The Evil Dead franchise is some of the best horror films ever made, and on some of the tightest budgets possible. They managed to show creepy monsters, paranormal activity, and people turning into these zombie like demons all with the budget of just four hundred thousand dollars. The movie was successful enough to launch actor Bruce Campbell into fame, and create a sequel, Evil Dead 2. That film later got it’s own sequel, which I will be reviewing today, and it is known as Evil Dead 3- Oh, wait. Nevermind, it’s called Army of Darkness.
Honestly, I don’t know why they changed the name. I guess it has to do with armies and darkness. I’ll give it this, there definitely is darkness, and there definitely is an army. But I am noticing an extreme lack of “of’s” in this movie. Oh well, despite having no “of’s”, it’s still a pretty good movie. Is it as good as the other Evil Dead movies. Debatably, yes. The movie still stars Bruce Campbell as the goofy but awesome Ash Williams, who, after being sent into 1300 AD at the end of Evil Dead 2 (Also, that was a spoiler for Evil Dead 2’s ending. Sorry about that), he was taken by Arthur’s knights, and sent to be executed, due to being on the wrong side during a faction between the two sides, but after proving himself, Ash makes a deal with Arthur and his kingdom, saying that if they promise to send him back to his own time, he will bring them the Necronomicon, the book of the dead. And thus, the movie begins.
I think out of all of the Evil Dead movies, this one is the least serious. I guess Ash has gotten used to the deadits of the first two movies, and is just tired of their bullshit, having no trouble decapitating them with his chainsaw hand, or shooting them with a shotgun. From some of the visuals, sets, and monster designs, it’s clear that Army of Darkness had the biggest budget of eleven million. This is definitely a lot more from the puny four hundred thousand they had before. This just allows us to have some cooler monsters. You have the ones that Ash has to fight in the pit as the walls close in around him, you have the angry witch that is able to do a thing that is a spoiler for Army of Darkness’s ending (Which I’ll get to in a bit), a bunch of little Ash’s that do some sort of comedy skit to attack him, and the hidden one that chases Ash throughout the forest. This one was really cool to me as a kid. You never see it’s face, and all you know is that it chases Ash and tries to kill him. It’s the subtlety of it that I really love about that sort of thing. But of course, with all those monsters, you can’t forget about the Army itself.
I got to be honest, design wise, I found the army to be lacking in comparison to the rest of the monsters in this movie. They all seem to be just skeletons, with some armor. But, I gotta be honest, they look pretty impressive. The designs of them are amazing to look at and how they all move as if it was a human army impresses me. Sure, they're just a bunch of skeletons, but they're all pretty impressive skeletons. Mixing up stop motion animation with live action puppets really impressed me with them the most. But, are they scary- No. No, not at all. They all behave very silly like, and are just really goofy acting. Poking Ash in the eye, running around like headless chickens whenever they get their heads knocked off. This isn’t scary, this is Three Stooges, Spooky Scary Skeletons Edition. But still, I do kinda like who they fight, even if they aren’t as creepy or as creative as the Deadites.
On the subject of Deadites, Evil Ash was a… very odd, but creative creature. Evil Ash was a second Ash that came out of Ash through his body, creating himself to be the alter ego of Ash, and basically just annoyed the hell out of him, before Ash blew his face off with his shotgun. After dismembering and burying him, he thought that was the end of Evil Ash… He was wrong. After picking up the Necronomicon, without saying the correct words, he brought the Army of Darkness back to life, as well as Evil Ash, who lead the Army to attack the kingdom and retrieve the Necronomicon. Evil Ash was a very interesting Deadite. He was a lot like Ash, being all silly and not taking anything seriously, only in a more sadistic way. Kind of like a burnt face Joker. But, again, like the Army of Darkness, he wasn’t really scary. That’s what Army of Darkness is. It’s a horror comedy. But, that’s not a bad thing. Ash was freaked out by the Deadites in the first two films, nearly being driven to insanity by them, even having to chop off his own hand to get rid of them. But, now that Ash is more used to them, he’s managed to do better and fight them off with his will alone, so him being scared of them by this point would just be odd. That is why I think the comedy of Army of Darkness works.
And now, it’s time we talk about Army of Darkness’s ending. The alternate one. Also, spoilers. Anyway, in the alternate ending, Ash manages to get back home, where he fights off a Deadite, gets the girl, and happy ending. So, that sounds about like a good ending, right? Well, yeah, but the original ending, I think was better. In the original ending, Ash was told that he had to take a specific amount of the potion, which would make him sleep until he is brought back to his own time. However, Ash, being the simple minded lovable dumbass he is, he screws it up, taking an extra drop, and sleeps for an extra few centuries, awaking in a post apocalyptic world. The alternate ending was shot because the studio wanted to end on a high note, but the creator, Sam Raimi, and even Bruce Campbell, prefered the original ending because Bruce screwing up was a part of his character. And that’s what I prefer about the original ending too. You can find it on DVD releases of the movie, or online. But, if they did use the original ending, I guess we wouldn’t have the TV series, Ash Vs. The Evil Dead…. So I guess that’s a plus.
Well, Army of Darkness may not be as good as Evil Dead’s one and two, but damn if it isn’t good. It’s still really good. It’s more light-hearted than the original two movies, and a lot more goofy, but that’s what I prefer about these movies. Over-the-top violence, cheesy one liners, a guy with a goddamn chainsaw hand and a boomstick. I’m sorry, but I can’t find that scary. I can find it awesome as hell though, and I sure as hell did. Army of Darkness is probably my second favorite horror comedy out there. As for my first… We’ll get to that another time. Take care.
