Recommendations for The Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness (1 Viewer)

[Jonathan Perregaux]

I've finally gotten around to wanting to pick up The Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness to compliment my "Book of the Dead" version of the original The Evil Dead DVD. But there are several versions of each floating around out there and I don't know which one to buy.
Since I value the opinions of the fine folk here on the HTF, I would like to know which DVDs currently being sold come closest to being "definitive" releases. Thanks.

 

[Chris M]

Evil Dead II is easy, the keep-case Anchor Bay version
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Army of Darkness is a little more complex:
there used to be a Limited Edition 2 disc DVD out, but that sold out, so Anchor Bay released both discs seperately in
1) The Theatrical Version
2) the Directors cut (now called the bootleg cut)
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If you want the "definitive" Army of Darkness, you would get both of these versions. (the commentary on the Directors cut is hilarious).
DO NOT GET THE UNIVERSAL VERSION!
Hope this helps.
Chris.

 

[Matt Stone]

Also...if you find the Anchor Bay LE Tin of Evil Dead II for cheap...it's worth the buy if you want a flashy piece. I got mine for 20 a few months back.

 

[MikeEckman]

I agree with what Chris M said...you really should get both versions of Army of Darkness.

The theatrical cut looks and sounds a LOT better than the directors cut so if youre viewing the movie with casual fans of the movie, you'll at least have a version of the movie with an active 5.1 soundtrack and decent video quality. The theatrical cut also contains a neat little 30 minute behind the scenes documentary on the making of the movie. It also contains the theatrical trailer, which is significant, because Army of Darkness is only one of two movies to ever contain a Metallica song in it.

The Director's cut, as already mentioned, has a top notch hilarious commentary on it, which is worth the price of the disc alone. The film contains an extra 15 minutes of footage, and there are 4 additional unfinished deleted scenes selectable from the menu. The video quality wavers from average to poor in many of the new scenes, and the audio is only 2.0 and never gets any better than okay.

Highly recommended you get both.

 

[Mark_vdH]

Jonathan, check out this excellent Army Of Darkness buyer guide by Greg Yurkovic:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...527#post532527
(BTW: it also covers the other Evil Dead DVD releases.)

 

[Matt Pelham]

Buy both versions of AOD, then print out the Limited edition coverart from www.dvdcoverart.com. Buy an empty double alpha case and make your own limited edition!

 

[Andy Kim]

Hi,
I'm going to be getting either Evil Dead 2 or 3 for a friend. My questions are:

1) I can only get him one: should it be Evil Dead 2 or 3 (Army of Darkness)

2) If I get Evil Dead 2, the best would be the TIN but if I can't find that then the keep-case is the best one. Am I correct?

3) If I get Army of Darkness, isn't there a new version now called the "Boomstick" version that incorporates the 2 separate releases (theatrical and bootleg/director's cut)? Would that be the one to get then?

Thanks for all the help! I can't believe they have so many versions!
Andy

PS. If possible, can someone post the covers of the definite versions that I should be looking for?

PPS. The Evil Dead section of the HTF FAQ has been removed.

 

[CraigF]

My opinion:

1) Evil Dead II. I like Army of Darkness fine, just not as funny as EDII (IMO the best one so far).
2) Yes re the tin, otherwise the version of EDII shown in Chris M's post is fine. The tin is not hard to find, costs way more than the keepcase.
3) The Boomstick edition is more or less as you say, get that one unless for an ED collector, which I'm guessing he's not.

 

[Adam Tyner]

Andy:
1) I'd personally recommend "Evil Dead II" over "Army of Darkness". They're two very different movies, though. "Evil Dead II" is a horror/comedy, and "Army..." is more of an adventure movie.
2) The tin offers different packaging and a booklet that reprints a Fango article. If you find them both for approx. the same price, you might as well go with the tin, but there's nothing so compelling about the tin that warrants any substantial extra effort.
3) Yes, that's precisely what the Boomstick release is.
Cover art:
Evil Dead II
Army of Darkness: Boomstick Edition

 

[Rob Lutter]

We have the Anchor Bay Evil Dead 2: Special Edition for $14.44 at Target

 

[Nick Graham]

I picked up the MGM Region 3 Army of Darkness remastered director's cut for $25 shipped from yesasia.com. You'll need a Region free player (my cheapo Apex does the trick), but the picture is light years better than the Anchor Bay director's cut discs. My general suggestion these days is to pick up the Anchor Bay theatrical cust disc of AoD, and for the director's cut get the Region 3 version, which includes all the extras the Anchor Bay disc has, and is in full Dolby 5.1 .

 

[Damin J Toell]

and for the director's cut get the Region 3 version, which includes all the extras the Anchor Bay disc has

To pick nits, the R3 disc is actually missing the storyboard feature that the AB director's cut disc has (which runs as a subtitle track during the course of the film).

DJ

 

[Mark_vdH]

The cheapest place to pick up the R3 AoD would be at cd-wow, where you can get it for USD 17.95 delivered.

 

[Doug Schiller]

Wow, does everyone that is telling this guy to buy both versions know that the Fistfull of Boomstick includes both versions for $17.99?

No need to buy 2 copies, it is all included.

Me, I have the LE and the R3 AOD DC and it is true what they say. The definitive version. I'm suprised no one asked Anchor Bay about it during the chat. After reading the transcripts, I think he was suprised also.

Doug

 

[Nick Graham]

Doug, I thought about it, but I figured it was a moot point, as AB has already stated there will no more releases of AoD, a point they reiterated at the end of the chat.

 

[Damin J Toell]

Wow, does everyone that is telling this guy to buy both versions know that the Fistfull of Boomstick includes both versions for $17.99?

Notice that the first half of this thread happened in July, 2002, before the release of the Boomstick Edition.

DJ

 

[CraigF]

Notice that the first half of this thread happened in July, 2002, before the release of the Boomstick Edition.

...and that the guy wants it for his friend who's apparently not a collector and unlikely has an all-region player...easiest to follow this subthread if start reading at yesterday...

 

[Kevin M]

The only reason you might ever want to get the Universal DVD of Army Of Darkness is that, unlike any of the Anchor Bay releases, it has player generated captioning. That's the reason I bought it at a used record shop for $8, so my girlfriend (who is deaf) could finally enjoy the whole trilogy.

 

[Doug Schiller]

Oops, my bad. Sorry about that.
Isn't there a term in the forum world for someone who revives year old posts?

I didn't even think to look at the thread start date.

Doug

 

[Andy Kim]

Great!
I'm going to try and get the Evil Dead 2 Tin.
I went to Best Buy and they didn't have either versions of ED2 but they had loads of AOD Boomstick version.
Andy