Editorials
5 Favorite Moments From ‘Evil Dead 2’!!!
Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn is my favorite Evil Dead film (a ranking I’m open to changing after I see the remake on Friday). It’s almost strange that it works so well for me. I love great dialogue, but there’s relatively little of it to be found in the movie (aside from its iconic one-liners). I love rich characters, and the film doesn’t seem particularly interested in defining those specifics. I love a tight narrative, and Evil Dead 2 isn’t so much a story as it is a series of moments that work exceedingly well together.
I really mean that last part as a compliment, both about the moments and about the film working. Evil Dead 2 breaks so many rules, yet it sings remarkably in spite of that. It’s cinematic and jokey in all the right ways, an epic and gory “Three Stooges” homage.
Head inside for my 5 Favorite Moments From Evil Dead 2!!!
THE SEDUCTION
I think I love this scene because it’s so aware of its function and it accomplishes its goal with such economy. Going to the woods to bang is a staple of this kind of genre, and knowing Ash was about to get a little bit of sugar only ups the ante on his loss moments later. “After all, I’m a man and you’re a woman… at least last time I checked.”
THE ARRIVAL OF THE GUESTS
Ash has been having a bad night, and he certainly wasn’t expecting company – so it makes sense that he would fire a shot or two through the door Pistorious style. Not only does he end up hurting one of the only decent people (Bobby Joe) – but he meets Richard Domeier and Sarah Berry’s characters, who have no hope but to come across as hilariously stuffy when contrasted with Ash’s exploits that evening.
DEAD LINDA DANCE / CHAINSAW VICE EXECUTION
Not only is it a blast to see Linda [Denise Bixler] rise from the grave, dance around and whimsically roll her head down her arm, it’s great to see her head upright in that vice. I love how the effect obviously switches from prop to sight gag once the head is properly aligned. Even more than that, I love Ash’s emotionality as he decides he heeds to dismantle her once and for all.
EYEBALL IN THE MOUTH
No explanation needed really, except for when I saw a clip of this on MTV late one night on a horror themed program as a kid I assumed it was from some obscure mean-spirited movie that I’d never see. How wrong I was. The moment I realized I was watching that movie actually counts as one of my life’s tangible thrills.
POSSESSED HAND
Bruce Campbell, and his hand, deserve an Oscar for pulling off what might be the film’s most central conflict. From smashing plates over his head and dragging him across the floor, to giving him the finger after he says a farewell to arms – Ash’s hand proves to be among the film’s most elusive quarry.
BONUS
Every other moment – including the deadite Richard Domeier, Ash flying through the woods, the laughing deer… aannnnddd WORK SHED! Oh, and… GROOVY! You get my drift – impossible to stop.
Some movies are just so beloved that you can experience them through cultural osmosis without ever sitting down to actually watch them. From loving parodies to meticulous recreations of iconic scenes, memorable filmmaking lives on even after the curtains close on the silver screen. And when it comes to horror, few films can compete with the massive impact that Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining had on popular culture as a whole.
Whether or not you think the flick is a good adaptation of Stephen King’s seminal novel, 1980’s The Shining slowly but surely grew into one of the most influential genre movies ever made, inspiring everything from surprisingly heartfelt sequels to classic episodes of The Simpsons. However, not all The Shining references are created equal, and today I’d like to shine a light on six unexpected homages to Kubrick’s iconic film.
In this list, we’ll be focusing on references and Easter eggs that either came out of the blue or came from creators that you wouldn’t expect to be fans of this classic ghost story. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite references to the Torrance family and the Overlook Hotel if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. A Nightmare on FaceTime – South Park (2012)
Regardless of the brand’s iffy reputation among former employees, the death of Blockbuster Video was a serious blow to fans of physical media. Of course, some folks were more affected by this than others, and South Park’s Randy Marsh definitely took things a little too far in the twelfth episode of the show’s sixteenth season.
Titled A Nightmare on FaceTime, the main plot of this 2012 story is a surprisingly faithful recreation of The Shining where Randy purchases an empty Blockbuster store and begins to go mad once he realizes that his investment may not have been a very good idea due to the rise of streaming and the now-defunct RedBox storefronts.
4. The Overlook Hotel Level – Ready Player One (2018)
I was never really a fan of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, so I viewed Stephen Spielberg’s divisive adaptation of the novel as an improvement over the source material despite having its own narrative issues. In fact, I actually prefer how Spielberg changed the story by removing several references to his own work and replacing a lengthy Blade Runner detour with an over-the-top homage to The Shining.
A CGI-heavy recreation of the film’s most iconic moments that feels like a big-budget ghost train ride set within the Overlook Hotel, this intense sequence is more of a recreation of the freaky aesthetics of The Shining rather than its mind-bending narrative. However, it’s still fun to see Spielberg make a heartfelt tribute to a filmmaker that was once his close personal friend.
3. IKEA Singapore Halloween Ad (2014)
It makes sense that commercials don’t typically borrow from the horror genre, as it might be a bad idea to scare away potential customers, but some references are just too much fun to pass up.
That’s probably why the publicists behind this Ikea ad from Singapore were allowed to turn their commercial into a genuinely unsettling recreation of Danny’s tricycle scene from The Shining. After all, nobody cares if your store is haunted so long as it offers late-night shopping hours and a large selection of merchandise that you can become lost in forever and ever…
2. The End of ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’ – Community (2014)
Community is no stranger to recreating iconic movie moments within the show, and the series had previously tackled horror tropes in episodes like the fan-favorite Epidemiology. However, the most laugh-out-loud moment on this particular list comes from a brief gag towards the end of the season five episode ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’.
The majority of this episode has nothing to do with scary movies, but there’s a brief subplot involving supporting character Chang and a possible encounter with ghosts that leads him to question his own existence. This subplot culminates in the episode’s hilarious ending where the camera zooms in on a black-and-white photograph of Chang in period clothing at some kind of celebration, just like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining.
However, the picture’s subtitle eventually reveals that it’s merely a conveniently placed keepsake from the ‘Old Timey Photo Club’.
1. The Overlook Hedge Maze Sequence – Zootopia 2 (2025)
Disney movies are pretty far removed from both the gruesome horror of Stephen King and the heady filmmaking of Stanley Kubrick, so I don’t think anyone was expecting the climax of last year’s Zootopia sequel to take place in an animated version of the snowy hedge maze from The Shining.
In this unexpectedly intense sequence, friend-turned-villain Pawbert Lynxley (an unhinged lynx cat played by Andy Samberg) chases our protagonists through a creepy labyrinth in a loving recreation of Jack Nicholson’s icy demise outside the Overlook Hotel. The actual ending here might be a little more child-friendly than what’s being referenced, but it’s amazing that the filmmakers were able to push the horror elements as far as they did – especially since the scene doesn’t really have anything to do with the rest of the movie.
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