Because Sam Raimi did not own the rights to The Evil Dead, he was not allowed to reuse footage from it for the sequel. Ultimately, the decision was made to recreate events from the first film with new actors.

Principal photography on Evil Dead II began on May 10, 1986 and continued through September.

Exterior scenes for Evil Dead II were shot first.

The allocated budget was 3.75 million but the finished film cost $3.6 million.

Evil Dead II cost roughly ten times the budget for The Evil Dead.

Because De Laurentiis wanted to charge Raimi for the use of the DEG Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina, the Evil Dead II production shifted to Wadesboro.

Interiors for Evil Dead II were shot inside Wadesboro, North Carolina's J.R. Faison Junior High School.

Rental of the school was $500 a week and the cost of repairing the leaky roof.

The interior cabin set for Evil Dead II was built on two levels, with the cellar actually beneath the main section.

The mantra of the Evil Dead II throughout principal photography was "The gore the merrier."

Raimi had creative differences with original director of photography Eugene D. Shlugleit and replaced him with Peter Deming.

Raimi had wanted housemate Holly Hunter to play the part of Bobbie Jo but the producers insisted on the more conventionally sexy Kassie Wesley.

A Freddy Krueger glove seen hanging in the work shed was a reference to A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), which had used a clip from The Evil Dead.

Lentils were used inside the polyurethane and foam rubber body of "Henrietta" to give the sculpture mass and weight.

Sam Raimi's younger brother Ted wore the Henrietta suit in the film, with his scenes filmed at night to keep the actor as cool as possible on a set that could easily reach 110 degrees.

Reshoots for Evil Dead II were done in a warehouse in Dearborn, Michigan.

Three members of the Evil Dead II special effects crew – Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger – later formed the KNB EFX Group.

Because he feared Evil Dead II would be slapped with an X rating for violence, Dino De Laurentiis chose not to distribute the film through DEG but to create a one-shot distribution company, Rosebud Releasing, specifically for the sequel.

The blossoming rose logo for Rosebud Releasing was designed by Sam Raimi with the sound effect of the buzzing fly taken from The Evil Dead.

Evil Dead II was released in March 1987 without a rating.

by Richard Harland Smith

Sources:
The Evil Dead Companion by Bill Warren
If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell
Audio commentary for Evil Dead II by Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, Scott Spiegel and Greg Nicotero.