Way Too Late Review: ‘Army of Darkness’

Recently, I finally got around to watching Sam Raimi’s cult classic Army of Darkness. The film had its original domestic theater release back in 1993, and given that I was only six years old at the time, I have an at least semi-reasonable excuse for not haven seen it earlier.

For anyone not already familiar, the film picks up immediately after Evil Dead 2 left off, following Ash (Bruce Campbell) as he has found himself magically transported to the 1300s via some kind of evil vortex created by the undead “Deadites.” He had previously amputated his own hand in Evil Dead 2, and now sports a chainsaw on the end of his handless arm. Transported with him to the middle ages were his car, the aforementioned chainsaw, and his “boom stick.” After arriving, he is immediately apprehended by the locals (some of whom amusingly try to stick the car with their swords), who assume he’s a member of their rival duchy (or something).

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The leader of the group who captured Ash, Lord Arthur, and his men take him back to their castle with their other prisoners and throw him into “the pit.” Long story short, one of their wise men suspects Ash is their savior, prophesied to save them from the evil Deadites, and returns the chainsaw to Ash–enabling him to escape the pit. Having successfully intimidated the citizenry with his future tech, Lord Arthur’s people proceed to give Ash the royal treatment: hand-fed grapes on a chaise lounge, etc.

This is also where a subplot with Ash’s medieval romantic interest, Sheila, starts. The two run pretty hot and cold, to say the least. Even without the addition of Ash’s ever-so conveniently placed chemistry book in the trunk of his car (seriously, what kind of grown man working as a department-store clerk randomly keeps a chemistry textbook in the trunk of his car?!), the entire world has a subtly anachronistic feel to it.

Ultimately, Ash is sent on a quest to retrieve the Necronomicon from an evil graveyard in the middle of nowhere and messes up the magic words when retrieving it (because he’s pretty bad at the whole prophesied savior thing). I felt the scenes leading up to and inside the graveyard weren’t the movie’s strongest. They had a lot of goofy slapstick and some dated green-screen effects. Having mucked up the magic words, the Deadites are free to attack Lord Arthur and his men. An evil undead version of Ash, which was created back on his way to the graveyard, literally raises an army of skeletons and leads the attack. The remainder of the film is the climactic battle between living and dead (good and evil, etc.) and the subsequent end of our hero’s journey.

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Now for the million-dollar question: does Army of Darkness stand the test of time? If you’re looking for a serious action/horror flick—not so much. Whether or not it was ever meant to be a serious horror film, even during its initial release, I can’t really say. However, going in to the movie I was expecting horror comedy (since I’d seen Evil Dead 2 previously), and in that genre Army of Darkness prevails with gusto. Given that the special effects are 23 years old, they don’t exactly come across as realistic, but watching a stop-motion (or animatronic?) skeleton army fight an anachronistically-armed band of medieval peasants…this didn’t disconnect me from the story so much as it added to it’s comical charm.

As a special bonus, I actually went to see a “quote-along” version of the film. Between getting to shoot cap guns during the film and hearing an entire theater audience chant “Shop smart. Shop S-Mart.” in unison, there really wasn’t a dull moment. It’s funny, quotable and, overall, entertaining. If you’re any kind of B-movie fan, Army of Darkness is definitely worth checking out.

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