poolandrews Review of The Making of 'Evil Dead II' or the Gore the Merrier

The Making of 'Evil Dead II' or the Gore the Merrier (2000 Video)

A behind-the-scenes look at the special effects of Evil Dead II.

[7/10 · 22 October 2005]

The Making of 'Evil Dead II' or The Gore the Merrier is a short 30 odd minute documentary that was produced by Anchor Bay for their DVD release. The documentary almost entirely focuses on the special make-up effects, it features retrospective interviews with effects team Robert Kurtzman, Howard Berger & Gregory Nicotero who filmed all the camcorder behind-the-scenes footage featured. As you would expect they discuss the effects in a fairly obvious way in the sense of 'we moulded a fake head for that bit' or 'he had a full latex body suit on' sort of thing. What really makes this documentary invaluable for Evil Dead II (1987) fans is the candid on set footage shot by Nicotero, everyone seems very natural & like their having lots of fun. Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell & various other cast & crew members are present in this raw footage but don't appear as interviewees which is a little disappointing as the documentary is very one dimensional & you wish other areas were discussed, nothings perfect I suppose. There are a few brief camcorder shots of scenes that didn't make it into the final cut of the film including the chopped up body of Ed (Richard Domeier) & the puppet with half of his head sliced off along with a scene where the possessed Ash eats a squirrel & one where the possessed head of Linda (Denise Bixler) in the vice vomits green slime over Ash. They talk about some of the effects & scenes that didn't go as planned. The documentary finishes of with a spoof of Re-Animator (1985) called Evil Dead Baby filmed by the effects crew in their spare time, probably. For what it is this is a great insight into the effects of Evil Dead II but I felt it was far too shallow & I would have liked to have seen a bit more participation from other members of the crew. This is essential for Evil Dead II fans but even they may be a little disappointed by how limited it actually is. Having said that it's still definitely worth watching especially since it's a free extra on a DVD.