Mad Max 2 (1981) - Post Apocalyptic Film Review

As I said in my review earlier this week, I got my father the box set of the four Mad Max films for Christmas, due to him having visited the location where Mad Max 2 was filmed while on holiday in Australia recently. Mad Max 2 (also known as Mad Max: Road Warrior) is often placed relatively high on the greatest films of all time lists, and for a time it was thought of as one of the best action films ever made. Spoilers for the first film to follow.

This picks up around five years after the end of the first film, in the intervening years society has continued its downward trajectory, culminating in a worldwide nuclear war which has wiped out the final vestiges of organised society. Max (Mel Gibson - Braveheart, Lethal Weapon series), still broken by the death of his wife and child, has headed deep into the Australian outback, where he fights daily to find fuel for his beloved vehicle, and supplies for him and his dog (aptly named 'Dog'). His journey has him cross paths with the eccentric Gyro Captain (Bruce Spence - Children of the Corn remake, Dark City), who tells Max of a remote community who have untold reservoirs of fuel. Heading there, they discover the place is under siege by a warlord named Humungus (Kjell Nilsson) and his crazed army of marauders. Intending only to get fuel for his car, Max eventually gets caught up in the conflict between the two sides.

This was only the second time I had ever seen Mad Max 2, I can happily state the movie still holds up well today despite some slight issues I had with it. This sequel had a much larger budget than the original, and feels quite different in tone. Where the first film took place within the apocalypse, this is post-apocalyptic and set the benchmark for countless post apocalyptic media to follow. If you want an example, look no further than the legendary manga Fist of the North Star that took massive influence from the world that director George Miller created, I also saw some things here which I would most certainly say influenced Berserk.
My memory of this film was fuzzy, I remembered the fantastic gyrocopter, I also remembered the siege storyline, as well as the feral kid (Emil Minty) with his razor sharp boomerang. I had forgotten how many car chases there were here. When Mad Max: Fury Road released, I enjoyed it, but felt its constant car chases made it feel different. Well, that was down to me, Mad Max was a series of car chases, and while Mad Max 2 dedicates a lot of its story to the siege, it too features lots of car chases. The best one occurs in the films final act which is essentially one long fifteen minute chase sequence.

The film does hold up well today, other than the films score that is. I don't know why, but it sounded to me generic. That may not be fair seeing as I'm saying that about a movie that is over forty years old, but to me it sounded like the type of film score that wouldn't sound out of place in a James Bond film from the sixties. It was perfectly functional, but it wasn't at all memorable. Character-wise this was decent enough. Max, someone who already didn't speak much, does less so. I believe I read that Max only speaks sixteen times over the course of the ninety six minute film. Gyro Captain may be a comedy character, but he works due to the personality that Spence gives him, it also helps that he is more than capable, rather than being a hinderance to Max, he actually helps give the road warrior a more human side. The feral kid also grew on me a lot. On the antagonist side, much like Toecutter from the first movie, Humungus wasn't that thrilling a villain. Originally he was meant to be Max's best friend Goose, who was last seen in a hospital bed after being set ablaze in Mad Max. That would have worked better as an antagonist in my opinion. The most lively antagonist is Wez (Vernon Wells - Weird Science, Innerspace), played fantastically, he is a thorn in Max's side from the opening scene all the way to the end of the movie.

While I personally didn't think much of the music, and while I though this did drag a bit towards the end of the second act, all in all Mad Max 2 was, and remains a fantastic post apocalyptic action film. This was a thrilling film with memorable characters, and some occasionally wince inducing special effects, quite possibly the best of the four films.

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The Evil Dead (1981) - Horror Film Review

Having seen the remake of Evil Dead I had to go back and watch the original. The last time I saw it was many years ago when I watched it three times in a row one awesome day, it is one of my favourite horror films, I even have the poster on my bedroom wall. How does it hold up revisiting it now?

Five friends head up into the woods to an old cabin for a holiday. In the cabin they find a tape recorder, a strange ritualistic looking dagger, as well as a creepy book full of images of demons. Playing the tape they hear a professor talking about discovering an ancient book; the 'Necronomicon' that legend says can summon demons to inhabit the souls of the living. The recording also includes the incantation said to summon the evil dead. True to form it actually works and the horror that claimed the life of the professor is now to unleash itself on the poor friends.

The Evil Dead is certainly a true horror classic, the first film living legend Bruce Campbell got to star in. I remember as a teen watching this and finding it horrific, the 'Deadites' (humans possessed by demons) are relentless, poor Ash (Bruce Campbell) is forced to repeatedly attack and kill his friends, as soon as one is down another one appears. The idea of one long relentless terror filled night used to fill me with dread. Later on I came to see just how funny the film really is, it has a vein of jet black humour running throughout, everything from the over the top scenes of violence to corny dialogue and more gives comedy that may be missed on an initial viewing.

The special effects used on The Evil Dead are really very well done with director Sam Raimi using some novel camera shots. The 'Evil Dead' itself is represented by a camera zooming through the woodlands with a great deep zooming noise used, extreme close ups (such as a wonderful scene between Bruce and his girlfriend) and the iconic shot of the camera rolling across the ceiling. Raimi is not afraid to make the camera a part of the film, adding sound to its movements.

A lot of violence abounds in this film, more than I remember, there is of cause the controversial tree rape sequence that is very well shot, also some gruesome shots that nearly hold up today such as a hand severing, and a pencil jabbed into a characters ankle. The Deadites look grim, heavily made up with contact lenses and lots and lots of makeup. Being a scrappy film there is lots of inconsistencies with the amount of blood on characters clothes varying between scenes. Plenty of blood also, a fantastic sequence in a cellar where the walls spurt out gallons of the stuff, a dying Deadites face exploding in a fountain of gore and the camera itself getting coated in a layer of blood at several points.

The plot is really just an excuse for the horror to occur, there is not much depth to the characters. Scotty is the joker, Shelly his girlfriend, Cheryl the sister, Ash the reluctant hero (after tough guy Scotty is defeated), and Linda; Ash's girlfriend. With such a small cast of just five characters, and the small location of the cabin the thrills come thick and fast

The Evil Dead holds up well, it really is an impressive little film that is creepy despite the bad acting, fantastic direction, awesome camera work, has Bruce Campbell in it, and features one of my favourite horror movie endings of all time. The very definition of a classic!

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Update: 09/12/2020:

I have recently got the Evil Dead trilogy of films on Blu-ray so felt a rewatch of them was in order. The Evil Dead remains a very strong horror film, some of the effects and make-up are not as good as I remember, but then I am watching it on the highest quality transfer yet. Still gotta love that fantastic ending shot.