Evil Dead... funny, scary or both ? (1 Viewer)

[Brian Lloyd]

Have only seen part 2 of this series and was quite entertained. However, do the other films in the series have the same comedic element running thru them ? I find that mixing comedy with horror rarely works (Amercian Werewolf being one of the few that does IMO).

Can anybody recommend some good scary (not slasher) movies? Have just seen The Others and thought it was excellent!

First Post BTW.

Regards to all,

Brian

 

[Philip Hamm]

The Frighteners.

Also Army of Darkness takes the comedy in EDII to new levels. The original ED is not intended as a comedy, but is kind of over the top in a funny way.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

The first Evil Dead is a film contained unto itself. It fits more in the genre of Z-Budget splatter gore much like Peter Jackson's Bad Taste, but with a little more intriguing premise than B.T. Some humor, but it mainly comes in the form of very bad acting.
Evil Dead 2 (Dead By Dawn) is a remake, not a sequel. Sam Raimi, Rob Tappert, and Bruce Campbell had different sensibilities and styles by then and wanted to do a sort of "Take 2" with a slightly bigger budget. However, this time it was laced with much of the same slapstick humor, and "wackycam photography" that shows up in Evil Dead 3 AOD (also Darkman and the Xena/Hercules TV series) while keeping all or most of the splatter (as you've seen) of the original.
Evil Dead 2 and Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness are the real "back to back" sequels. I personally like the theatrical cut of AOD better than the director's cut. All the added scenes (except for the quick lovemaking scene, which is important to a line of dialog stated later in the film) and the "director approved" ending were pretty much unnecessary (a lot of repetition of similar scenes) and slowed the deliberately tight pacing and changed the cool, "tongue firmly planted in cheek" tone of this sequel IMHO.
Groovy.
Dan

 

[Julie K]

Brian,
I hate to tell you, but Evil Dead 2 is one of the classics of the horror/comedy genre Horror/comedy is a heck of a lot more than the lame Scream movies...
I do find the first Evil Dead to be funny, but not nearly as much as the second.
Others in a similar vein to Evil Dead 2:
Bad Taste
Dead Alive
(hmm, with these and Philip's recommendation of Frighteners, we have quite a Peter Jackson thing going on)
Re-Animator
The Convent (coming in December)
Another good mix of horror and comedy is House.
As for non-humorous non-slasher horror movies, I'm going to take this chance to mention one of my favorites - In the Mouth of Madness. Some hate it. Some love it. I love it and consider one of the best Lovecraftian movie there is. (Re-animator is another, and we'll have to wait and see about Dagon )

 

[Alex Spindler]

I'd like to put forward House as a good combination of horror and comedy. There is much to love in this one, although not all regard it as highly. I think you'll find that the Return of the Living Dead and it's first sequel has a lot of humor in it as well, especially since the same actors show up wearing the same clothes.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

My favorite horror-comedy mix films besides Evil Dead 2 are House and Fright Night. Dead Alive/Brain Dead comes close. One could argue that Bride of Frankenstein intentionally mixes horror and comedy as well.
Also, Evil Dead 2 is not a remake. It was intended as a sequel (as explained in great detail on the commentary of the SE DVD and/or laserdisc ) with the prologue being an abridgement of the first film (hmmm? maybe it's both a remake and a sequel ). It feels like a remake because it approaches more or less the identical premise with an altered sensibility. Twist my arm if you will, but I will not call it a re-imagining.
Regards,

 

[Dan Hitchman]

Yes, I agree with House and Fright Night. Classics of the Eighties!

Dan

 

[Matthew Chmiel]

Evil Dead 2 (Dead By Dawn) is a remake, not a sequel.

Evil Dead 2 begins right after the scene with Ash spinning around, and around, and around, and around some more. Everything before that is just telling the people who haven't seen The Evil Dead what happened in the previous film (but what ever happened to those three other people he went to the cabin with, and why does the girlfriend look so different? )

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

Another worthwhile horror/comedy to check out is the Hong Kong film MR. VAMPIRE (1986), the film that made Eastern-style "hopping vampires" popular. Tai Seng distributes the DVD in North America. A CHINESE GHOST STORY (1987) has its share of chills & chuckles, as well. Too bad that Roman Polanski's excellent horror/comedy THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS (1967) isn't on DVD yet.

 

[Brad_W]

Peter Jackson is the King of the horror/comedy genera. See basically any of his films to vomit then laugh. Or laugh while vomiting.

Army of Darkness is comepletely hilarious and probably the most quotable of most horror-comedies.

 

[JeremySt]

The best horror movies that most people I know had never seen (until they came to my house)are:

SUSPIRIA, THE CHANGELING, FRIGHT NIGHT, THE THING(1981), THE FLY (1986)

 

[Brian Lloyd]

Thanks for all your suggestions,

definately a few more titles there for me to check out.

 

[David_N]

Well after reading all the hub-bub about Evil Dead I decided to rent it yesterday. After reading these forums I was under the impression that the movie was a big action flick with some hero ripping off Duke Nukem one liners. I'm sorry to say, but I wasn't impressed. I found the acting, camera work, and story sub b level. In fact it might as well be on the reviews site at something awful. The movie fits all cheezey horror movie cliches: teenagers, old house in secluded woods, zombies, a "monster point-of-view camera", a "I just bought my first home video camera and wrote a script on a restaurant napkin" look to it. Is this one of those movies you had to see back in the day in order to enjoy it today? (Kind of like how I don't mind watching Fright Night.)Is there any good reason I should see the sequels? Did I go into this movie with too high expectations? I don't mean to offend anyone with this post as I know most people swear by this movie. But I just don't see it.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

'Evil Dead 2' is one of my all time favorite horror/comedys! I will also vote for 'Fright Night' and 'House'.
'The Changling' is by far the scariest ghost story ever filmed!
A couple of my other favs are 'Christine' and 'Creepshow'.

 

[Philip Hamm]

David,

Try Evil Dead 2. It's much much better than 1. Actually the badness of ED1 is one of the things people like about it.

 

[PeteD]

I have to disagree with Philip on this one...

Evil Dead 2 is a snorefest.. Great when I was younger and the original Evil Dead was hard to come by.

Since then, I've bought the DVD and can't make it through it..

The original Evil Dead is awesome. It's just plain gross and I think better of the two...

Really the best one is Bruce Campbell vs. The Army Of Darkness (Theatrical cut). The directors cut removes almost all the best lines, although I think the ending is better.

"Yeah, maybe my guys can stop them from getting the book... Yeah, and maybe I'm a Chinese jet pilot."

Classic.

This is all IMHO of course...

P.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

Matthew,

Evil Dead 2 is not Army of Darkness. I think you confused the two. AofD starts off where Evil Dead 2 stops.

Evil Dead 2 and Evil Dead 3: AofD both show off the more current Sam Raimi style of crazy camera work, slap stick/Three Stooges-type humor, and horror. That style got popularized on the Hercules/Xena TV shows also produced by chums Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Rob Tappert.

Dan

 

[John CW]

Just restate what has already been said (but confuses a lot of people) Evil Dead 2 is a *proper* sequel. It actually continues EXACTLY where Evil Dead left off.
The stuff at the beginning is just a recap of the original film (they couldn't get the rights to the footage) with a different actress and the part of Ash's friends cut to speed things up.
Perhaps the most confusing explanation of the previous film's plot ever - But! It does make perfect sense! (You could even splice the three film together as they always continue where the other left off).
~ John