Review of Army of Darkness (1992) by Brooks C — 31 Oct 2012

After the unexpected, yet successful turn of the Evil Dead franchise with Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness pushes this direction much further. This third sequel in the successful franchise no longer embodies a generic horror atmosphere like the previous two films, but plays more like an action, comic book inspired, black comedy. The result is an entertaining, yet somewhat flawed experience.

Picking up where the previous movie left off, Ash gets teleported to medieval England along with his automobile only to be enslaved and sentenced for execution being believed to be a sorcerer. After proving himself and spouting awesome catchphrases like, ''This is my boom stick!" Ash tries to find a way to get back to his time. He is taken to a cemetery where the Necronomicon lies in hopes of finding the passages that can fulfill his demand. He winds up accidentally resurrecting the Army of Darkness and returns back to the castle to defend it against the ensuing attack.

There exist two different versions of this movie. One is an alternate story narrative where the movie continues the events of the previous film in a better continuity. The other more popular version is told through Ash's narrative. The film goes to him working as an employee at S-Mart and is telling his co-worker his story of having time traveled and why he is. The alternate version even features a different ending where we see Ash travel in time, but winds up awaking in the future. In response he shouts ''NO! I slept too long!" One thing they both have in common is that they are both black comedy films.

The movie parodies many classics like Gulliver's Travels, Ben-Hur, Night of the Living Dead, The Time Machine, and so on. The humor in this movie is similar to that of Evil Dead 2, but there is much less gore. This movie relies more on comedic set pieces, crazy catchphrases, and the fourth-wall persona of Bruce Campbell. The humor works pretty well and the catchphrases like, ''This is my boom stick!" and ''YEAHHH BABY!!" are fun to listen to. The fact that director Sam Raimi was inspired by comedic icons like The Three Stooges and Buster Keaton goes to prove why the humor works and why the this movie is the most stylized.

The special effects have improved since the last two installments, but are still laughable. Most of this is done to benefit the style of the movie being centered on humor. All of the pieces do well at benefiting the movie's self-deprecating humor. This would be a bad thing under normal circumstances, but due to it being for comedic effect it's actually succeeds.

One thing that makes it flawed is that like the previous movie, there are errors in continuity. Evil Dead is one of those cult horror franchises that not only takes many unexpected twists and turns with its content, but is also one that has some of the worst continuity with its sequels. Those that have seen the previous movie remember that Ash was hailed, but at the beginning of this movie he's enslaved and has to prove himself. They saw that he kills a demon and begin to worship him. This fact may deter some viewers who are more associated with its traditional horror style from this sudden change in execution. Then again, Evil Dead is not known for its continuity but for its mindless execution and being one of the few successful films to be enjoyably bad.

Army of Darkness may be the weakest of the three, but it's by no means a bad movie. Having spawned an Army of Darkness comic series that's still continued to this day, video games, and benefited the career of Bruce Campbell, Army of Darkness stands out as being the most action oriented and lighter hearted of the three. Army of Darkness may not be for everyone, but if one is able to understand its reason he/she might find something enjoyable underneath.

*Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween.