Evil Dead II: A Look Back on One of The Best Comedic Horror Movies

by Luca DeLucia ’28 on October 2, 2025

Arts & Entertainment

The Halloween season brings a multitude of different films that appeal to different audiences as the world once again gets into the spirit of the season. There are so many different ways to get into the spirit of Halloween. There’s always the classic thriller like Halloween (1978) to get the adrenaline running. Some might even prefer a horror that plays with the mind, such as Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017). And for others who don’t want the scares, a simple night on the sofa with a hot chocolate and a screening of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966) after their trick-or-treating will do just the trick. But what about those who want to seek something unique this Halloween season? How about a movie that aims to be as bizarre as possible, and to push what is possible even in the realm of the horror genre? The film they might be looking for has become a cult classic in the many decades since its release, and is a part of a franchise that has now grossed over $300 million worldwide.

Evil Dead II (1987) is the very movie, written and directed by Sam Raimi, who is most well known for directing the original 2000s Spider-Man trilogy starring Tobey Maguire. The movie stars Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams, a man looking to spend a weekend alone in a cabin in the woods with his girlfriend until he reads from a strange book found within the cabin, known as the “Necronomicon,” or “Book of the Dead.” Campbell’s role as Williams would be his defining role as an actor. As the house slowly drives Williams insane, more and more people show up to put an end to the madness, but just as quickly as they come into the cabin, they are soon swept up by the evil spirits Williams summoned by reading from the book, until he is the only one that remains.

Evil Dead II, as the name implies, is a part of a trilogy. It is the middle child between The Evil Dead (1981), and Army of Darkness (1992). However, the trilogy does not tell one cohesive story. Rather, Evil Dead II is a sort of remake of its predecessor, following nearly the same plot as the 1981 original. The Evil Dead is also a cinematic reimagining of Raimi’s college short film Within the Woods (1978), also starring Campbell. It is quite interesting to see just how different each movie in the trilogy tries to portray its ideas. Whereas The Evil Dead functions more like the conventional horror film, with moments of dread and silent intensity in between the deaths of characters, Evil Dead II aims to ramp up the comedy to the nth degree. The movie has a very loose plot: the overarching motive is simply for Williams to survive the night as he faces different problems within the house that lead him to the next innovative way someone is meant to perish. Deaths are excessive, with over-the-top acting and an unrestrained amount of blood. Campbell’s acting helps set the tone of the movie as well; his outlandish body movements and facial expressions make him fun to watch for the entire runtime. Williams bounces around the cabin as the monsters, known as the “deadites,” slowly turn him crazy as the cabin becomes more and more alive with each waking minute. In my opinion, there will never be a funnier moment in any horror movie, than the scene where Williams is forced to cut off his hand, for it got possessed by the book, and after he traps it under a trash can, he weighs down the can with the Hemingway novel A Farewell to Arms, as lightning strikes outside the cabin to symbolize a dramatic, and comedic, end to the scene.

While The Evil Dead leaned mostly into horror and Evil Dead II combined horror with comedy, the third movie in the franchise, Army of Darkness, ends up forgoing the horror-comedy approach altogether. Army of Darkness is mostly a comedy, with horror aspects such as the deadites still lingering from the original two movies, but these serve more as goons from a superhero movie than an evil force that the protagonist has to overcome. Army of Darkness follows a more structured, albeit very whimsical and hysterical, plot that sees Williams going back to medieval times as he tries to get back to the present day (fun fact: the original name of this movie was meant to be “Medieval Dead”). Unlike Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness is a true follow-up, as the end of the latter movie sees Williams going back in time and leaving audiences on a cliffhanger as to how he might get home. The success of these three movies would lead to the series becoming a franchise, which includes two theatrical reboots (with a third one slated for 2026), a TV show that recasts Campbell as an older Williams, as well as many video games, comic books, and even a musical. It was Raimi’s campy and outlandish idea for a comedic horror film that has its roots delving from 1978 that ended up becoming one of the most well-known horror franchises of the modern day, celebrated by many fans for its unique take on the horror genre. And while each movie of the original trilogy aims to do something different in terms of its take, I find that Evil Dead II strikes a balance between horror and comedy, making it my favorite work of the entire franchise. If you were to ask me, I would love nothing more than to spend my Halloween weekend in front of the TV watching a man survive a night in a cabin in the woods against the Evil Dead.

