An Army Of Entertainment.......

Rating: 8/10 (14 March 2004)

MILD SPOILERS!!!!
The question is often posed: "Why is a film of such dubious merit so beloved by so many people?" The simple answer is is that ARMY OF DARKNESS is just so much fun to watch. It remains director Sam Raimi's campy throw back, a film that preserves the traditions of B-grade cult classics and Ray Harryhausen's stop motion special effects. It exudes such delight at the act of making a movie, of telling a story, it is hard to resist. It is not a great film but it is an entertaining tale complete with an army of skeletons, knights on horseback, foul demons, a beautiful female lead and a Delta 88 Oldsmobile.
ARMY OF DARKNESS opens with the ending of EVIL DEAD II, which sees Ash (Bruce Cambell) deposited in the middle ages via some kind of magic portal (the actual physics on this are a little sketchy), only to be enslaved. He is eventually released to seek the infamous book of the dead, which has the power to purge evil from the kingdom forever. This journey is perhaps the highlight of the movie. As Ash wanders through haunted grave yards and battles miniature duplicates of himself, the full scope of the film's comedic intentions are developed. All this leads to the climactic battle sequence with the forces of the undead (although some of the magic is lost when so many of the spring boards used by the stuntmen are plainly obvious). Will evil rule the day, or will good etc, etc.
The charm of ARMY OF DARKNESS falls mainly on the shoulders of the main character, Ash. As portrayed by Bruce Campbell, he is a square jawed dolt, who as Raimi says "...would looks up to an imbecile." It is this quality that makes him instantly likable. He is arrogant, loud, angry, and dumb. Ash is supplied with puerile one liners ("groovy", "come get some", "gimme some sugar baby"), that you can almost imagine this guy practicing in front of a mirror on a Friday night. He's a jerk but we like him all the same. In the end he proves to be a hero, which considering the complete lack of character development, is oddly satisfying.
ARMY OF DARKNESS will also live on as a film that was not given a chance to live up to its full potential. Due to a situation over the rights to the sequel of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, on which producer Dino De Laurentiis and Universal Pictures clashed, Raimi was left with little money to complete the film. So little in fact, that they could not afford main titles, instead using the rather lame animated opening sequence. The lack of funds also resulted in composer Danny Elfman writing the 'March of the Dead' theme (that was meant to be used under the main titles; see above) for one dollar. That, as well as massive studio interference which saw entire scenes cut and the ending reshot completely. However, the situation has been corrected with seemingly dozens of DVD releases, each more comprehensive than the last, which allows ARMY OF DARKNESS to live on beyond the truncated theatrical version. ARMY OF DARKNESS has all the makings of a cult classic, so give into the silliness and check it out. 8/10.