EVIL EDITING

Necronomicon Ex Mortis. Roughly translated: the Book of the Dead. Bound in human flesh and inked in blood, it contains bizarre rituals and funerary incantations. It awoke a dark spirit deep in the woods, helped by some unwitting college kids who trespassed into an archaeologist's cabin and played a tape reciting an incantation from the book. The last man standing is Ashley J. Williams, who would go on to become the cult hero of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy.

In Evil Dead II, after Ash had seemingly defeated the evil and it returned to try to possess him, he tries to make a break for it only to discover the bridge leading to the road bakc has been curled up into a mangled metallic hand. Ash finds himself corralled back to the cabin by an unseen force that chases after him.

During the chase sequence, the prominent technique used are dolly shots, as the camera plays the roll of the "force" whenever it appears on film. The audience never sees exactly what it is that chases people down, but the shaky camera technique helps to give the illusion of something organic as well as creating a sense of speed even if the car itself wasn't going all that fast.

Between the chase sequence, there are a couple of jump cuts to close-ups of Ash reversing the car and speeding off, as well as intermittent jump cuts inside the car to get his reaction as the chase continues. These were useful to help build up the suspense, to make us feel the character's fear and to keep the scene from being just boring external shots. They were also tightly shot which made the viewer feel like they were inside the car.

Although the camera usually stays behind the car, there is one jump cut with the camera at ground-level looking up as the car roars over it. After Ash crashes the car and flies out of the windshield, he runs back into the cabin where the "force" chases and loses him. The chase ends in a 360 degree pan shot before it tracks backwards back out into the woods.

There's one final cut to a medium close-up of Ash looking up from the cellar door, terrified. The tight shot helps to give the viewer a sense of the enclosed space he's now hidden himself. All these cuts help to heighten the mood and urgency of the scene.


Starting at 2:08.