There is something to appreciate when horror deviates from the typical slice and dice. Sometimes it involves demonic possessions (Exorcist), blood-thirsty sharks (Jaws), killer dolls (Child’s Play) or even a shape-shifting organism (The Thing). The horror genre has constantly evolved over-time but today we’re going to go totally left field and have a matchup for the ages between the originator and the emulator. One that involves the book of the dead and deadites while the other brings blood-hungry demons, mystical daggers, and roundhouse loving magicians. Yes, it’s all there with plenty to chew on, and there are no qualms about it, well sort of. We have in our Horror Movie Rip-off ring, 1990’s Demon Wind directed by Charles Philip Moore (get it HERE) and 1987’s Evil Dead II directed by Sam Raimi (get that one HERE). Did Demon Wind rip a page right out of Evil Dead’s Necronomicon for their own, and tried to do it better? Let’s get our boom stick, our Kandarian Dagger, and dive right in.

ASH AND CORY AND THEIR ALTER-EGOS

Both films display their main stars Cory and Ash have a flipside to them that helps further propel the story forward. In Evil Dead II when Ash lets the Book of the Dead incantation play through the tape player, the evil flies through the forest and launches him, turning him into a deadite as he comes up head from a muddy puddle of water. Ash on multiple occasions prevents Annie, Bobby Joe, and Jake from defeating evil while in his deadite form. However, when Ash holds Linda’s necklace while possessed, his trapped human form takes hold again and he goes back to destroying some deadite baddies. In Demon Wind, when we find out that the café owner Harcourt is the son of Satan towards the end of the movie, Cory needs to think up a gameplan. He realizes he can become a higher-being from God, with the help of his grandmother’s diary, to go head-to-head with this massive foul-looking beast. Both Ash and Cory have a flipside to their human counterparts on screen. While one relishes in evil becoming the enemy he has sought out to destroy, the other becomes an alien-like figure that fights evil and protecting the woman he loves.

THE GANGS All HERE!

Both Evil Dead and Demon Wind, as well as any ther horror movie typically has a group of meat fodder thrown in for good measure. In Evil Dead II, Ash brings his love interest Linda to the desolate cabin, and when all things go haywire, the movie brings in some characters to the mix including Annie, who is the daughter of archeologist Raymond Knowby, you know the guy who recorded the Necromoicon passages so that the evil forces could live on and possess more innocent bystanders. Then there is Annie’s boyfriend, Ed, and lastly the locals, Bobby Joe and Jake, who know where the cabin is to guide Annie and Ed. Soon enough, majority of them fall victim to the horrors that await them. In Demon Wind, you get almost the opposite of Evil Dead’s gang. Most of them look like they came out of a Rick Roll Video with those slick hairstyles, but majority of them fall to such wooden typecasts – the jock, Dell, the nerdy ones – Jack, Terri, and Chuck, And then you have all the females who try to be wannabe scream queens, and become absolutely forgettable by the time Demon Wind is over. I would like to mention that while Evil Dead II you see the camaraderie and care with those in the group, Demon Wind plays out the opposite. One of them turns into a doll that gushes blood, and the group doesn’t even bother to shed a tear! It does make up for some great laughs in return for the absurdity of it all.

THOSE DAMN BOOKS!

You know it’s bad news when a certain book possesses macabre scriptures of the unknown and skin covered bindings to them with an evil looking face to it. A real page-turner that can bring about the worst nightmares. Well Evil Dead II is infamously known for its Book of the Dead aka The Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. Archeologist Raymond Knowby has recorded several passages from the book and when Ash plays these recorded incantations, the evils comes alive, causing mass chaos in its path to the likes of hell-spawn demons known as deadites, ravenous trees, blood spewing walls, cellar-dwelling creatures, and more nasty delights. In Demon Wind, there is a book, but it’s the flipside to the evil Necronomicon from Dead. This book was a diary with spells that was hidden by Cory’s grandmother, Regina within her farmhouse. The diary would help fight the demons that were unearthed 60 years back and are ready to return once Cory and his friends stay the night. The book is a useful resource as it provides a barrier around the house to keep Cory and his friends safe. It also transforms Cory into a higher-being to fight off the big bad Satan-monster at the end. You can’t help but laugh when his higher-being transformation belongs more in a Galaxy Quest film than a Demon Wind film.

DEADITES, DEMONS, AND BLOOD – OH MY!

