I much prefer the more straight horror of the original to the camp of the second. I’m not even sure if I’ve seen Army of Darkness.
Within the Woods can be found on various torrent sites, a VHS to digital rip but still watchable. It’s very good, surprisingly like Evil Dead 2 actually.
I voted for Evil Dead 2. It did not take itself seriously like the first one, although it too was a great movie, but as a teenager, watching the final scene just blew my mind away. You go from evil house, evil spirits, demons, all of it, leading to getting dumped into this medieval world. It was just the most amazing payoff and completely out of left field.
ED2 was a horror? I thought it was a comedy.
I picked ED2 but AOD comes in a very close second.
Part of what makes these movies such comedic genius is the camera work. Zoom in, zoom out, zoom in, zoom out. I also loved how if the hero fell down on the ground fighting off some demon creature, the camera man would also fall down right along with him. Classic.
I liked AoD. Great quotes, great story and good humor.
ED2’s twist ending was pretty cool as well, but I think the vortex to get there was a bit much. Although I did enjoy seeing the Caddy (or whatever) fall with Ash. I did think the whole scene with the “mini-Ashes” was a bit over the top. Or rather, under the bridge.
ED, by a large margin. (A+)
ED2 is dumb, and not in a good way. (D)
AoD is dumb, in a good way, but so’s mud wrestling. (B+)
ED had scenes that were actually scary, and scary scenes are more rare than competent actresses. It’s a classic, the others are just assembly line product.
I never really got all the love for the original movie as a horror flick. I watched it just before starting undergrad, and we MST3K’d the hell out of it. Wasn’t difficult, either–apparently EVIL has a really hard time with doors, and Ash was always just sorta hanging out in the background, displaying some sort of idiot-savant genre savvy by avoiding just about every horror movie trope you could imagine.
But then, I’m not a horror fan. A friend made me watch The Ring one time. Apparently it’s supposed to be good too, and I demolished it as well.