Army of Darkness: Renaissance Pictures/ Anchor Bay Home Entertainment Rating: USA: R/ UK: 15/ Australia: M
Poor Ash…after battling hordes of Kandarian demons in the first two Evil Dead films, he now finds himself trapped in the middle ages—surrounded by hordes of Kandarian demons and about to do battle with an army of deadites in Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness.
Picking up where Evil Dead 2 left off, AOD opens with Ash (Bruce Campbell: Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2) being sucked into a vortex that deposits him back in the middle ages. There, he’s captured by a band of medieval soldiers and sentenced to execution in the pit. The pit is a giant cavern, filled with assorted flesh-hungry deadites (AKA the Kandarian demons). Ash demonstrates an aptitude for killing the deadites, which leads one of the village wisemen to conclude that he’s the chosen one—sent from the future to quest for the Necronomicon and slay the hordes of deadites wandering the countryside. Ash, who wants nothing more than to return to his own time, agrees to quest for the book—and a lot of your typical Bruce Campbell/Sam Raimi hilarity ensues.
Army of Darkness is the third (and most likely last) installment in the cult classic Evil Dead series, yet it only resembles the first two films in the most rudimentary sense. This time out, the horror aspect is almost completely eliminated as Raimi and company choose to focus on the slapstick angle instead. You could easily view (and enjoy) AOD without having seen the previous films (although you’d be depriving yourself of one of the most entertaining movie viewing experiences of all time).
Raimi (who directed Evil Dead 1 & 2, as well as A Simple Plan) once again showcases his frenetic style of filmmaking. The camera swoops about the sets, capturing everything in quick pans and weird angles, but it’s not as over-the-top as the first two films. He uses just about every trick he can to get the imagery he wants, including rear projection, split screen, stop motion animation, and more—and most of it looks unbelievably hokey…which is what makes it all so much fun. Raimi is a director who will stop at nothing in order to get his shot…and it shows throughout the film.
Still, much like the earlier films, AOD owes the majority of its success to Bruce Campbell. Ash has evolved over the course of the films, and by this time, he’s become a bit of a blowhard. He’s still the same old ignoramus, but now he thinks he’s a lot smarter than he really is. It’s hard to imagine anyone else in this role—mainly because it requires an actor who’s capable of being self-deprecating. Campbell shows that he’s more than comfortable playing the buffoon, and that he has a real propensity for both spouting off cheesy one-liners and performing slapstick physical comedy.
The film is quite humorous throughout, as Raimi continues his homage to the Three Stooges (which started in ED2). Particularly amusing scenes include Ash finding the Necronomicon (and botching the magic incantation that he has to say to take it), and a sequence where Ash splits in two—becoming good Ash and bad Ash. The film also features a plethora of cool, quotable catch phrases such as "who wants some?" (which Ash asks after surviving the pit) and "give me some sugar, baby" (which Ash says to Embeth Davidtz as a precursor to their romantic scene).
While those parts are funny, the film also shows a knack for carrying some gags too far. Sequences such as the one where Ash must battle a bunch of miniature Ashs drag on for longer than necessary—making it seem like a scene designed to pad the film’s already considerably short running time (the domestic theatrical release only ran roughly 81 minutes—with credits). Equally overdone is the film’s climactic battle between Ash’s army of the living and evil Ash’s army of deadites, which seems to go on forever. Of course, this problem is only more apparent when watching Raimi’s director’s cut, which runs considerably longer.
The films other problem is that the story itself is a bit thin—like a Cliff’s Notes version of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court…with demons. Granted, the first two films in the series were hardly novels on celluloid, but the story fit with the goal of the movie. In AOD, the plot seems like little more than what was necessary to get Ash from one funny situation to the next, yet we’re supposed to believe that this is a movie about some big quest and a huge battle between the living and the dead—something that never really comes through.
Another problem is that the characters (aside from Ash) are uninteresting. The film’s most impressive character, Henry the Red (Richard Grove), gets little screen time. Raimi should have sent Ash to Henry’s kingdom in the film’s opening instead of leaving him with the much more boring Arthur (Marcus Gilbert). It’s obvious from the first scene they have together that Campbell and Grove have a chemistry, and its something that the film should have explored in detail.
The film does boast some impressive FX work, done by both KNB and Alterian Studios. While the gore is pretty minimal, the deadites look good, as does evil Ash. Also worth noting is the great stop motion animation work done to create the skeleton army.
The score is nothing spectacular, except for Danny Elfman’s cool "March of the Dead" theme, which the skeleton warriors play (on leg bone flutes and skull drums) as they march off into battle.
The recently released collector’s edition DVD is a must own for fans of the film. Aside from giving you the theatrical and director’s cut of the movie, a documentary, and commentary from Raimi and Campbell, it also provides American audiences with their first chance to see the "Rip Van Winkle" alternate ending (which was previously only available on the Japanese laserdisc, where the film was hilariously retitled "Captain Supermarket"). I think the alternate ending is amusing, but S-Mart ending is more satisfying.
Despite my comments, I do like Army of Darkness. It’s a fun movie that takes Ash and the Evil Dead series in a new direction (and a new direction was certainly needed after seeing two films set in the forest cabin). Unfortunately, the film never manages to live up the to the inherent coolness of its premise. Raimi gets too occupied with sight gags and catch phrases to ever stop and consider the potential the story had. AOD isn’t a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination—it’s just less of a movie than we’d come to expect from guys with the talent of Raimi and Bruce Campbell. Still, it’s well worth picking up…especially if you’re fan of the Evil Dead films.
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