Hilarious horror-comedy fun.

Rating: 9/10 (29 August 2001)

Army of Darkness is the third in Sam Raimi's 혩The Evil Dead' trilogy. Previously, the films were aimed at a select group of viewers; those who could stomach the gallons of blood(and occasionally, bile) splattering across the screen. They turned out to be extremely popular with this audience; to the extent that this latest effort has much improved financial backing. This turns out to be a mixed blessing.
In order to be commercially viable, the movie needed to aim for a wider audience. Thus, the gore is toned down greatly, which will disappoint those who enjoyed the slapstick brutality of the first two films. However, the increased budget does allow for more extravagant visual effects during the fight scenes. In my opinion, they enhances their entertainment value- more than the lack of blood shown on screen diminishes it. Another consequence of increased funding is that the film has a much grander scale to it than either of the previous Evil Dead films. This is mainly due to the more impressive sets, as well as the hundreds of extras involved.

I thought the script to this movie was hilarious. I particularly liked Bruce Campbell's mean-spirited, but witty, anti-hero Ash. His disregard for the feelings of others is evident from the beginning of the film, as he addresses the medieval populace as `primates', ridiculing their `primitive intellect'. I found seeing a character such as this in a main-stream movie refreshingly amusing, especially with Campbell's performance.

The supporting characters, while given relatively little screen time, were expanded well enough for me to care about what happened to them. Once again, the emphasis is on humour; I thought some of the character's mannerisms were hilarious. Such as King Arthur's method of taking his sword from a `sword boy' squatting in front of him. He grabs the handle offered to him, and stomps the servant to the floor. His subject falls backwards, keeping hold of the scabbard and thus removing it from the blade.

The plot itself often makes little sense, but it doesn't take itself so seriously that this is a problem. Some of the less believable moments do actually add to the comedy. For example, Ash finds a conveniently placed book entitled `Steam Plant Operation' in the boot of his car. With the aid of a medieval-age Blacksmith, he then uses the information in the book to construct a steam-powered engine for the vehicle.
Unlike 혩Evil Dead II', this movie follows on from the events portrayed in the film preceding it. In a neat twist to the continuing story-line, in 혩Evil Dead II', Ash read a history of what happens in 혩Army of Darkness'. Little did he realise that later, he would be sent back in time and that he was reading about his own future.
To conclude, I found watching this movie to be seriously fun. While there are no life changing lessons to be learnt here, I thought it worked brilliantly as a piece of humorous entertainment. 9/10.