Director – Sam Raimi.
Writer – Sam Raimi, Scott Spiegel.
Year Created – 1987.
Genre/Sub Genre – Comedy/Fantasy/Horror.
Country – USA.
Budget - $3,600,000 (Estimate).
Gross: $5,923,044 (USA).
Age Certificate – 15+.
Evil Dead 2 Poster Deconstruction
Characters:
-Bruce Campbell – Ash Williams
-Sarah Berry – Annie Knowby
-Dan Hicks – Jake
-Kassie DePaiva – Bobby Joe
-Ted Raimi – Possessed Henrietta
-Denise Bixler – Linda.
-Richard Domeier – Professor Ed Getley
-John Peaks – Professor Knowby
-Lou Hancock – Henrietta Knowby
Overview of Evil Dead 2: Evil Dead 2 is a film about a man called Ash who arrives at a Cabin disclosed in the Forest with his Girlfriend Linda. Their plans for a romantic weekend get cut short when Ash plays a tape recorder with reads a passage from something called “The Book of the Dead”. This summons the undead from which Linda is kidnapped and murdered. As the night goes on, strange events begin to occur to Ash one of which involves him beheading Linda’s controlled Corpse. As more events are brought to place, Ash ends up having to cut off his hand. Around this time, Annie, the daughter of the Professor who owns the cabin arrives with two people named Jake and Bobby Joe. Seeing the mess and her parents missing she assumes that Ash is a murderer and lock him in the basement. After realisation, they let him out and attempt to figure out how to escape. This leads to the spirit of the Professor arriving and explaining that the only way to defeat the evil is to read a passage from the final pages of the book from which Annie brought with her. As Bobby Joe runs off in fear, Jake turns on Ash and Annie who are unwilling to go into the forest to look for her seeming how they see the realisation of what happened to Bobby Joe. As Jake is murdered, Annie reads the last few passages as they fight for their lives against the main monster; they successfully open the portal to vanquish the dead although Ash gets sucked into it too. This leads him to the 14
thCentury from where he is forced to battle against more of the dead, imprisoning him in this time period and concluding the film.
Todorov’s theory in placement of this film: When reviewing this film, there are key points that can be linked back to Todorov’s theory of how a story is placed. His theory is as follows:
-Equilibrium (Normality).
-Disequilibrium (Conflict/Disruption of the Equilibrium).
-Recognition of the disequilibrium (Notices the disruption).
-Attempts to repair the disequilibrium.
-New equilibrium (New normality).
When looking at this, we can see how this is shown within Evil Dead 2. Below I will give examples referring to the story as to how this theory is carried out in this film.
Equilibrium-Ash and his girlfriend Linda expect a romantic weekend out, staying the night in a nice, peaceful cabin out in the woods secluded from the rest of society.
Disequilibrium– Ash plays a tape recorder which states passages that summon the undead by reading a segment from “The book of the dead”. This summons the undead into the forest.
Recognition of disequilibrium – As the Ash hears a scream from his girlfriend Linda, he investigates to find her missing and the window smashed, presuming she has been kidnapped or is dead. It is at this point where the realisation of what is going on happens and the equilibrium is disturbed.
Attempts to repair disequilibrium – The fight for survival whilst finding a way to vanquish the undead summoned, with help from others he manages to send the dead back into a portal which banishes them from the current time zone.
New equilibrium – Ash has landed in the 14th century where he will begin to fight off the undead there and is seen as a saviour to the people of that time for defeating the undead they encounter.
Levi Strauss’s theory in placement of this film: When we look at Levi Strauss’s theory, he believes that there are common characteristics hidden behind how we see the Hero and the Villain in a film. We can see his theory shown below:
HERO
|
VILLAIN
|
Good
|
Evil
|
Native
|
Outside
|
Love
|
Hate
|
Handsome
|
Ugly
|
When we look at this in comparison to the hero and villain of Evil Dead 2, we can see that this fits in very well shown below as the hero being someone who would be your average guy with nothing wrong in his life compared to this evil, disgusting demon.
After looking at the above images, we can see that Levi Strauss’s theory ties in very well with this film, displaying the main characters through specific characteristics in their appearances and this will change how the audience’s views on both characters will be.
As this film is of the horror genre, we see how the characters standardised settings are placed in with this theory too. This is because Levi Strauss had a theory as to how certain characters were symbolised by the settings and their back stories to give a different impression towards the audience, giving them a liking towards what character they prefer.
