Evil Dead 2 Horror Film Analysis

Evil Dead II Film Analysis

Evil Dead two was released in 1987, and is set in the USA. The genre of the film is a supernatural horror, due to the evil antagonists featured aren’t human beings, but a spirit taking over the characters bodies. However there are some comedy elements throughout the narrative.

The film follows Toderov’s classic narrative structure theory. At the start of the film there is equilibrium, by everything being fine within the world; and the two main protagonists seem to be going on a romantic trip away. However this equilibrium is broken when an event takes place. This point is when the male protagonist plays the tape player, and awakes the evil spirit by speaking the Latin script. This conventionally happens in the early stages of the film, and Evil dead follows this convention. The next part of Toderov’s theory after the event, is the recognition. In the film this stage occurs when the protagonist’s girlfriend is taken over by the evil spirit, and what we think has be kidnapped by an unknown source. This is the start of plot of the film, by this death being followed by a variety of other characters. The next stage of the theory is the resolution, and in Evil Dead II the situation is resolved by the female protagonist reciting the rest of the Latin script in order to banish the evil spirit from the cabin. And the final stage of Toderov’s theory is a new equilibrium, and in the film this is when we see the main protagonist transported into a new world, where he has destroyed the evil.

The film is set in a cabin in the woods, which is an isolated location which is conventional to see in a horror genre, and it establish the idea the there is no help and gives the feeling of helplessness to the characters, also stating the fact that there is no contact with the outside world; so the characters have to fend for themselves in order to survive. You can tell from the accents of the local characters that the cabin is situated in the southern parts of America. It is extremely conventional for the setting of a film to connote vulnerability in a horror film, as it makes the audience feel more sympathy for the characters.

Evil Dead II has conventional aspects which are iconic to the horror genre. For example the lighting used throughout is low light and set a night which is stereotypical for horror, and you would expect most horrors to take place at night time, due to darkness leading to the unknown connoting fear which is a representational feeling of the horror genre. There is also iconic sound used in this film, for example the background sound track corresponds with the plot, by it becoming tenser in the action scenes. This is conventional to see in a horror film due to it adding anticipation which is a stereotypical emotion to feel while watching a film of this genre.  It follows some iconic conventions such as sound effect used, for example the scenes with the chainsaw the sound effect has been added in in post-production to heighten the effect it has on the audience by being more prominent. Another form on iconography used in the film is having one character survive. In conventional horror films one or more of the characters survive, whilst the rest are killed, and it is usually the protagonist; the hero.

The characters in this film follow some of the conventional types that were established by Vladimir Propp, this is known as the ‘Propp character type theory’. The main male character would be giving the title of the hero, due to him killing the evil villains in the film and trying to save the other characters. He is a stereotypical hero do to factors such as his appearance being tall, strong and handsome; but also due to him having leadership qualities to his character. However the female main character would be a heroine, as she is the person to destroy the evil at the end of the film and therefore ‘saves the day.’ This characters challenges conventions of a horror film, by you would expect a blonde, female to be the a ‘damsel in distress’ type character; especially when she has been hypersexualised through elements such as makeup and clothing in order to be perceived as beautiful for the purpose of male gaze. You would stereotypically expect this character to be reliant on the hero to survive in the film, and although she does this in specific scenes, she is the one who reads the Latin passage, and saves the day.  One of the characters that is the opposite to the heroine is ‘Bobby Jo’ as she is uneducated, lower class female, and hinders the situation of the characters by running blinding into the forest.  Bobby Jo’s husband is a false hero in the film, as he starts off being a helper, by being part of the group trying to destroy the evil; however he turns on the two main characters when his wife goes missing and he wants to find her.

Evil dead follows Levi-Strauss’ narrative structure in terms of binary opposite. For example there is a main theme of good vs evil, by the human character are good and they have to fight and destroy the evil spirit. This is a conventional theme that you stereotypically would expect to see in most horror films. One of the other binary opposites used is known vs Unknown, which is specific to the sub genre of horror. For example in this film are the human characters vs the unknown supernatural, and from due to the audience being able to identify with the human characters, as the audience you want them to succeed and win against the unknown.

In the Evil Dead II the genders of the characters are representation in a certain way, however some aren’t conventional for a horror film. The main male character follows the traditional ideology, by him being masculine, handsome, brave making him be a conventional hero, which is stereotypically male in a film. However the main female characters challenge the traditional ideology, by her taking on the role of the heroine. It is conventional for a blonde female to be the damsel in distress and have to be rescued, however in Evil Dead II she opposes this by in one of the final scenes she recites the passages killing the antagonist spirit and saving the day.

Throughout the film the audience is placed to feel on the side of the human characters instead of the supernatural spirit. This is conventional for a horror due to the fact that the evil spirit represents death and murder, which the consumer would associate with being bad and being against. The audience wants the characters to prevail because they may be able to relate to a specific character, and would want to succeed if they were in the position. The audience is also placed on this side due to certain elements in the film added in pre- production. For example having chosen music appear when the evil is present which would connote the feeling of fear, with is a negative feeling and make you be positioned to be against this evil.