Up Next on October Movie Marathon: Zombies in the U.K.
Honestly, I don’t know why they changed the name. I guess it has to do with armies and darkness. I’ll give it this, there definitely is darkness, and there definitely is an army. But I am noticing an extreme lack of “of’s” in this movie. Oh well, despite having no “of’s”, it’s still a pretty good movie. Is it as good as the other Evil Dead movies. Debatably, yes. The movie still stars Bruce Campbell as the goofy but awesome Ash Williams, who, after being sent into 1300 AD at the end of Evil Dead 2 (Also, that was a spoiler for Evil Dead 2’s ending. Sorry about that), he was taken by Arthur’s knights, and sent to be executed, due to being on the wrong side during a faction between the two sides, but after proving himself, Ash makes a deal with Arthur and his kingdom, saying that if they promise to send him back to his own time, he will bring them the Necronomicon, the book of the dead. And thus, the movie begins.
I think out of all of the Evil Dead movies, this one is the least serious. I guess Ash has gotten used to the deadits of the first two movies, and is just tired of their bullshit, having no trouble decapitating them with his chainsaw hand, or shooting them with a shotgun. From some of the visuals, sets, and monster designs, it’s clear that Army of Darkness had the biggest budget of eleven million. This is definitely a lot more from the puny four hundred thousand they had before. This just allows us to have some cooler monsters. You have the ones that Ash has to fight in the pit as the walls close in around him, you have the angry witch that is able to do a thing that is a spoiler for Army of Darkness’s ending (Which I’ll get to in a bit), a bunch of little Ash’s that do some sort of comedy skit to attack him, and the hidden one that chases Ash throughout the forest. This one was really cool to me as a kid. You never see it’s face, and all you know is that it chases Ash and tries to kill him. It’s the subtlety of it that I really love about that sort of thing. But of course, with all those monsters, you can’t forget about the Army itself.
I got to be honest, design wise, I found the army to be lacking in comparison to the rest of the monsters in this movie. They all seem to be just skeletons, with some armor. But, I gotta be honest, they look pretty impressive. The designs of them are amazing to look at and how they all move as if it was a human army impresses me. Sure, they're just a bunch of skeletons, but they're all pretty impressive skeletons. Mixing up stop motion animation with live action puppets really impressed me with them the most. But, are they scary- No. No, not at all. They all behave very silly like, and are just really goofy acting. Poking Ash in the eye, running around like headless chickens whenever they get their heads knocked off. This isn’t scary, this is Three Stooges, Spooky Scary Skeletons Edition. But still, I do kinda like who they fight, even if they aren’t as creepy or as creative as the Deadites.
On the subject of Deadites, Evil Ash was a… very odd, but creative creature. Evil Ash was a second Ash that came out of Ash through his body, creating himself to be the alter ego of Ash, and basically just annoyed the hell out of him, before Ash blew his face off with his shotgun. After dismembering and burying him, he thought that was the end of Evil Ash… He was wrong. After picking up the Necronomicon, without saying the correct words, he brought the Army of Darkness back to life, as well as Evil Ash, who lead the Army to attack the kingdom and retrieve the Necronomicon. Evil Ash was a very interesting Deadite. He was a lot like Ash, being all silly and not taking anything seriously, only in a more sadistic way. Kind of like a burnt face Joker. But, again, like the Army of Darkness, he wasn’t really scary. That’s what Army of Darkness is. It’s a horror comedy. But, that’s not a bad thing. Ash was freaked out by the Deadites in the first two films, nearly being driven to insanity by them, even having to chop off his own hand to get rid of them. But, now that Ash is more used to them, he’s managed to do better and fight them off with his will alone, so him being scared of them by this point would just be odd. That is why I think the comedy of Army of Darkness works.
And now, it’s time we talk about Army of Darkness’s ending. The alternate one. Also, spoilers. Anyway, in the alternate ending, Ash manages to get back home, where he fights off a Deadite, gets the girl, and happy ending. So, that sounds about like a good ending, right? Well, yeah, but the original ending, I think was better. In the original ending, Ash was told that he had to take a specific amount of the potion, which would make him sleep until he is brought back to his own time. However, Ash, being the simple minded lovable dumbass he is, he screws it up, taking an extra drop, and sleeps for an extra few centuries, awaking in a post apocalyptic world. The alternate ending was shot because the studio wanted to end on a high note, but the creator, Sam Raimi, and even Bruce Campbell, prefered the original ending because Bruce screwing up was a part of his character. And that’s what I prefer about the original ending too. You can find it on DVD releases of the movie, or online. But, if they did use the original ending, I guess we wouldn’t have the TV series, Ash Vs. The Evil Dead…. So I guess that’s a plus.
Well, Army of Darkness may not be as good as Evil Dead’s one and two, but damn if it isn’t good. It’s still really good. It’s more light-hearted than the original two movies, and a lot more goofy, but that’s what I prefer about these movies. Over-the-top violence, cheesy one liners, a guy with a goddamn chainsaw hand and a boomstick. I’m sorry, but I can’t find that scary. I can find it awesome as hell though, and I sure as hell did. Army of Darkness is probably my second favorite horror comedy out there. As for my first… We’ll get to that another time. Take care.
Up Next on October Movie Marathon: Zombies in the U.K.