“Evil Dead II” has a wealth of darkly hilarious moments to choose from, but none are as memorable as Ash’s demonic game of “stop hitting yourself” with his own possessed hand. After a bite from Deadite Linda infects him, the Evil takes over Ash’s hand, turning it against him. The sequence of events that follows features some of Bruce Campbell’s best physical comedy in the entire franchise. Ash struggles against the rogue appendage, which attacks him, knocks him out, and even tries to drag his unconscious body toward a weapon.
Fortunately, Ash bests the hand, stabbing it with a knife and later chopping it off with a chainsaw in one of the series’ most iconic scenes. Just removing the hand from his body isn’t enough to defeat it, however, and Ash is forced to trap it under a bucket, weighed down with a stack of books. Oh, and the book on the top of the stack? “A Farewell to Arms.” Oh, Sam Raimi. Never change.