“I’m A Great Quitter”

by Andrew Katz ’26 on October 2, 2025

Arts & Entertainment

Why George Costanza is the Greatest Sitcom Character of All Time

The question of who is the greatest sitcom character of all time has often been a debate between sitcom enthusiasts, but one character who is always mentioned is George Costanza from Seinfeld (1989-1998). If you have never seen Seinfeld, George is Jerry Seinfeld’s lifelong childhood friend, whose main characteristics are selfishness, laziness, cheapness, and outward overreaction at the slightest inconveniences he faces in life. From the outside looking in, you might be confused by how this character, who is just straight up a jerk, could be so beloved by the audience. Yet, Seinfeld viewers know that when George enters the screen, they will be entertained. This is due to two things about how George’s character is written. The first is that he is extremely insecure with everything about him, which the audience can relate to in their own lives. The second is that whatever selfish plan he comes up with always backfires on himself. Larry David, the co-creator and writer for the show, uses similar recipes when writing George’s plot for each episode. His plot is usually something like this: George comes up with a plan based on his insecurities, the plan is always a selfish one to benefit himself and hurt others, and the plan always backfires.

With that level of thought being put into the character, the actor who plays George must play him to perfection. That is where Jason Alexander, the actor cast as George, knocks it out of the park. Alexander plays the role of George to perfection, as he is overly charismatic when he talks about his insecurities or when he is freaking out when his plan fails. Alexander truly makes you feel as if he has been George for his entire life. The over-the-top outbursts that George shows when he fails his selfish plans is what drives the comedic effect even more than the audience just seeing the plan backfire.

But George has another quality that makes him so beloved. It is that he is slightly relatable. George’s problems mainly consist of his over-the-top parents and the ridiculous, random scenarios where someone is a jerk to him. The audience can relate to these two problem starters occurring daily. When audience members face these situations, they get over it, though they may wish that they could make a big deal about it. George, however, cannot get over it quickly. George instead makes it his mission to deal with the inconveniences as the only way he knows how—by stooping to the other person’s level. The audience also gets to feel superior to George, which is what makes his character so beloved, even when he is doing selfish acts. If George was cool with no insecurities, he would be an annoyance for the audience. But George isn’t cool. George just wants to get by in life by doing whatever benefits him, but he fails every time. That is what makes him so entertaining and the greatest sitcom character of all time.

Behind the Scenes of Six Gents: Providence College’s Comedy Club

by Kendall Headley '26 on May 30, 2023
A&E Staff

Arts & Entertainment

“What if Willy Wonka led tours at Providence College?” This is a question that would never cross the minds of most Providence College students. But to the members of Six Gents, PC’s sketch comedy club, creativity never ceases to surge.

Six Gents is composed of around a dozen students of all grades, and includes both men and women despite the name. Auditions occur after the first show of the year, a system designed to let incoming freshmen experience a production first. Auditions require an original two-to-four page sketch performed with existing club members, as well as participation in a “cold read”—reading through the script without prior rehearsal—of a predetermined club sketch.

“I had no idea if Six Gents would take me when I auditioned. I saw their back to school show and thought ‘Hey, I grew up watching SNL. At the very least, the audition sounds like fun,’” said member Claire Dancause ’26. “So I did it with no expectations and zero sketch writing experience before my audition. The moment I got the email that I was accepted, I was so excited, and honestly, the excitement hasn’t died down since.”

The group is structured democratically, with an executive board, with a president, vice president, treasurer, and secretary,” said Anthony DiSpena ’24. “These people are chosen by the club at the end of the year, and they have some extra responsibilities to maintain structure in the club whether it be facilitating meetings, scheduling shows, buying props, and creating graphics.”

In between meetings, members focus on writing sketches. Dancause draws inspiration for sketches from nearly every corner.

“Life experience, random conversations, TV and movies, books, stand-up, social media, you name it, I’ve probably pulled from it for a sketch,” she said.

While Dancause maintains a notes page of ideas, she also tends to begin writing directly after an idea hits, later presenting the sketch in the next meeting to receive honest reactions and subsequent feedback.

Club president Aidan Benjamin ’23 commonly searches for ideas in his audience. After solidifying the concept, he favors writing with a partner, finding that bouncing ideas off of each other is beneficial to the writing process.

“I tend to write sketches first looking at recent events that our audience can relate to,” Benjamin said. “If that doesn’t work, I try to think of experiences that our audience may have in common. For example, a popular children’s TV show or something based around Providence College, and formulate an idea around that.”

