Hail to the King, baby!

Rating: 10/10 (21 July 2014)

I love all three of Sam Raimi's Dead films, recently I purchased the first of the three on Blu ray, and was very pleased. Shockingly enough, it was only today I finally watched Army of Darkness in its entirety; years ago, before I'd really gotten into watching a lot of horror, I'd seen a part of it and not been too enthused. So I was glad to put it on today and find out I really enjoyed it- not only was it satisfying on a make-up effects level, as it knew it would be, the story was great, and the comedy, courtesy of the man Bruce Campbell himself, had me laughing a lot.
Army of Darkness is definitely different from Evil Dead and Evil Dead II- we're back in time, of course it's different! I don't know if that turned some people off or not, but I loved it. I thought that it was smart. Instead of going for another version of Evil Dead or Evil Dead II (let's face it- even though they're both great, the second is mostly a rehash, though I stress I do love all three of these films nearly equally), Raimi takes things to an exciting new level by going back in time with Ash and the Deadites. Such a great way to take the franchise, in my opinion.
As I said before, the make-up effects were great. I think a lot of what they did really elevated what was going on. I particularly love when Ash is thrown into the pit; great scene! Then the chainsaw is dropped in, Ash slips it on in mid-air, and we're off! Army of Darkness proves that you don't have to go with some sort of twisting-turning plot to be successful with a horror movie- at times when Campbell is hamming it up, and hamming well I might add, it's almost like a cross between Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and a horror film.
I give this film a 10 out of 10. Amazed, considering all the horror movies I've seen over the years, it took me so long to finally watch this front to back. Very pleased with it, and I'm definitely going to pop this on again in the near future because I had a blast watching it the first time! Highly recommend it for horror fans and especially those who were fans of Evil Dead and Evil Dead II.