B

His given name is Ashley Williams, but his friends call him Ash. Loyal S-Mart employee and goof extraordinaire, Ash gets more than he asked for when a nice weekend with his girlfriend turns into a battle between good and evil.

Before Ash even realizes what is going on, he’s gone and resurrected the dead. Ash isn’t going down without a fight, however, and with the help of his trusty chainsaw, sawed-off shotgun, and wide array of beautiful one-liners, he won’t have to. Celebrate the Halloween season early and head out to Union South for Saturday’s Midnight Movie, “Evil Dead 2.”

Although not as scary as the first movie, “Evil Dead 2” is able to tell the entire story in half the time. Quickly recapping everything that happened in the first installment, the audience finds out that after all the hard work and effort of getting rid of the deadites, he ends up getting possessed by the evil anyways.

When the sun comes out, however, the evil goes away, and Ash has to formulate a plan of escape. With the bridge out and his love trying to rip his face off, Ash is left all alone to fight the deadites — that is, until four unsuspecting visitors make it to the cabin, and all the horror ensues.

Bruce Campbell (“Army of Darkness”) has the perfect cavalier attitude needed to portray Ash. From insane with lamps and stuffed deer laughing at him, to spewing out cool lines while wielding his chainsaw, Campbell keeps the moments of horror light with his portrayal of the hero that could have easily been from any serial movie in the 50s.

His physical acting is also something to admire, especially when his hand gets possessed and wants to extract punishment on Ash — that skill is all him.

The way director Sam Raimi (“Spider-Man”) operates behind the camera invokes thoughts of Barry Sonnenfeld (“Men in Black”) back in his better days of being a cinematographer. The camera essentially acts as the evil force for the better part of the movie, and it careens through the woods and cabin with such ease that you have to wonder just how many cameras had to break in order to get those shots just right.

Then there is the gore, and this movie is tops when it comes to the gore. The whole cabin starts to bleed after awhile, and there is more than one instance when a character practically showers in the stuff. Throw in the trees that don’t like humans (it seems nothing in this forest does), and you got a movie even a WisPIRG member could love.

Saturday night, grab your costume, head to Union South and get ready to see one of the cheekiest horror films to ever use the word “groovy.”

“Evil Dead 2” will be playing Saturday night at midnight in the main lobby of Union South. Costumes are strongly encouraged.