Producing a sketch from scratch isn’t always a clear process, said DiSpena. Although he has no shortage of out-of-the-box ideas, “The hardest part for me is always the beginning, writing how the characters get into the plot,” he said. “But once I get a good start, I just go on autopilot. Either that or I write some funny lines into a Doc and try to fill the gaps wherever I can.”

The club meets every Sunday in the Smith Center for the Arts, where they read through sketches or develop them further. As they near a performance, they take a blind vote, DiSpena said, picking six or seven sketches to include, and add weekday rehearsals into their schedule.

Participating members in each sketch are chosen by the sketch’s author, and can be solidified after the first read-through. Parts are then adjusted in order to provide each member an equal amount of stage time.

“A sketch will have as many people as it needs to have. Sometimes with a larger cast it gets difficult to balance out lines without the sketch running long, but we have done sketches with all 12 of us,” said member Brendan Phaneuf ’24. “When I write, I try to have at least five parts with a decent amount of dialogue. And if I need someone for just a line or two, adding some extra people helps.”

Six Gents plans to have six performances a year, either every month or every other, and aims to theme each show seasonally or around timely events. While most of the content is scripted, DiSpena improvises lines or physical comedy playing off of the audience’s emotions. Dancause also integrates elements of improv.

“I’d say our ‘inbetweeners’ are the most unscripted part of any show, because it’s meant to be a short gag or bit to get the audience involved and be ourselves,” she said.

Member Santi Najarro Cano ’24 is thankful for his fellow members.

“Six Gents is the club I didn’t know I needed to be a part of. It was something that to me I initially felt very uncomfortable doing, but I grew to love it so much over time,” he said. “Getting to collaborate with creative, funny people and also calling them my friends is a blessing and I’m very thankful for that. The shows are electric, but what makes it all worth it is the funny constant collaboration.”

To DiSpena, the club is an outlet, allowing him to reach his maximum creativity and authenticity and share it with the world, he said.

“Despite being new this year, I felt welcomed immediately by everyone and the club and truly value the relationships we have built over our love of comedy, acting, and the arts,” DiSpena said. “Most importantly, I love our audience. It makes me so proud to have others laugh at the sketches I have written or characters I played. We really do it for you all. Thank you so much for watching our shows.”

A Course in Girlbossing and Curious George

by John Downey '23 on April 22, 2022
A&E Co-Editor

Arts & Entertainment

A Course in Girlbossing and Curious George

Six Gents Delights With Another Hilarious Show

By Grace Whitman ’22

After postponing their Thursday, March 30 show, Six Gents was back and better than ever on Monday, April 11. Given that the group also moved the show from its typical 11 p.m.. start, to an hour earlier at 10 p.m., it should come as no surprise that the Angell Blackfriars Theatre was almost completely filled with students eager to see Providence College’s best—and only—sketch comedy group deliver a highly-anticipated performance.

The packed house made for the perfect opportunity for the club to introduce their three new gents. To do so, the group headed to Hogwarts. However, because the sorting hat was unavailable, Jack Grosso ’22 filled in and determined the characteristics that new gents Trish Nee ’23, Santi Najarro Cano ’24, and Dom Dasilva ’24 would bring to the club by placing his hands on their heads and “reading their minds.”

After this hilarious opening, the first full skit of the night commenced. Titled “Da Boyz,” it saw Dasilva and Abbie O’Connell ’22 play husband and wife. Dasilva and some of his guy friends “watched football” at the couple’s home—and by watching football, viewers soon realized, they meant doing things that were very decidedly not watching football, such as making plans to attend a Big Time Rush concert, discussing how to perfect charcuterie boards, and debating whether they were team Cassie or Maddie from Euphoria. Aidan Benjamin ’23 told O’Connell that she needed to get her hearing checked when she questioned what they were actually talking about, but at the end of the skit, she caught them red handed, having a dance party.

Another memorable sketch was called “Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss.” Written by O’Connell, it follows her as she teaches a few of the other female Gents what it means to gaslight, gatekeep, and girlboss. Analisa Pisano ’23 expressed concern that gaslighting someone is a form of bullying, but O’Connell reassured her that as long as she throws up a peace sign and sticks out her tongue while she does it, it is perfectly okay.