Deadites are always the main villains of the Evil Dead films. Known for their abilities to change appearance to throw off an unsuspected victim, to contorting their bodies in very unnatural ways, deadites are viciously uncompromising and downright ghastly to watch. They are unearthed once the Necronomicon’s incantations are spoken by the one person who wants to spice up their life a little bit. These deadites are extremely hard to kill, chopping off limbs won’t do much unless you go for the head. They pack quite a punch, or in this film, quite a bite. They can also shapeshift into nasty mutant creatures that look like something out of Carpenter’s The Thing. In Demon Wind, the demons also can change their appearance into average human beings, some are even quite the lookers, before quickly turning into deadite wannabe ghouls. They bite, slash, and savagely attack their prey. They are quite nasty to look at as well, and some well-placed gun shots or magical daggers will do the trick. Yes, you’ll absolutely get Evil Dead vibes from these demons because they act almost entirely the same. Still fun to watch though even if its ripped right from Evil Dead lore. Even funnier is that when Evil Dead II has a scene involved possessed trees towards the end of the film, Demon Wind has a scene involving laughing trees which may be a subtle nod to Evil Dead II? How about this one, in Demon Wind, Reena goes up to an Animal skull hanging in the barn next to the farmhouse. It comes alive, wrapping a tongue around her head and starts chomping away. Again, you go back to Evil Dead II when the deer head on the wall turns its neck and starts laughing maniacally. All these Demon Wind scenes are homages or emulations to that of Evil Dead II but feel more like watered-down copies.

TRAPPED IN PARADISE

Coincidentally Demon Wind has a very similar setting to that of Evil Dead II. While Evil Dead II takes place in a desolate cabin in the woods far away from civilization, Demon Wind takes place at a desolate farmhouse far off the beaten path, involving long windy roads, and hills. The only thing working in Demon Wind’s favor is Harcourt’s Café not too far from where the farmhouse resides. The owner of Harcourt’s Café is a geriatric, odd man who warns Cory and his friends to turn around and go home. In Evil Dead II when Ash and Linda make it to the cabin, and things start going off the rails, Ash realizes that he must leave only to be stopped dead in his tracks when the bridge has been destroyed, preventing him from leaving. In Demon Wind, Cory and his friends become trapped when all their cars malfunction. Once they try walking away from the dangers that lurk at the farmhouse, a fog consumes them, unwilling to let them leave. The same fog that brings about those pesky demons at night.

SAME CAMERA TRICKS, TWO DIFFERENT CINEMATOGRAPHERS

In Demon Wind, you’d think that cinematographer Peter Deming, from Evil Dead II was the man behind the camera. However, it was cinematographer Thomas L. Callaway who took a page from Evil Dead cinematographer Peter Deming towards the overall look of the film. In Demon Wind the camera work is eerily like that of Evil Dead II. This can be a subjective opinion but when you have camera tricks such as the quick zooms, Dutch tilts, extreme closeups, zoom outs, everything that give Evil Dead II that visual flair over most horror films during its time brings more to my case that Demon Wind is a copycat to that of Evil Dead even on a technical front.

WEAPON OF CHOICE

There’s another notch to the belt of our copycat friend Demon Wind. When it comes to weaponry involved in the film, Cory and his friends use a shotgun throughout the film to dispose the demons. In Evil Dead II, Ash uses a double-barreled shotgun aka his boomstick, to take out some deadites. Here’s when it gets even easier to decipher this as concrete copycat. Both movies have mystical daggers to wipe out their demonic forces. Evil Dead II has the Kandarian Dagger which is used in several scenes, while Demon Wind uses two daggers that destroy the demons for good once penetrated into their bodies. In Demon Wind, it’s stated there is seven mystical daggers, but Grandma Regina only how possession of two. Sounds awfully familiar right? Too familiar for my own liking, but let’s move on!

TAKE MY STRONG HAND!

Evil Dead II had a great scene involving Ash getting his hand infected when it became bitten by his deadite girlfriend Linda. The hand starts to become possessed and hurts Ash by smashing his face with glass plates and other items which results Ash to cut it off and substituted for that legendary chainsaw that made Ash so iconic and engrained in horror movie lore. The possessed hand becomes a nuisance throughout the film, running away from Ash throughout the cabin when it almost gets blown to pieces by the boomstick. In Demon Wind, Corey’s friend Jack becomes infected when his hand gets bit by one of the demons outside, but at the same time, why the hell are you using a hammer through a window with very minimal space to move around? It’s upsetting cause due to the stupidity of Jack and him being one of the most well-liked characters in Demon Wind, he becomes one of the ghouls outside.

CLOSING

While watching Demon Wind, it’s apparent how much they took from Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II and that isn’t necessarily a good thing. Evil Dead II to this day is a phenomenal film that is still discussed among horror fans with multiple films including sequels, requels, and soft reboots. If you went into a crowd of cinema fanatics and movie buffs, I almost feel like everyone would know of Evil Dead II while no one would remotely know of Demon Wind and the proof is in the pudding when you watch Demon Wind. All signs point to it being a very watered-down version of the movie it was trying to replicate. And while we have Evil Dead II to marvel at for many years to come, we can always give thanks to Demon Wind for trying to stand toe-to-toe with it. I can honestly say if you need to make a drinking game you can pop in Demon Wind for how many WTF moments the movie has, that’s for damn sure. I’ll see you for the next one folks, and if you like what you see, like and subscribe to our channel and stay tuned for more videos from JoBlo.

Two previous episodes of Horror Movie Rip-Off can be seen below. To see more of our shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!

The post Evil Dead II (1987) vs. Demon Wind (1990) – Horror Movie Rip-Off appeared first on JoBlo.