Army of Darkness is the third (and so far final) movie in the Evil Dead Series. Before director Sam Raimi went legits with a series of critically acclaimed dramas and the Spiderman series, he was a low budget horror genius. Army of Darkness begins right where Evil Dead II ended, with Bruce Campbell trapped in medieval times to battle the deadites once again.
The trilogy started out in Evil Dead as a pretty straight horror movie. A group of people discover a book of the dead and unleash gore filled horror upon themselves in a remote cabin. Evil Dead II basically re-tells the same story with a different cast (except for the ever present Bruce Campbell), bigger budget and plenty of slapstick. The second movie is by far my favorite in the series. It keeps the ghoulish gore while adding hilarious physical comedy and some classic one liners. Army of Darkness furthers this tradition by adding even more slapstick and one lines while removing almost all of the gore.
What little plot there is goes something like this: Stranded in the middle ages Bruce Campbell is at first captured by a small army for being mistaken for a member of a rival army. Bruce quickly uses his "boomstick" to gain clout with his captors and is sent on a quest to recover the Necronomicon which will both send Bruce back to his own time and save the army from evil. Bruce being Bruce he gets the book and unleashes an army of the dead. There are two endings released for this movie. One happier ending was released in US theatres and another sequel set up unhappy ending seen in a theatrical cut in the UK and on many US DVD versions.
Raimi once again does a nice job creating a mix of horror movie cliches (which range from Jason and the Argonauts to Gulliver's Travels) with the slapstick of the Three Stooges. Unfortunately the comic elements seem to take over this picture leaving the horror end of it as more of a backdrop. It feels more like a Zucker brothers movie more than a horror film. Most of the evil dead are formed as skeletons which only crumble when destroyed rather than burst into a mess of blood and guts as they did in the first two movies. This may seem to be an absurd complaint, but as a fan of gory movies I felt disappointed with that choice.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
very nice explanation of the series, minitcafe, thanks and welcome! Can you see any relationship between these and the Spider-man movies? are these forebears in any way?
2 - Mat
Good question. Hmmmm, I've never really thought about any similarities in the Evil Dead series and Spiderman. There is definitely some Raimi style in Spidey. His use of camera movement is a style of its own. Although Spiderman reminds me more of Raimi's Simple Plan than of anything Evil Dead. I think that stems from his use of character and story than anything else. Where the Dead series concerns itself more with action than story, Simple Plan and Spiderman are about character and plot (though both certainly contain action.)
3 - Dave Nalle
For what it's worth I think Embeth Davidtz was pretty good in her first screen role in AoD. There has been some serious talk about a 4th Evil Dead film, but there are some peculiar circumstances. Apparently Raimi and Bruce Campbell own the right to the characters, but not the rights to the previous movies themselves, which might limit what can be done, though apparently Raimi is interested in doing another film, and with his clout in hollywood whatever he says pretty much goes.
Anyway, if you liked the ED films, check out Bubba-Hotep which is a recent DVD release. It's like a bizarre, Texas intellectual horror comedy with Bruce Campbell as Elvis. Something you really need to see to believe.
Dave
4 - Mat
Aren't they planning on remaking the first ED? I wonder if they plan on going for the gore or the laughs.
I plan to see Bubba Ho-tep. Currently I am in France and unable to see many movies. I'll have tons of catching up to do when I get back this fall.