The skit “Curious George,” was one that Grosso, who created the sketch, had been wanting to perform since his sophomore year. However, until now, the other gents vetoed it. Grosso played the iconic Man in the Yellow Hat from the beloved PBS Kids show and had the audience in stitches when they realized that Curious George was the man’s imaginary friend and not an actual monkey.

Emma Harrington ’22 stole the show with some improv stand-up comedy. Asking for two volunteers from the audience, stipulating that they must be okay with “being roasted,” her quick wit was truly incredible, with hard-hitters like, “sorry I’m running low on content, just like those socks” and “did you wear that outfit on the first day of middle school?” The chosen audience members were great sports about coming up on stage and helped make the show one to remember.

One of the final skits of the night was based on Harrington’s on-campus job as a resident assistant. The audience watched as in the span of one night, she had three separate groups knock on her door with absolutely bizarre scenarios. The situations were meant to be exaggerations of some of the real problems that RAs have to deal with, but in reality, they were not too far off, which made the entire sketch all the more hilarious. From a fight between roommates about one of them having her boyfriend over too much to there being poop on the dorm stairwell, Harrington saved the day with her special RA skills.

Six Gents’ final show of the year will be on May 4, and, as such, will be Star Wars-themed. Make sure to come down to the Smith Center for the Arts to support the group!

Recap: Six Gents’ Thanksgiving Show

by The Cowl Editor on December 11, 2021

Arts & Entertainment

Recap: Six Gents’ Thanksgiving Show

Student Performers Make Audience Thankful for Laughter

Grace Whitman ’22

On Tuesday, Nov. 16, Providence College students made the trek down to the Smith Center for the Arts for Six Gents’ second show of the semester, “A Six Gents Thanksgiving.”

Since auditions for the comedy group were held last month, the show started with personal introductions for the new members of the club. Instead of simply introducing them, however, the group performed a skit written in the style of an interrogation. President Sydney Cahill ’22 and Vice President Jack Grosso ’22 led the questioning, trying to figure out if Emma Harrington ’22, Christina Charie ’25 and Andy Belotte ’25 were ready to join the group and determine if they could get Six Gents more funding for their budget. Cahill, Grosso, and audience members discovered that, as a member of Student Congress, Belotte was perfectly positioned to obtain some additional funding from Congress.

One of the most memorable skits was a play on the Lifetime show Dance Moms. On the show, dance teacher Abby Lee Miller regularly ranks her dancers, pyramid-style, based on their performances from the previous weekend. Harrington, who played Abby Lee Miller, ranked Maddie Ziegler (Aidan Benjamin ’23) on the top of the pyramid, per usual, and choreographed an interpretive dance for Maddie and JoJo Siwa (Katie Vennard ’22) to perform inspired by the wreck of the Titanic. When JoJo and Maddie’s moms didn’t approve of the number, Jill Vertes, played by Belotte, thought it could be a perfect opportunity for “her little Kendall.”

Growing up, most students probably watched Bill Nye the Science Guy’s videos on rolling TV carts in elementary school and smart boards as they grew older to learn about science topics ranging from the phases of matter to static electricity. The next skit played on the idea that as students grow up, Bill Nye, played by Benjamin, has some mature topics to teach them about in the new and improved Bill Nye the Science Guy program.

Six Gents was originally created to serve as a Saturday Night Live-style sketch group so, for the Thanksgiving show, Cahill and Analisa Pisano ’23 paid homage to the show by doing a Weekend Update skit pretending to be Michael Che and Colin Jost. In the fictional news program, the hosts cracked some jokes about Dean Sears’ emails and “new Ray.” They also brought in special guest Grosso to play a game of Taylor Swift Trivia. With Red (Taylor’s Version) recently released, Pisano and Cahill asked Grosso to finish the lyrics of her songs. He was able to nail “I Knew You Were Trouble” and “You Belong with Me,” but the crowd let out an enthusiastic “boo” when he didn’t know the lyrics to “All Too Well.”

In between each of the skits, Six Gents members asked the audience for words to substitute for blanks in a story before reading aloud in a game of Mad Libs. When asked for a store, “PC Mart” was thrown out, and some funny nouns included “Jake Gyllenhal” and “bowling ball.” To wrap up the show, the gents read the hilariously random mad lib that the audience created together.

Students looking for more laughs were able to enjoy Six Gents Holiday show last night, and the group is sure to have more amazing performances next semester.