I grew up watching movies. Some of my favorite movies when I was a kid were Disney films or The Goonies or Beetlejuice. I was a big fan of Batman, as well (all iterations of the character). This doesn’t necessarily mean I was always watching stuff that was wholly appropriate for my age, though…. but I will say, the movies I probably shouldn’t have watched, I was at least catching the TV-edited versions (for the most part). One of those movies that I watched and absolutely loved… I didn’t even know at the time was a sequel.
“Army of Darkness” caught me early on because of just how goofy it was. Sure, it has a few jump scares here and there, and as a kid, I was completely against that, but with Ash Williams at the forefront, I didn’t care. I was hooked. And the best part is, even though I first saw the movie when I was probably 5 or 6 years old…. it’s still one of my favorite films. I’d say it’s in my top 10… top 5… maybe even top 2 favorite films of all time.
When I was around 12 years old, I finally saw the first two “Evil Dead” films that lead up to “Army of Darkness,” and the genius of the trilogy is that they’re all completely different films. The first is a straight horror film, not played for laughs (that gets them through how cheesy the effects are), the second is a horror comedy that’s hilarious and disgusting all at the same time, and “Army of Darkness” is a comedy adventure film… but despite them all being different, they work so well together. Sure, it’s a huge shock to the system at the end of “Evil Dead 2” when Ash goes back in time, but at that point, you’re ready to see what that adventure is going to be like.
I love the entire “Evil Dead” series (so much so that I marathon the series every October ahead of Halloween), so it does seem a bit unfair to me to just talk about “Army of Darkness” in this blog post. So, let’s get my thoughts on the other movies (and even the TV series) out of the way before I do that (but let it be noted, I may have more to say about these at a later date).
“Evil Dead” (1981)
It’s a solid film, but by far the weakest of the series. It tries to be a fantastic horror film and falls short in some ways. It manages to shock, and the gore effects are really well done, but the cheesiness of the stop-motion effects balanced against the more grisly gore does seem a bit off. Also, it’s worth noting that, while Bruce Campbell’s Ash is in this movie, he isn’t near his iconic self just yet. That’s where the sequels come in.
“Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn” (1987)
A lot of people call this the best movie of the trilogy, and it’s hard to tell them they’re wrong. You can tell that after the first movie, director Sam Raimi came back and knew what he wanted to do with the sequel. Sure, it’s essentially a remake of sorts of the first movie, but now he knows just how cheesy it can be, and he’s willing to go there. This time around, the cheesy stop motion effects work because of the tone they’re going for, and Bruce Campbell starts to really come into his own as Ash. He’s a bit cockier and more sure of himself than he was in the previous film, but he still has a little bit to go before he’s the character we know him as today. Also, the Henrietta effects are some of my favorites in this franchise, and I love just how bonkers of an ending this movie has. If I had seen it when it first came out, not knowing the movie they were doing next, it would have absolutely shocked me.
“The Evil Dead” (2013)
Normally, I don’t like remakes or reboots, but this is one of the rare films to prove me wrong that nothing should be remade. It takes the basic premise of the original movie and makes it much, much darker. Also, they didn’t have the character of Ash in here. That may be the smartest decision the filmmakers could make, because recasting him would have felt… weird. The gore effects are also done well, and are everywhere in this movie. Unlike a lot of recent horror movies, this shies away from using computer-generated effects unless it’s absolutely necessary, and this movie also doesn’t rely on jump scares. This had me peeking through my fingers at parts because of just how hard some of the horrific scenes are to watch.
“Ash Vs. Evil Dead: The Series” (2015 – 2018)
Sadly, this series has already been canceled after airing only three seasons, but it was a worthy follow-up to the original trilogy, and sees Bruce Campbell come back as Ash, very much acting like the character did in “Army of Darkness.” It maintains the goofiness of that movie, and the gore of the first two. It also adds a really good supporting cast to Ash. That said, I still need to watch the third season…. but it comes out on Blu-Ray this week, so you know I’ll have it finished by Friday.
There’s also another aspect of the franchise that is a bit harder to seek out, but if you can, you definitely should. It’s called “Evil Dead: The Musical.” It used to play in Drumwright, Oklahoma every year, but it seems that that stopped happening in 2015, which is sad, because for a while there, it had become a yearly tradition for me. If you can go, then definitely sit in the “Splatter Zone,” which is made up of the first few rows. They’ll throw tons of fake blood on you, and deadites will come out and mess with you during the show, too. It’s a hell of a lot of fun if you get the chance to see it.
