Fun, family-centred Evil Dead adventure

Rating: 6/10 (19 May 2015)

A horror comedy, the third in the trilogy of EVIL DEAD films. This one sees Ash, the hero from the first two films, transported back in time to Medieval England as a consequence of the actions occurring at the end of the EVIL DEAD 2. A brief summary of the events in ED2 is shown at the beginning of the film to help those without prior knowledge to understand more fully the events that are going on. From the start Ash is immediately a slave and is forced to fight against a Deadite to prove himself to the King. Luckily, he still has his shotgun and chainsaw with him from ED2 and uses this to full effect in combating the evil. Once defeated, Ash journeys to a distant cemetery in order to retrieve the Necronomicon and return him to his own time. Along the way he finds love which I feel is a rather unnecessary addition to the plot. Ash unwittingly resurrects an army of the dead comprised of skeletons, all led by his twin, Bad Ash. Suffice to say his castle is invaded by these skeletons and Ash and his men must use 20th century technology to defeat this undead horde.
ARMY OF DARKNESS is an amusing comedy with a few horror elements thrown in but compared to the first two films in the trilogy it really isn't all that great. A weakness is that the film tries too hard to be funny and can be embarrassing at times. Another downfall are the enemies, while the stop-motion skeletons look convincing and are reminiscent of THAT classic scene from JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, most of the time the skeletons are obviously being carried along by guys crawling just below the camera! If, like was originally intended, the army had been composed of zombies then we would have had some great gore scenes, but they decided to tone it down for a PG-13 release and we were left with this. The gore in the first film gave it the reputation it has and look at what has happened now. Good old Bruce does his best, playing straight-faced as always, but he lacks the manic-eyed character he had in EVIL DEAD 2. Still, he's once again a one man show, carrying the plot when it lets him down and making every line a classic, much-quoted piece of cinema history.
The film's main disappointment is in that it tries to cater for a wider audience whereas the low-budget '80s films didn't. It is a disappointing third (and perhaps last) in the series, but saying that it still has some good moments, and I'm only berating it because it's the follow-up to two amazingly good films. If this was a stand alone then I would praise it more highly, but as it is, there's a nasty taste left in the mouth after viewing. The Evil Force (p.o.v. demon chasing through woods) only appears fleetingly but it is still a pleasure to see it. But the setting and the atmosphere of the first pair of horror films are sorely missed, and this feels like a different thing altogether. Although ARMY OF DARKNESS is worth seeing (especially if you're a fan of slapstick), if you are looking for an intense, ferious horror comedy then I would recommend the superior EVIL DEAD 2.