I believe that the Evil Dead 2 commentary track is one of the most enjoyable and funniest commentary tracks that has ever been recorded. It's not because I am an Evil Dead head, it is actually a hilarious insight into the minds of four of the men responsible for making the film work. They talk shop, they goof on each other, reminisce and generally have a great time together. You can tell these guys are friends and like each other a lot.
The four men involved are Sam Raimi, creator of the Evil Dead franchise.
Bruce Campbell, the star of the Evil Dead franchise (until the inevitable remake).
Scott Spiegel, the co-writer of Evil Dead 2.
Greg Nicotero, special Makeup FX master (who is currently working on The Walking Dead).
So, sit back, crack a brew, hit the bong and enjoy my painstaking work at typing out the full 84 minutes of hilarity and fun of the Commentary track of the masterpiece "Evil Dead 2".
EVIL DEAD II COMMENTARY TRACK
DVD CHAPTER ONE:
BRUCE:
Sam won't tell this phoney story, so I will.
Sam had to shoot that logo.
Is that not true, Sam?
SAM:
That's correct, that's not true.
BRUCE:
Wha... Yeah, because I... because the...
Rosebud was not really a real company.
SAM:
That's right.
Dino Del Laurentis had a company...
uh... D.E.L. Is that it?
BRUCE:
DEG, at the time.
GREG:
Yeah.
SAM:
And uh, he could not release an X rated movie, which the MPAA had rated Evil Dead 2. So we had to make a cheesy new company called Rosebud Releasing and Bruce and I were in love with logos. So, uh, we shot a logo of this rose in front of this fake Warner Brothers type cloudy backdrop. Is that the story?
BRUCE:
That's the story, Sam.
GREG:
LAUGHS
BRUCE:
Say, who are you anyway?
SCOTT:
Aw, you missed all the cool stuff there!
SAM:
But, actually, it was shot by ano... by an animator. We gave him the backdrop, I gave him a storyboard and he actually did the uh stop motion animation.
I cannot remember the guy's name.
BRUCE:
Right. Well, who are you anyway?
SAM:
That what this who... this whole laserdisc is gonna be "What was that guy's name?"
BRUCE:
What was that guy's name? Well, what's your name?
We're supposed to introduce ourselves.
SAM:
Okay. My name is Sam Raimi.
I'm the director of this motion picture you're about to see - Evil Dead 2.
BRUCE:
Scott?
SCOTT:
And I'm Scott Spiegel, co-writer of Evil Dead 2.
BRUCE:
I'm Bruce Campbell, I play the idiot Ash, and I co-produced this epic.
GREG:
Greg Nicotero, special makeup fx.
SCOTT:
And the movie begins...
GREG:
Dun dun dun.
Dun dun dun.
SAM:
The movie's half over already... with that.
GREG:
The first story took us into it.
BRUCE:
This is actually shot in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
GREG:
Wadesboro, North Carolina, that's where we shot this.
SCOTT:
This is the only part of the picture,
I think you guys really just dashed this off.
I absolutely had nothing...
BRUCE:
Right.
Right.
SCOTT:
...to do with this because we weren't sure about the uh the whole beginning sequence, which had some... we couldn't get the footage or something from New Line or Dino couldn't get the footage from New Line.
BRUCE:
Right. This is actually a brand new Linda, Denise Bixler.
SCOTT:
Right.
BRUCE:
And there's been some confusion of whether Ash would be
stupid enough to go back to the cabin for another night
SCOTT:
Right.
BRUCE:
Which of course, he is. But uh that's another story.
GREG:
Well, didn't we actually reshoot the whole opening from the original evil dead with everybody sitting around with the tape recorder and all that stuff? I remember that there was another Scott that we had shot with, I remember.
SCOTT:
Oh really?
GREG:
Yeah, it was like the second day.
SCOTT:
Yeesh, I know we wrote it.
GREG:
I remember shooting it.
SCOTT:
Hmmmm.
SAM:
Ever since the accident... I can't remember.
