EVIL DEAD 2: DEAD BY DAWN dvd

"There's something out there..."  This line from Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn may be one of horror cinema's biggest understatements.  This movie -- possibly the greatest B-movie of all time -- throws everything it can imagine into the setting of the abandoned cabin deep in the woods.

At the start of the movie, Ashley "Ash" Williams (Bruce Campbell) and his girlfriend Linda (Denise Bixler) crash a seemingly abandoned cabin deep in the woods for a romantic weekend.  Unfortunately, Ash finds a tape recorder that has a professor reading from the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis (the Book of the Dead).  The words summon an unseen creature, Linda gets possessed, and Ash's nightmare (sometimes literal) begins.

On the outskirts of the forest, Annie (Sarah Berry) has just arrived with her -- research partner?  boyfriend?  fiancee? -- Ed (Richard Dormeier) and several pages from the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis to translate.  With the help of redneck couple Jake (Dan Hicks) and Bobby Joe (Kassie Wesley DePaiva), they all make their way to the cabin.

Writer-director Sam Raimi throws everything he has into Evil Dead 2,   There are Deadites, Candarian demons, assorted characters getting possessed, an animated hand, something in the fruit cellar, one of the most fun arming sequences around, and so, so much blood and fluids spewing all over the place.  In the middle of this is also plenty of comedy: It's not hard to see the influence of the Three Stooges throughout the movie, and there are numerous quotable lines spread through the movie.  There's also the transformation of Ash from egotistical Romeo to somewhat insane action hero.

There are some flaws in the movie -- shooting inconsistencies, the stop-motion animation -- but they wind up adding to the feel that this could be a fun-but-flawed movie that could have been enjoyed at a drive-in movie theater.  Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn is a tremendously fun roller coaster ride of a horror movie.  (Extras on this DVD include a making-of feature ("The Gore the Merrier"), commentaries by Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, movie stills, and a few assorted other items.

Overall grade: A-
Reviewed by James Lynch

DRAG ME TO HELL

I wish I could have seen Drag Me to Hell at a drive-in movie theater. This is a horror movie that's knows it's cheesy and revels in it, thanks to director and co-writer Sam Raimi.

Life isn't easy for Christine Brown (Alison Lohman). She's dating college professor Clay (Justin Long), whose mother doesn't consider Christine a serious girlfriend. At her bank job, Christine is competing with Stu (Reggie Lee) for an assistant manager position, and manager Mr. Jacks (David Paymer) is always alternating between Christine and Stu about who's first in the competition. He tells Christine that she has to make the hard decisions.

Enter Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver), an ancient gypsy with long yellow fingernails, horrible teeth, and a creepy yellow eye. Mrs. Ganush has had two loan extensions and needs a third or she'll lose her home. Christine chooses this time to become assertive, earning the anger of the gypsy.

And Mrs. Ganush is certainly angry. After she attacks Christine (in a battle involving a seat belt, stapler, ruler, and trying to bite someone when your false teeth have fallen out), Mrs. Ganush places a curse on Christine. In no time at all Christine suffers everything from flies coming after her to being attacked by an invisible force to seeing horrible visions and hearing noises.

Clay doesn't believe anything supernatural is happening, but Christine turns to Rham Jas (Dileep Rao), a psychic who helps Christine (while always taking her money). Christine has three days to get rid of the evil spirit that Mrs. Ganush has sent after her, or Christine will, well, you know the title of the movie. (This gruesome fate befalls a little boy who stole from a gypsy, in a scene shown before the opening credits.)

It's nice to see a movie that is silly without being stupid. Sam Raimi returns to the horror he did with the Evil Dead trilogy (and fans of those films can spot several effects taken from them and put in this new film), relying not on hyperactive camera work and big budget effects but rather camera angles, roaring sounds, sudden visual surprises and a none-too-subtle soundtrack that kicks in every time menace looms. Drag Me to Hell has lots of tension and a few genuine scares, but the horror is often so ridiculously excessive it turns to comedy -- and Raimi knows this and uses it.

The cast is good, even if they're present in service of the scares. Alison Lohman looks, sounds, and acts just like Pam from The Office, as she moves from timid to assertive to terrified and slightly insane. Justin Long has little to do as the skeptical-but-supportive boyfriend, but Lorna Raver is wonderful as the decrepit old woman whose vengeance is relentless.

Drag Me to Hell is an enjoyable little horror movie, something that mixes scares and comedy to nice effect. This flick doesn't have great acting or original ideas, but it hearkens back to the age of the good B-movie matinee movie.

Overall grade: B

Reviewed by James Lynch