Review: Army of Darkness (1993)

Or do you call it Evil Dead III?

Yep, our much-abused hero, Ash--played once again by flexible, athletic and chiseled Bruce Campbell-is back to battle demons, witches and zombies. And this is an honest-to-badness sequel, picking up right where the last film left off--unlike its delirious predecessor, Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn, which was really just a more muscular remake of the original Evil Dead.

We get a recap of the events that led Ash to his current predicament, including his stint as a clerk at a discount superstore ("Shop smart--Shop S Mart!") and his unfortunate trip to a remote cabin with his girlfriend, Linda (played in the flashback scenes by my longtime imaginary girlfriend, Bridget Fonda, who was a huge fan of Dead by Dawn and asked for a cameo in this film), who falls victim to the otherworldly forces released by the Necronomicon (the Book of the Dead to us ordinary folks). At the end of Dead by Dawn, Ash found himself flung into the distant past--Medieval England, to be exact--with only his chainsaw hand and his '73 Oldsmobile to comfort him.

And, as it turns out, all Ash needs to do is snag the Necronomicon (The Book of the Dead) in order to be returned to his own time--once he outmaneuvers an army of the undead and saves his Old England squeeze (Embeth Davidtz) from becoming one of them.

And that's about all there is to the plot, kids. As usual, Raimi plows forward with energy and style to spare, pretty much wearing the audience out by the end of its running time, which is either 81 or 96 minutes, depending on whether or not you're watching the "standard" version (the one released in theaters) or the "director's cut" (both of which are available on DVD). Each has a different ending--the original ending was too downbeat, so they had to shoot a "happy" ending and tack it on to keep the studio, Universal, happy. (I've seen both and personally think they're both weak, but at least the original ending is more in keeping with the overall tone of the series--Ash didn't get to have a happy ending the first two times around, so why should the third time be the charm?)

This time around, though, scares are few and far between, with Raimi and company playing more of a sword-and-sorcery riff; perhaps Raimi and producer Rob Tapert were just warming up for their stint in charge of the hugely successful The Adventures of Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess syndicated TV series. In fact, the leader of the undead army (who is an evil mirror image of Ash--don't ask) does the "Xena yell" ("Ayiyiyiyiyiyiyiyi!"), and Ted Raimi, who played Joxer on Xena, appears in multiple small roles here.

And the inventiveness of the previous movies in the series gives way to flat-out comedy and numerous references, both visual and dialogue, to other movies: I spotted nods to such diverse sources as A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Enter the Dragon, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Gulliver's Travels, The Manster, Frankenstein, Planet of the Apes, The Seven Samurai, Jason and the Argonauts, The Road Warrior and any given Three Stooges short. (I'm sure there are plenty that I missed, but they'll no doubt throw themselves out at me the next time I watch it.)

Ash seems different, too. Campbell plays him less as a man besieged and driven to the edge of madness than as a jaded smartass along the lines of the characters James Garner has played for so long (Medieval Maverick?), just not nearly as bright. Then again, if I were constantly being chased by rotting corpses and had to lug around a chainsaw in place of my right hand, I suppose I'd be more than a bit testy myself.

Army of Darkness doesn't match the sheer adrenaline rush of Dead by Dawn or the earnest, creep-inducing atmosphere of the original Evil Dead. But if aggressive goofiness is what you're looking for in a movie experience, Army of Darkness will fill your prescription nicely.