Evil Dead 2 Analysis

Evil Dead 2

Evil Dead 2 is an American horror and comedy film made in 1987. The film is directed by Sam Raimi and produced by Robert Tapert. As the film is a horror film, the audience are going to have certain expectations within the movie. They are expecting low key lighting, scary settings (stereotypically in areas with dense trees) and some kind of villain/evil being.

Moving on to the narrative structure of the film, the film follows the classic Hollywood narrative. This structure includes the following key elements: Equilibrium, disruption (event takes place), recognition of the disruption, resolution and finally the new equilibrium. I will start with the equilibrium. The equilibrium is at the very start of the film, where the male and female character has travelled to a wooden cabin in the middle a dense forest for a relaxing weekend away. This then leads to the disruption. Stereotypically the disruptions in horror films are all very similar, it normally occurs when something is found around the house (normally a book or some special pages) which has the ability to summon supernatural beings. In this movie it is where the lead male character turns on the tape recording. This then leads on to the recognition; this is when the couple notice that supernatural beings have been entered into this world. Quickly after this is the resolution attempt, which is when everyone in the house tries to fight off the evil beings and save them. This is usually the longest area of the narrative in films; this area is also where the main action and jump scares happen which the audience expects. Finally, they defeat the evil and send it back to where it came from, which is where the new equilibrium comes along and everything is back to normal.

Moving on to the setting of the film, I have already partly mentioned this but I will go into more depth with it. As I said earlier the location is a small wooden cabin in a dense forest on a little island. This is very stereotypical and is a great place for a horror to be set, as they are in a very tight, dense and secluded area. This gives off a trapped feel to the film, which helps add to the tension, as there is no way out for the characters. Also, the setting of the film is predominately seen at night, as this is very heavily stereotyped with evil and scary things. If the film was all shot at day it wouldn’t have the same effect as at night, as the audience would be able to clearly see what is going on. But, with the film being shot at night, the audience’s view of the setting is very limited.

Now, I am going to talk about the iconography of this film, meaning I will talk about what the audience expects to see to in the movie. I mentioned this briefly in the introduction paragraph, but I am going to be going into it in much more depth. To start with I am going to talk about the mise-en-scene. The first piece of mise-en-scene I am going to look at is lighting.