Other Titles • Army of Darkness • The Army of Darkness (1993) • Army of Darkness, the Ultimate Experience in Medieval Horror (1993) • Army of Darkness: Evil Dead 3 (1993) • Bruce Campbell vs. Army of Darkness (1993) • Captain Supermarket (1993) • Evil Dead 3 • Evil Dead II: The Medievil Dead (1984) • Army of Darkness: The Medieval Dead (1993) • The Medieval Dead (1993)
Synopses for Army of Darkness (1992)
1.
Trapped in time. Surrounded by evil. Low on gas.
Bound in human flesh, inked in blood, and amazingly hard to pronounce, the ancient Necronomican, or Book of the Dead, unleashes unspeakable evil upon mankind in director Sam Raimi's outrageously hilarious sword-and-sorcery epic.
Back to do battle with the hideous "Deadites", Bruce Campbell reprises his role from The Evil Dead series as Ash, the handsome, shotgun-toting, chainsaw-armed department store clerk from S-Mart's housewares division. Demonic forces time-warp him - and his '73 Oldsmobile - into England's Dark Ages, where he romances a beauty (Embeth Davidtz) and faces legions of un-dead beasts, including a ghastly army of skeletons. Can Ash save the living from the evil dead, rescue his girlfriend, and get back to his own time?
Overflowing with spectacular special effects, Army of Darkness will make you scream with fear and laughter.
(44 votes)
2.
A movie that only true horror buffs could love, Army of Darkness is officially part 3 in the wild and wacky Evil Dead trilogy masterminded by the perversely inventive director Sam Raimi, who would later serve as executive producer of the popular syndicated TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Raimi's favorite actor, Bruce Campbell, returns as Ash (hero of the first two Evil Dead flicks), a hardware-store clerk who is magically transported--along with his beat-up Oldsmobile and a chainsaw attachment for his severed left forearm--to the brutal battlefields of the 14th century. He quickly assumes power (who else in the Middle Ages packs a shotgun and a chainsaw?), and unites his band of medieval knights against the dreaded Army of the Dead. Raimi gleefully subverts almost every horror-movie cliché as he serves up a nonstop parade of blood, gore, and vicious sword-bearing skeletons--an affectionate homage to animator Ray Harryhausen's classic Jason and the Argonauts. The frantic action is fun while it lasts, but even at 80 minutes Army of Darkness nearly wears out its welcome. You know that Raimi can maintain the mayhem for only so long before it grows tiresome, and fortunately this madcap movie quits while it's ahead. --Jeff Shannon
(42 votes)
3.
Through a magic spell, Ash, a modern-day discount-store employee, finds himself back in the middle ages. Given the key to return home by an alchemist, he bungles the incantation and, instead, releases the forces of darkness.
Now Ash has one job to do before transporting to the future: defeat the army of the evil dead... if they don't defeat him first.
(37 votes)
4.
Bound in human flesh, inked in blood, and amazingly hard to pronounce, the ancient "Necronomicon," or "Book of the Dead," transports a department store clerk and his '73 Oldsmobile into England's Dark Ages to face legions of undead beasts.
(39 votes)
5.
How can you destroy an army that's already dead?
Listen up, you primitive screwheads!
At long last, here is the closest thing to an "official" Director's Cut of "Army" that you'll ever find. Personally, I think there is always merit in any version of a film that preserves what the makers intended. So, for your consideration, we submit the REAL film, complete with the original ending, which I think is far more appropriate.
On behalf of Sam Raimi and Robert Taperi, I'd like to thank all of you fans (you know who you are) for your loyal support of this ridiculous series of films - you are directly responsible for the demand to make this version available. May you revel in 96 minutes of excess and may you never run out of sugar… baby!
-Bruce Campbell
(39 votes)
6.
It's hard not to feel there's something wrong when Army of Darkness, the third entry in Sam Raimi's lively Evil Dead series, opens with a 15 certificate. And indeed, this is not quite the non-stop rollercoaster of splat we're entitled to expect.
Like Evil Dead II, it opens with a digest-cum-remake of the original movie, taking geeky Ash (Bruce Campbell) back out to that cabin in the woods where he is beset by demons who do away with his girlfriend (blink and you'll miss Bridget Fonda). Blasted back in time to 12th century England, Ash finds himself still battling the Deadites and his own ineptitude in a quest to save the day and get back home.
Though it starts zippily, with Campbell's grimly funny clod of a hero commanding the screen, a sort of monotony sets in as magical events pile up. Ash is attacked by Lilliputian versions of himself, one of whom incubates in his stomach and grows out of his shoulder to be his evil twin. After being dismembered and buried, Evil Ash rises from the dead to command a zombie army and at least half the film is a big battle scene in which rotted warriors (nine mouldy extras in masks for every one Harryhausen-style impressive animated skeleton) besiege a cardboard castle. There are lots of action jokes, MAD Magazine-like marginal doodles and a few funny lines, but it lacks the authentic scares of The Evil Dead and the authentic sick comedy of Evil Dead II.
On the DVD:Army of Darkness may be the least of the trilogy, but Anchor Bay's super two-disc set is worthy of shelving beside their outstanding editions of the earlier films. Disc 1 contains the 81-minute US theatrical version in widescreen or fullscreen, plus the original "Planet of the Apes" ending, the trailer and a making-of featurette. Disc 2 has the 96-minute director's cut, with extra slapstick and a lively, irreverent commentary track from Raimi, Campbell and co-writer Ivan Raimi, plus yet more deleted scenes and some storyboards. The fact that the film exists in so many versions suggests that none of them satisfied everybody, but fans will want every scrap of Army in this one package. --Kim Newman
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