Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn

Why, hello to you too.

Groovy! Brilliant! Magnificent! A hand possesed by a demonic entity, while still attached to its owner (the evil-smiting Ash) that gets to wreak considerable havoc, usually to poor Ash. When things get intolorable, Ash cuts his hand off, and the little manautotentome not only keeps it up, he does so with renewed vigour and deviousness, having lost all the extra weight south of the forearm. The hand even racks up a small but signifigant body count (in a move with eight characters, three of which are dead before it begins, every body counts); truly a master of its craft.

When Ash (Bruce Campbell) takes a trip out to an abandoned cabin in the middle of nowhere with his girlfriend Lisa, one obviously expects that he will have a relaxing time in the fresh air, and return home with renewed vigor, content in the notion that Life Is Good. But wait! Against all possible logic, everything does not go perfectly well! It seems that some professor had made a recording of part of the Necronomicon (the Book of the Dead) in that very cabin, and evil spirits are about, posessing convenient people, objects, and, of course, hands. Can Ash hold off the Evil for as long as it takes to get rid of it? Can Ash escape the Evil's clutches? Can Ash attach a modified chainsaw to his bloody arm stump? By God, yes he can!

This is what some people would call a dark comedy, and some others would call the best movie ever made. Bruce Campbell embodies Ash perfectly, and everyone else does their best to be noticed beside him. Don't blame Campbell though, he could very well outshine everyone else on the screen even if he were covered in mud, facing the wrong way, and in fact in another movie altogether. As far as the hand goes, it never fails to show malice towards the big lump at its wrist, and even post-wrist it manages to be deviously clever in the way it taunts the poor lug. You may be interested to know that in my alternate fantasy universe, the hand got its own short-lived animated series on FOX, wherein it created mayhem throughout the world while an elete military group lead by Tom Palmer ("Seinfeld"'s Patrick Warburtun) tried to destroy it. Alas, no such show in our universe... yet.

Even when Ash falls asleep on the job, his hand makes sure all the chores get done.

Rating: Index finger. Oh yes, I'd recommend this movie to everyone. Even people that would die if they ever saw a movie, they need to see it. They will die happy.