SCOTT:
Oh, that saucy little tramp! Baby. I am the chip and you are the dip.
BRUCE:
Actually, my favorite thing about her t-shirt is we parade 2 different t-shirts for her to try on. One was a normal t-shirt that just hung normally, the other one was this vacuu-formed one. And I remember Rob Tapert, the producer,. going
[imitates Rob Tapert]
"well, there's no question about it - the vacuu-formed one!"
SCOTT:
HAHA - Robbie! I know, he goes
[imitates Rob Tapert]
"Uh, baby, uh, you wanna play house?
You be the screen door and I'll slam you all night long!'
BRUCE:
HAHAHA!!!
SCOTT:
No, I'm sorry... I'm kidding, Rob. Sorry, Rob, just joking!
BRUCE:
Actually, I wanna talk about that little, that little amulet.
The one that was bought at Corey's Jewel Box in Michigan.
SCOTT:
Corey's Jewel Box?
SAM:
At the [down 12] mall, I think.
BRUCE:
Yes, the [down 12] mall. Sam bought it, didn't you,
because of the reflection gag... or the magnifying gag?
SAM:
Yes, originally in Evil Dead one what we were going to do was use that uh little magnifying glass in the amulet to let the sun shine through it and Ash was gonna witness it burning the book of the dead and he was going to realize at that point that burning the book was the key.
SCOTT:
Right.
SAM:
But, uh, that got cut out.
BRUCE:
So now, we're s.. s.. stuck with the little amulet.
SCOTT:
The fireplace will do just well, thank you.
SAM:
So, we got stuck with that cheesy necklace.
SCOTT:
Right.
SAM:
That's Bruce's dad's tape recorder.
I can remember making tapes with you in high school on that thing.
BRUCE:
Yeah, we used to actually put sound to some of the super 8 movies.
SAM:
Remember that, Scott?
SCOTT:
Absolutely.
Wasn't she married to Steve Guttenberg or something?
GREG:
For awhile.
BRUCE:
She was... for a while.
SCOTT:
For a while.
GREG:
Not anymore.
BRUCE:
So this.. that tape recorder is actually the same tape
recorder from the original Evil Dead movie.
SCOTT:
Right.
BRUCE:
I think it's one of the few actual holdovers cause this entire set was obviously rebuilt.
SCOTT:
And wasn't that a certain scale castle?
GREG:
Yep, there's the forced perspective miniature.
SCOTT:
That was in Wadesboro, right?
GREG:
Yeah
BRUCE:
What kills me is that after months of building
that stupid thing, it looks like a matted in backdrop.
GREG:
It looks... exactly!
SCOTT:
Isn't that funny? But it still looks cool, though.
BRUCE:
It doesn't look real.
SCOTT:
And that's John Peakes on the left.
SAM:
Detroit actor.
SCOTT:
And he's also doing the voiceover right now, right? On the tape...
BRUCE:
Now, a little trivia: the guy who did the voice of the Professor, that same character, in the first Evil Dead is Bob Dorian, who now hosts American Movie Classics.
SCOTT:
Ah, that's right. Cool.
GREG:
No kidding. This was the first day of shooting. this is the first time we did any of the makeups 'cause she has uh henrietta has contact lenses and the makeup. And I remember trying to get the lighting right where she would rock forward into the light and she'd open her eyes and a horrible heinous horror hag...
BRUCE:
Played by Lou Hancock.
SCOTT:
I missed that! You shot that, but it didn't make it in, right?
GREG:
That's right.
SAM:
I really liked that, too.
SCOTT:
That was really cool.
SAM:
It was a good moment, but somehow...
SCOTT:
Too slow.
SAM:
I don't know. It didn't seem to fit in the pace of this.
SCOTT:
Right.
BRUCE:
Sam, I have a question: was that clock the original clock, as well?
SAM:
That is the original clock.
BRUCE:
I think that was a holdover, too.
SAM:
The clock and the tape recorder both sat...
TO BE CONTINUED...
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