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Army Of Darkness (1992)

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Overall Rating 78%
Overall Rating
Ranked #1,002
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Connections: The Evil Dead

Ash is transported with his car to 1,300 A.D., where he is captured by Lord Arthur and turned slave with Duke Henry the Red and a couple of his men. When Ash is thrown into a pit, he defeats two monsters and wins respect of Arthur's army and vassals. The Wiseman points Ash as The Chosen One that will retrieve the Necronomicon but Ash is only interested in returning home. When he learns that the only way to return to his time is using the Necronomicon, Ash decides to travel to the unholy land of the Deadites. The Wiseman advises that he must say the words "Klaatu Barada Nikto" to safely get the evil book. However, Ash forgets the last word and an army of the dead resurrects to attack Arthur fortress and recover the Necronomicon. The battle between the living and the dead is about to start and the support of Henry the Red is the only way to help Ash and Arthur to defeat the army of darkness. --IMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: June 16, 2004
We start out with a brief recap of the first two films in the series, which shows Ash and his girlfriend Linda going out to a cabin in the woods, where they're assaulted by demons. Some quick cut-scenes later, and Ash is being sucked into a portal, where he ends up falling, along with his Oldsmobile, into the fourteenth century. As usual, luck isn't on Ash's side, and upon picking himself up off the ground, he finds himself caught between two medieval groups; Henry The Red's group, and the main group whose name I didn't catch. The main group is taking Henry's group as prisoners who will be sentenced to death, and they also assume that Ash is one of them. After a great scene, Ash ends up becoming top man in this kingdom, but the fun doesn't end there; a wise man says that Ash is the promised one, who will rid the land of the undead forces that have been sweeping through. Ash will have none of that, until he finds out that the only way to get back to his time is to recover the Necronomicon (remember, from the first movie?). While recovering the book, Ash fucks up the words that he was told to say, and unleashes a huge army of the dead that intends to wipe out the measly humans.

While the storyline does follow some typical horror elements, don't let the above description fool you into thinking that this is a horror film. No sir, this is almost a pure slapstick comedy throughout, but it does work out nicely, even though I'm not normally a fan of movies that mix horror and comedy. The thing that made this particular effort work out nicely, in my opinion, is the fact that the comedy doesn't seem like it was trying to be funny... and by that, I mean that all of the comedic aspects of the film come from some of the greatest one-liners to be found and the facial expressions / mannerisms of Ash and his crew. Let's hope that last line made some sense, because it's a bit hard to describe if you haven't seen the film; so suffice it to say, it's a comedy that doesn't try to be funny, and in doing so, comes off being quite hilarious.

Ash (Bruce Campbell) is by far one of the greatest movie icons in history, due to his mix of average-joe klutz and badass. This film is no exception to the rule, as Bruce manages to mix those aspects together flawlessly. When a zombie / skeleton / deadite comes after him, you never quite know whether Ash is going to get his ass handed to him, or break out some serious boomstick on the poor creature. This take on the hero character works out quite nicely, as opposed to the "Terminator" style of films where the main guy can wipe out a small city in the blink of an eye.

All of the things that normally make or break a movie are in check here. I think I've sufficiently jocked Campbell enough, so you should have a guess at how he does on the acting side of things. The rest of the cast is also great, but nowhere near the level of Bruce. Over on the effects side of things, most scenes tend to work out excellently; however, there is a few that ended up looking a bit rough. Those can be excused though, since the scenes they pop up in aren't vital to the storyline, and though they are roughly done, they don't come out looking like total ass. Just think along the lines of the monkey from Dead Alive, and how awful those effects were, and how it didn't hurt the movie one bit.

Overall, a worthy film in the series, though I do hope it's not the end of it. Maybe someday, part four will drop... but until then, this one will serve nicely as the closure of the series. Definitely worth the viewing. 9/10.
A FIRE INSIDE #1: A FIRE INSIDE - added August 1, 2004 at 4:53am
What a hilarious movie, just insane.
Schillinger #2: Schillinger - added August 25, 2004 at 9:26am
Great movie. My only complaint is that most of the background sets made everything look so fake.
IStabPeople420 #3: IStabPeople420 - added September 28, 2004 at 7:15pm
This movie is a testament to what a brilliant mind can do with a mediocre budget. Sam Raimi is a true visionary, in that he knows how to make plotline and script overcome problems such as crappy sets and effects. Add to that the fact that Bruce Campbell is about as perfect for the part as anybody could ever hope to get, and this is a great movie. Personally, my favorite of the whole trilogy. And the one-liners kick so much ass it's scary. "Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun"
Merc_Risen #4: Merc_Risen - added February 1, 2005 at 9:17am
the best fucking movie sam has ver done and the "fake" looking backgrounds just made the movie that much better now if you'll excuse me im gonna go watch army of darkness
KaOTiK #5: KaOTiK - added February 14, 2005 at 2:39am
nowhere near as good as the original two evil dead movies, in my opinion.. alot of it is very funny though
Hektik_2004 #6: Hektik_2004 - added May 16, 2005 at 8:19pm
this film is so pointless but ill be damned if it aint great
Tristan #7: Tristan - added May 26, 2005 at 7:02pm
I was surprised with the direction this one took, but it's still an amazing movie. One of my favorites.
hail to the thief #8: hail to the thief - added September 4, 2005 at 5:49pm
groovy.
Ginose #9: Ginose - added September 7, 2005 at 2:58pm
This was the best horror comedy I've seen in years... Hail to the king, baby...
bluemeanie #10: bluemeanie - added October 20, 2005 at 6:42pm
This is my BOOMSTICK! One of the greatest lines in the history of horror. 9/10.
Dametria #11: Dametria - added April 24, 2007 at 11:00am
If chins could kill....
MerrysMiko #12: MerrysMiko - added July 31, 2008 at 10:54am
Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell are the masters of making campy look fabulous. I've noticed that in every film Raimi directs, Campbell and Sam's brother Ted Raimi make guest appearances. (Go watch the Spiderman movies again, they're in all three.) Ted actually plays four different cameo roles in "Army of Darkness" and he and Campbell went on to have recurring guest roles when Raimi directed Xena: Warrior Princess. For campy goodness at it's best, you can't beat this team.

Hail to the kings, baby. 10/10
Shakes #13: Shakes - added January 22, 2009 at 1:18pm
I met Bruce years ago and he signed my copy of If Chins Could Kill...he wrote "STAY GROOVY!" He's just like you'd expect him to be, sarcastic as hell, actually a little dorky though. What a badass motherfucker. 10/10
Shakes #14: Shakes - added January 23, 2009 at 6:33am
Too bad Raimi sucks now, though.
Hellknight03 #15: Hellknight03 - added July 2, 2009 at 8:22pm
Brilliant movie.
Lucid Dreams #16: Lucid Dreams - added May 30, 2010 at 9:50pm
I doubt there will be a part four, but they ended it pretty damn good. 10/10
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