get more financial backup to put towards the budget for the sequel. While the original had some pretty remarkable practical effects for the time and especially the budget, Evil Dead II is undeniably a massive improvement, at least in every technical department. There aren’t just buckets of blood this time, no, there are gallons of it. It’s also important to note that this movie is very much more of a horror-comedy mix, with a much bigger lean towards comedy, rather than just pure horror.

The practical effects are really what carry Evil Dead II, and the practical effects-driven sequences were undeniably the best parts of the whole film. It’s also very easy to tell that Sam Raimi has become more comfortable in the director’s chair this time around, because even though the original had really good effects, some of them were hidden a bit by the camera, and Evil Dead II simply doesn’t do that nearly as much. He’s also just improved significantly overall, with much better cinematography (while it’s certainly not a standout) and much better directing, especially when it comes to directing the actors. For as bold a directorial debut as the first film was, the acting was subpar at best.

And then there’s the second-best thing about this movie: Bruce Campbell. Either Bruce Campbell went to acting school in the few years between these movies, or it was just Sam Raimi who got better at directing, because he vastly improves here. The first film took itself seriously, which I admittedly liked a lot more, but it was pretty clear that Campbell just wasn’t in the right movie after seeing this one. The chaotic energy, insane “What on Earth is going on?” moments, and cheesy lines are very clearly more suited to his acting talents, and he did a perfect job. While I didn’t like Evil Dead II (which I will get into), he was definitely fun to watch here as Ash.

The mixed here is pretty obvious, because this is definitely a film that is either completely for you or completely not. We all know comedy might just be, no, probably is, the most subjective thing when it comes to movies, and that is very much something to take into account with Evil Dead II. If I had one word to describe this film, it would be “bonkers.” This movie is absolutely ridiculous, and for what it’s worth, it absolutely knows it is.

Unfortunately, though, that “bonkersness” just simply wasn’t for me whatsoever. That being said, comedy is easily my least favorite movie genre, so please take that with a massive bucket of salt (just not a bucket of blood, like this movie). Comedies, at least comedies that are going for the humor more than anything else, clearly don’t take themselves seriously, which would be fine for me if I actually found most of these types of comedies to actually be funny. Evil Dead II reminded me heavily of another film, Shaun of the Dead, where it wasn’t taking itself seriously at all and just simply wasn’t funny, which made for an experience where I was just admittedly kind of tuned out while watching. Let me be clear, I wasn’t scrolling social media or anything like that while the runtime was going, I never do that, but I certainly was kind of watching the movie, almost like you watch the news (I’m not downplaying the news, by the way), where you aren’t necessarily “locked in.”

For pure critiques, though, with the exception of Ash, we yet again have another uninteresting cast of characters. These characters feel even more like they are here just to pad out the runtime (which will lead me to my next criticism), because if it were just Ash the entire time, the whole movie would probably be about half the length it is. No one here really justifies their presence other than to move the story forward, and isn’t compelling in the least bit. I will say, however, that what they do with Ash’s girlfriend at the beginning of the film was pretty hilarious, and one of the comedic parts that actually did stand out to me. It was very clever, especially considering that this is essentially a different-styled remake of the original.

When I was referring to the padding out of the runtime just a second ago, what I meant when I said that it was leading to my next criticism is that both of these first two films, even though I do like the original, definitely feel like they have concepts far too small to fit the length of a feature film. Just imagine a perfectly fine, or even really good short film, that doesn’t overstay its welcome and has a concept that would only fit in short film-length: that is exactly how I feel about these movies thus far. I definitely wouldn’t classify the pacing as being terrible, just for the fact that there are so many crazy ideas thrown out at you, but in a strictly story sense, they very much overstay their welcome. If these were short films, I think I would easily enjoy them a lot more.

I perfectly understand that this is one of my hottest takes yet, but I just have to be completely sincere with my reviews. I will still (plan to) watch the rest of the Evil Dead movies before Evil Dead Burn releases, but I unfortunately have to admit that I am very anxious to finish Army of Darkness (and not in an excited way) so that I can get to the other two non-Raimi Evil Dead films, which look far more suited to my personal tastes. What I will say, not that it really matters, is that the poster for Evil Dead II is pretty fantastic.