Dom Robinson reviews
Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn
Distributed by
- Cat.no: 74321 671609
- Cert: 18
- Running time: 81 minutes
- Year: 1987
- Pressing: 1999
- Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 28 plus extras
- Sound: Linear PCM Mono
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Fullscreen: 1.33:1
- 16:9-enhanced: No
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £15.99
- Extras : Scene index, Film Facts, The Trilogy, Things To Look Out For...
Director:
(Army of Darkness: The Medieval Dead, Crimewave, Evil Dead, The Quick and the Dead, A Simple Plan)
Producers:
Screenplay:
Scott Spiegel and Sam Raimi
Music:
Cast:
Ash: Bruce Campbell (Army of Darkness: The Medieval Dead, Blaze of Glory, Evil Dead, Lunatics, Mind Warp, TV: Hercules, Xena: Warrior Princess)
Annie: Sarah Berry
Possessed Henrietta: Ted Raimi
Linda: Denise Bexley
Knight: Sam Raimi (Body Bags)
Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn
is the second part of a trilogy featuring Bruce Campbell as Ash, who finds
there's no good at all that can come of the Book of the Dead, the pages of which
were written in blood and its purpose is to cause death and destruction to all
who encounter it.
Ash and his girlfriend Linda (Denise Bixler) stumble across an old,
apparently-deserted cottage in the woods, one not unlike the cottage he almost met
his match in the first film. After playing a tape of Professor Raymond Knowby's
revelations of the book's content, within five minutes, his girlfriend is murdered by
the evil force and he has to bury her. Things go downhill from there. Linda resurrects
herself and Ash has to finish her off with a chainsaw, he then gets paranoid delusions
as he starts to laugh maniacally and all the fixtures and fittings in the rest of the
room start to laugh with him, his hand then takes on a life of its own and he has to
saw it off and then the professor's daughter Annie (Sarah Berry) arrives with
her boyfriend and a couple of locals...
They immediately think that Ash has murdered the professor and his wife, until Annie
plays back the tape and all is revealed. Now knowing what has happened to her parents,
she is unsurprisingly shocked to find her mother is somewhat alive and kicking and
wanting to escape from the basement. Anyone who's seen this before will never forget
the following scene in which she loses an eye...
Meet Mother !
The picture has minimal artifacts - certainly not noticeable from the usual viewing
distance - and is presented in an open-matte fullscreen presentation. The American DVD
is the same, but an NTSC Laserdisc Special Edition was released in widescreen (matted
to 1.85:1), but to all intents and purposes the picture on this DVD can be zoomed in to
fill a widescreen TV with no complaints as to the picture framing, making all the
incredibly gory moments that much bigger and better. However, no widescreen version
means no chance of an anamorphic picture either which is a shame. The average bitrate
is a very good 7.22Mb/s, regularly peaking over 8Mb/s.
The sound is mono and spends most of its time being loud, very loud or excessively loud,
occasionally to the point of distortion, with sounds of violence and female screams.
Unlike the Region 1 DVD's Dolby Digital 1.0 sound, we get uncompressed Linear PCM Mono.
Extras :
Chapters :
The disc is very well-chaptered with 28 to the 81 minutes of film. There is
no trailer to be found, although one does appear on the American release.
Languages & Subtitles :
The film is in English only, with no subtitles. This seems to be the case for
all of the current batch of BMG releases.
Film information :
A few short pages of information about the Evil Dead trilogy with brief cast
lists, two pages of "Film Facts" and one page detailing a few humourous things
to look out for during the film.
Menu :
The menu is silent and static, with part of the main menu replicating the cover
artwork.
For some reason, there's no "Play Movie" option. If you've already been viewing
part of the film and have come back to the main menu, "Return To Movie" will
take you back, but to start the film from scratch, you'll either need to
select the first scene yourself, or reboot the DVD altogether since it will
begin after the copyright info has been displayed.
Ash wasn't feeling himself today...
After the Video Recordings Act of 1984 was passed and every video available for sale
and rental had to have a certificate by the BBFC, they were reluctant to pass the
original film, simply titled The Evil Dead, uncut as an 18-certificate, so it went
into video limbo for quite some time, only making an appearance in pirate form until
the eventual release which was censored for the scene where a girl is raped by a tree.
This sequel is essentially a re-hash of the first film but with a bigger budget and has
also been trimmed, this time by a few seconds, the details of which I do not
know.
If you're not fussed about extras, then this disc is worth a purchase although those
with laserdisc players may find it's worth checking out the aforementioned NTSC Laserdisc
which also contains a director's commentary track and a 30-minute behind-the-scenes
featurette.
The film ends perfectly with a scene that sets it up just right for the 1993 follow-up,
Army of Darkness: The Medieval Dead.
FILM : *****
PICTURE QUALITY : ***
SOUND QUALITY : **
EXTRAS : *
-------------------------------
OVERALL : **½
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.
