ⓘ Details

Movie TitleEvil Dead II

Release DateMarch 13, 1987 in the United States

TaglineDead by dawn.

Runtime84 minutes / 1 hour 24 minutes

DirectorSam Raimi

Screenplay Written BySam Raimi and Scott Spiegel

Based OnCharacters and the cabin-in-the-woods nightmare world created in The Evil Dead

Is It a Remake?No. It is officially a sequel to The Evil Dead, although its opening retells and reworks the first film’s setup in a compressed, alternate way.

BudgetApproximately $3.5 million

Box OfficeApprox. $5.9 million worldwide

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👥 Main Cast

Bruce CampbellAsh Williams

Sarah BerryAnnie Knowby

Dan HicksJake

Kassie Wesley DePaivaBobby Joe

Richard DomeierEd Getley

Denise BixlerLinda

John PeakesProfessor Raymond Knowby

Lou HancockHenrietta Knowby

Ted RaimiPossessed Henrietta

Snowy WintersDancer

Sol AbramsFake Shemp

Josh BeckerFake Shemp

Scott SpiegelFake Shemp

Thomas KiddFake Shemp

Mitch CantorFake Shemp

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🏆 Awards

⭐ Saturn Award Nominee — Best Horror Film

⭐ Saturn Award Nominee — Best Special Effects

⭐ Saturn Award Nominee — Best Makeup

⭐ Sitges Film Festival Nominee — Best Film

⭐ Fantasporto Award Nominee — International Fantasy Film Award

⭐ No Academy Award nominations were verified for the film.

⭐ No Golden Globe nominations were verified for the film.

⭐ The film’s real trophy is cult status: one of the most beloved horror-comedy sequels ever made, powered by gore, slapstick, camera mayhem, and Bruce Campbell getting beaten up by the entire movie.

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📖 Short Plot Summary

Ash Williams takes his girlfriend Linda to a remote cabin, finds a tape recording of passages from the Necronomicon, and accidentally unleashes the same ancient evil that absolutely no one should ever read aloud, record, play back, translate, or casually leave near a tape deck. After Linda is possessed and the cabin turns into a demonic funhouse, Ash is trapped with deadites, hallucinations, a severed hand with attitude, and a chainsaw that becomes the most useful prosthetic in horror history. Evil Dead II is part sequel, part reimagining, part haunted-house ride, and part live-action cartoon where every wall, deer head, corpse, and camera angle wants Ash dead by dawn.

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❝ Key Quotes

“Groovy.” — Ash Williams

“I’ll swallow your soul!” — Henrietta

“Swallow this.” — Ash Williams

“We just cut up our girlfriend with a chainsaw. Does that sound fine?” — Ash Williams

“Dead by dawn! Dead by dawn!” — Deadite

“Someone’s in my fruit cellar!” — Henrietta Knowby

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💡 Trivia

Director

Evil Dead II was directed by Sam Raimi.
Raimi co-wrote the screenplay with Scott Spiegel.
The film is the second entry in the Evil Dead franchise, following The Evil Dead and preceding Army of Darkness.
Raimi pushes the sequel toward full horror-comedy, mixing splatter, slapstick, haunted-house shocks, and Looney Tunes body abuse.
The result is basically a demon movie directed like a carnival ride by someone who thought the camera should be allowed to attack the actors too.

Cast / Casting

Bruce Campbell returns as Ash Williams and fully transforms the character into the chainsaw-handed cult icon fans know today.
Sarah Berry plays Annie Knowby, the daughter of Professor Raymond Knowby.
Dan Hicks plays Jake, the rough local who helps lead Annie and the others to the cabin.
Kassie Wesley DePaiva, credited as Kassie Wesley, plays Bobby Joe.
Denise Bixler plays Linda in the retold opening section.
Ted Raimi, Sam Raimi’s brother, plays the full-body possessed Henrietta creature, enduring one of the movie’s least comfortable makeup gigs.

Soundtrack / Score

Joseph LoDuca composed the film’s score.
LoDuca also scored the original The Evil Dead.
The music supports the film’s wild tonal swings, moving from creepy cabin dread to full demonic circus chaos.
The score helps sell the movie’s warped fairy-tale feeling, especially once the cabin stops behaving like a location and starts behaving like a laughing monster.
It is one of those horror scores where every sting sounds like Ash is about to be slapped by a corpse, because he probably is.

Location

The story takes place at a remote cabin in the woods.
Principal photography took place in North Carolina, including Wadesboro.
Much of the cabin interior work was filmed on sets, allowing Raimi to control the wild camera movement, trap doors, blood gags, and effects chaos.
The cabin setting became one of horror’s most iconic cursed locations.
Very few movies have done more with one cabin, one chainsaw, and one man absolutely losing a fight with home ownership.

Behind-The-Scenes

The film was produced by Robert Tapert.
Renaissance Pictures produced the film.
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group was involved in financing and distribution, while Rosebud Releasing Corporation handled the U.S. release.
The reported production budget was approximately $3.5 million.
The film grossed about $5.9 million worldwide.
Stephen King’s support of the first Evil Dead helped keep the franchise alive and contributed to Dino De Laurentiis financing the sequel.

Nostalgia

Evil Dead II became a cult classic and is often cited as one of the best horror-comedy sequels ever made.
The chainsaw hand, “Groovy,” the laughing cabin sequence, and Ash fighting his own possessed hand are some of the franchise’s most iconic moments.
The movie helped define Bruce Campbell’s screen persona as a swaggering, suffering, one-liner machine.
Its mix of gore and comedy influenced decades of splatter-comedy and midnight-movie horror.
It is the rare sequel where “same cabin, more insanity” is not a criticism. It is the entire selling point.

Easter Eggs

The film’s opening retells parts of The Evil Dead in a simplified form because the filmmakers did not have the rights to use footage from the original movie.
The “Fake Shemp” credit tradition continues, with friends and crew filling in for various stand-ins and effects shots.
The Necronomicon Ex-Mortis remains the franchise’s cursed engine, because apparently no one in this universe believes in locking up evil books.
The chainsaw-hand moment turns Ash from unlucky survivor into horror-action icon.
The ending sends Ash through time, setting up the medieval direction that becomes Army of Darkness.
The movie’s title can confuse viewers because it is a sequel, a partial recap, and a tonal reboot all at once, which is very appropriate for a film where logic is repeatedly hit with a shovel.

Misc.

Evil Dead II is rated R.
The movie runs 84 minutes.
The film was released in the United States on March 13, 1987.
Box Office Mojo lists the film’s domestic gross at about $5.9 million.
The Numbers lists the production budget at approximately $3.5 million.
Your 3 Guys and a Flick ratings page lists Evil Dead 2 as Episode 7, with Don rating it 1.00, Ken rating it 1.00, Jon rating it 3.50, and an overall rating of 1.83.

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