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| An awesome, painted poster for Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness - with a very funny tagline |
Army of Darkness is the 6th feature by and third film in Michigander master filmmaker Sam Raimi's (Spider-Man (2002)) Evil Dead franchise; it has deservedly become a cult hit. - Blending comedy, horror and action with great skill, Army of Darkness is a gem and a take-off from the, however, also sensational first Evil Dead two films, in that it takes place somewhere around year 1300. Raimi wrote the imaginative screenplay with his brother Ivan Raimi (Darkman (1990)).
Familiar hero Ash this time gets caught in the Middle Ages, battling different kinds of medieval death in order to return back to the comfy 1990s.
The humor is light, physically centered and genre-prone throughout. Army of Darkness was definitely innovative and ingenious in terms of its staggering effects, - the flying arrows and swords that the camera follows, for instance, or the mini-attackers, the live skeletons etc. - All brought to life with impressive visual expertise. It brings you back the enthusiasm of watching old Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts (1963), associate producer/special visual effects creator) films with its effects-heavy zeal for everything fantastic. Army of Darkness by turn thrills, awes, scares and amuses.
Bruce Campbell's (The Evil Dead (1981)) returns as Ash, and Campbell's great, physical acting talent is used in almost every shot of the film, back in top shape here in a very demanding role.
Enormously entertaining and good-looking; everyone who were involved must and rightly should be very proud of Army of Darkness.
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Sam Raimi: Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) - A fun, eye-popping adventure
2013 in films - according to Film Excess
Evil Dead (2013) - One hell of a ride (producer)
Drag Me to Hell (2009) - Raimi returns to horror in high style
Star Bruce Campbell talks of his work in the film here
Cost: 11 mil. $
Box office: 21.5 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.95 times its cost)
[Army of Darkness premiered 9 October (Sitges Film Festival, Spain) and runs 81 minutes (US theatrical release)/88 minutes (international release)/96 minutes (director's cut). Financing came together with Universal Pictures due to producer Dino De Laurentiis' deal with them. Filming took place from May - August 1991 in California, including in a castle built on the edge of the Mojave Desert. Universal demanded cuts to get a PG-13 rating for the film and refused Raimi's own ending, which he, Campbell and producer Robert Tapert (The Grudge (2004)) had put up 1 mil. $ off their own salaries to shoot. The rating never got lower than an R, despite cuts, and Raimi and co. later had their ending made available on home video. Disagreements between Universal and De Laurentiis (about the rights to the Hannibal Lecter character) pushed the general release of the film from the summer of '92 to February '93. It opened #6 to a 4.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it played only 3 weeks and grossed 11.5 mil. $ (53.5 % of the total gross.) Despite being the highest-grossing Evil Dead film to date, Army of Darkness' ballooned budget means it wasn't financially successful theatrically at least. The franchise has since spawned a 2013 remake (Evil Dead) and a successful TV-series, Ash vs Evil Dead (2015-) by creators Sam and Ivan Raimi and Tom Spezialy. Army of Darkness is fresh at 72 % with a 6.9/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Army of Darkness?
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