GOOD
|
EVIL
|
Day
|
Night
|
Light
|
Dark
|
Christian
|
Supernatural
|
Innocence
|
Violation
|
Barthes’s theory in relation to this film – Action Code: When we look at Barthes theory, it has slight relations towards Todorov’s theories. This allows us to already have some idea behind how we will anticipate the films ending and judge it at the end once we see the results. When looking directly at the horror genre, there are specific things we can learn from this as to how specific characters will act.
Action
|
Assumption
|
Going into a dark alley/room alone
|
Going to die
|
Being promiscuous or flirty/suggestive
|
Going to die
|
Virgin, good hearted female
|
Will live
|
When looking at this, we can link it straght back to Evil Dead 2 by the following:
Action
|
What Happens
|
Runs into Forest alone
|
Dies
|
Runs after his Girlfriend in the Forest
|
Dies
|
Tries to save them all
|
Lives from what we know of
|
Barthe’s theory in relation to this film – Enigma Code: Another one of Barthe’s theories is the “Enigma Code”. This is usually based around the Thriller/Mystery Sub-Genre and leaves the spectator wondering who the killer is and why they are doing this. This is used to leave the audience questioning the actions of a character, drawing up a mystery in the plot. In ways, this links back to Evil Dead 2 in the sense that we have a slight understanding as to who the killer is but we don’t have an idea as to why they are carrying out these actions. This leaves the audience wondering as to why the actions are actually happening and if they will be explained in the future.
Barthe’s theory in relation to this film – Semantic Code: Barthe’s theory on the “Semantic Code” relates into the main connotations of the film. This lets us link certain items into a stereotypical representation. For example, the colour red links back to Blood in the Horror Genre. This as shown in Evil Dead 2 describes murder or pain amongst a character and sets common characteristics for Horror. It also sets common iconic items into placement, such as the Machete becoming a very well-known item for the Horror Genre. In relation to Evil Dead 2, we have the chainsaw as an iconic weapon seen in many other Horror films allowing a connection between this and another film.
Barthe’s theory in relation to this film – Symbolic Code: This theory allows us to see characteristics described in the characters dominance in the situations. This lets us link how they react to certain situations depending on the current actions. If we look at Evil Dead 2, we see that this theory is argued against for quite a bit of the film. This is with Ash and Annie showing strength and courage in comparison to Jake and Bobby Joe who are both petrified. This battles Gender stereotypes with a strong male and female in conjunction with a weak male and female. This balances Gender representation and sets an equality issue in the film.Barthe’s theory in relation to this film– Cultural Code: When looking at this theory, it is how the audience relates the events of the film to a historical event. This lets us see a relation to events and places that have occurred in the past giving us an understanding into current events in this time period. I personally would say this is challenged in Evil Dead 2 seeming how it doesn’t give much of a background into the historical events. Although, at the end of the film we see the 14th Century, giving an understanding into common beliefs of the people of this time, being afraid of demons.
Propp’s theory in relation to this film – 7 Spheres of Action
Hero: When looking at the film, the character sent there to protect them is portrayed mainly as Ash, risking his life to push back the spirits of the Dead.
Villain: The villain in Evil Dead 2 is clear to be the dark spirits that come from the Book of the Dead. This is because of all their destructive powers and in relation to all the people that were killed because of this.
Dispatcher: There isn’t really a Dispatcher displayed within the film. Although I chose to put Ash as the Dispatcher. This is because he is the one to initially start his own journey by fighting for survival to restore the equilibrium.
Donor: In my opinion, the Donor of Evil Dead 2 would have to be Annie’s Father, the Professor. This is because of the information he gives them regarding the remaining pages of the Book of the Dead and its abilities to vanquish the evil.
Helper: I would say Annie is the Helper seeming how she is the only other one actually putting in any form of effort to defeat the evil. We see this through her attempts to get the pages and her ability to read them.
Heroine: The Heroine would also have to be Annie; this is because by the end of the film she seems to be the one that Ash is protecting. This gives Annie connection to the Hero and although it isn’t a happy ending with them together, he protects her with his life and she lives from what we know.
False Hero: The main moment when a False Hero is displayed is when Jake turns on Ash and Annie to go looking for Bobby Joe. This shown him turning on the Hero and Heroine to complete his own goals, displaying his form of betrayal.
This battles Gender stereotypes with a strong male and
female in conjunction with a weak male and female. This balances Gender
representation and sets an equality issue in the film.