So anyways, let’s get back to “Army of Darkness.”
“Army of Darkness” (1993)
Plot: When Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) gets sent back in time to the Middle Ages, he has to find the book of the dead so he can get back home and get rid of the evil deadites.
It’s one of those films that has stuck with me since I was a kid, and unlike some other movies I watched at a young age, it actually grew on me even more over time. It has a goofy sort of charm that’s hard to explain, and it’s not the type of movie I expect to get made ever again based on the absolutely insane premise. It was a risk.
I’ve already talked about Bruce Campbell a bit in this blog, but I’ll continue on a bit here. In the previous films, Ash got to be a bit more confident in himself and his ability to take on the evil deadites, but in “Army of Darkness,” he’s cocky and stupid, and it’s absolutely amazing. Campbell really gets to show off his sense of humor in this film, and he steals the show with every line from “This is my boomstick” to “Hail to the king, baby.” I remember as a kid thinking that he reminded me of a cross between Jim Carrey and an action star… that comparison still oddly holds (with this movie, at least). If you need any other suggestions of Bruce Campbell films to watch aside from the “Evil Dead” series, I’d gladly suggest “Bubba Ho-Tep” or “My Name is Bruce” (or anything he’s got a sizable role in, really).
Sam Raimi also gets to shine in this film. As the director of the first two films, he came up with a lot of interesting shots and camera movements through sheer ingenuity… and with “Army of Darkness,” even though he has a much bigger budget, that doesn’t mean he’s decided to slack. Quite the opposite, actually. He finds ways to make the camera represent evil when it follows after somebody, to give it a presence that I don’t think other directors can. He also lets his comedic sensibilities come to the forefront…. he’s talked in the past about how he’s a huge fan of the Three Stooges, and very similar slapstick is all over the place in this film.
The Ray Harryhausen-style effects of the Army of Darkness are all really well-done, too, and a complete departure from the evil deadites of the first two films. Here, we get primarily a bunch of skeletons… the effects done by Greg Nicotero (“In the Mouth of Madness,” “From Dusk Till Dawn” and “The Walking Dead, among others) and his crew are all fantastic.
While this movie does shy away from the blood and gore of its predecessors, what blood it does use is primarily for comedic effect. In fact, I can only think of one notable use of blood…. and it’s a huge fountain that we get in the first act, and it’s so much that it’s cartoonish. I think the lack of gore in this film really helps it stay in a more light-hearted tone that it sets from early on, and it doesn’t really deviate from that.
There are also several cuts of this film, including the theatrical, director’s cut, international cut and television cut. All vary in little differences, a few lines are changed (mainly Ash’s one-liners), and a few new shots are added, but the main difference is the ending. If you haven’t seen the movie and want to go in without spoilers, here’s your chance to turn away… but you’ve also had 25 years to watch the movie, so this one may be on you at this point.
The big difference among all the cuts is the ending. In the theatrical and television cut, Ash takes a potion and makes it back to the present day, where, while at his job at S-Mart, a deadite attacks and he saves the day. It’s amazingly cheesy, and Bruce Campbell gets a few amazing lines of dialogue (there’s even an extra Ted Raimi cameo in there), and it gets to show how Ash is seen by his peers post-Evil Dead trilogy. This is my preferred ending…. but there’s also the director’s cut. That one’s a bit different, and, if they had ever made a sequel to “Army of Darkness” based on that ending, I would be interested to see where it could go. In the alternate cut, Ash takes too much of the potion and ends the film waking up in an apocalyptic future (and he has a killer beard on top of it all). Like I said, I prefer the other ending, but this one is a hell of a lot of fun, too.
^This, right here, is the preferred ending.
“Army of Darkness” changed the “Evil Dead” franchise for the best. While I absolutely love “Evil Dead 2,” the third film in the trilogy added so much humor and basically became a straight-up comedy. It also changed the role of Ash to a cocky (yet extremely dumb) protagonist who’s really good at killing demons, but bad at just about everything else. This franchise, and that character in general, hold a really special place in my heart, which is why the “Ash Vs. Evil Dead” series that ran on Starz for three very short seasons was a breath of fresh air for me. I absolutely adored the first two seasons, and I’m glad that Bruce Campbell got to come back to the role of Ash after two decades away from it. It legitimately feels like he never walked away from the role, and that’s the highest compliment I can give a years-later-sequel.
Now, I’m going to prep myself to finally watch the third season when it comes out on Blu-Ray this week… and marathon “Evil Dead” this October like I do around every Halloween.
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