Evil Dead 2: Book of the Dead, Special Limited Edition (DVD)

It’s pretty difficult to review a movie like Evil Dead 2  — it’s been a cult classic for years, and everyone has either already seen it or chosen not to. Now with the umpteenth DVD version, the question will be whether or not it’s worthwhile, for those who are already fans, to buy. What makes this edition special is the collectible packaging (plus a few new features on the disc).

Anchor Bay has made this DVD to look like The Necronomicon Ex Mortis, aka The Book of the Dead. Housed in a specially created “fleshy” cover designed by renowned Evil Dead special effects artist Tom Sullivan and sculpted to replicate the feel of human flesh (if the flesh is made of necrotic rubber), the Evil Dead 2: Book of the Dead 2 also has a special in-package sound chip – just press the bulging eye and hear the book scream! It’s really fun. However, you will have to air the packing out for at least a few days before the noxious rubber smell dissipates.

There are several pages of artwork inside the book on thick parchment-style paper, plus the DVD itself in a slipcase. The newly-produced features for this edition are:

1) Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Sam Raimi, Co-star Bruce Campbell, Co-Writer Scott Spiegel and Special Make-Up Effects Artist Greg Nicotero;

2) All-New Illustrations by Evil Dead special effects artist Tom Sullivan;

3) Evil Dead 2: Behind-The-Screams: Brand-New featurette highlighting the “Deadest” special effects details with Tom Sullivan;

4) The Gore The Merrier Featurette.

I enjoyed listening to the commentary, though I do wonder how “new” it is… Raimi alludes to doing the commentary for laser disc. At any rate, it’s spirited, entertaining, self-deprecating and funny — but probably doesn’t offer any new nuggets for the diehard fan. The behind the scenes featurette, mostly vintage shot-on-video footage by Nicotero is an excellent insider’s look at how the special effects department worked and it’s really quite amazing to see what they did on not only a very low budget but with the low-tech bag of tricks they had available to them at the time (no CGI back in the 80s, folks!).

Overall, Evil Dead 2 still holds up. It was the first of the Evil Dead trilogies that I saw, and it’s still my favorite of the darkly comic trio (though, basically, it is just a remake of Evil Dead with a slightly bigger budget and more physical comedy). Campbell, in a frenzied tour-de-force, is hysterical watch as he gets put through a wringer of terror after his zombified girlfriend and an army of undead bibliophiles come after him with teeth sharpened, and killer instincts honed.

Evil Dead 2 is a definite must-have for fans of zom-com, so if you haven’t bought a copy yet then this special limited edition is the way to go.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson