Raimi's evolved style of total comic book hilarity

Rating: 8/10 (28 July 2005)

Sam Raimi's third (but possibly not last) installment in his 'Evil Dead' series shows Ash (Bruce Campbell, a cult hero of sorts) right after Evil Dead 2, now back in medieval times, still fighting against the unpredictably grotesque and bizarre Necronomicon. This is just a set-up though, like with most comic-books, for mostly a series of visual gags, in-jokes, puns, homages, and out-right hilarity and parody. In other words, if you're wanting to watch this for the same reasons you wanted to watch the original Evil Dead, you may be disappointed. This is the sort of evolution that Raimi has taken the series with: the first was a film from a filmmaker 21 years old, with an over-load of visual energy, pumping out one of the most visceral and inventive of all horror films.
The sequel went half and half- at times it took the sincerity and true horror of the first film, but it also had a lot to laugh about too, as it didn't take itself seriously for most of it. With Army of Darkness, it's tongue-in-cheek incarnate. Take a scene where Ash has just resurrected the "deadites" (through some fault of his own, mumbling the last word of his forgotten phrase to stop the curse from the book of the dead) to rise. He suddenly gets pulled down to the ground, and the skeletons from the graves have their way with him, in short, having a fight in the tradition of a Three Stooges skit (blocking eye-pokes and all). This leads up to the skeletons forming their 'army' of the title, and it's more like a wild send-up of Jason and the Argonauts than a real 'zombie' film as some horror fans might be mis-led to believe. By the time Ash gets out his chainsaw wielded on his arm, its become cliché all the way, but expertly clever cliché.
There is no 'message' from the film really, it's just a full-blown, ludicrous romp with the middle ages and the occult- and it's all the better (and gets better on repeat viewings like Brooksfilm comedies) due to this. And the film may or may not work for some depending on the stamina and prowess of Campbell, who for me is one of the funniest people working in low-budget films today (he comes up occasionally in big-budget films too), but may be a little too 'ham' for some viewers. Like Evil Dead 2, From Dusk Till Dawn, and Return of the Living Dead among others, Army of Darkness joins that handful of films that's for a select audience (it's not as graphic with its gore as in the first film, but its still in high gear), to have as a good 'party movie' with friends. A "gas" from start to finish, to coin a term that does apply well here as one of the better films of 93. A-