Army of Darkness (1992)

A man is accidentally transported to 1300 A.D., where he must battle an army of the dead and retrieve the Necronomicon so he can return home.

Director:

Sam Raimi

Writers:

Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi

Stars:

Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert

10 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bruce Campbell	...	Ash
Embeth Davidtz	...	Sheila
Marcus Gilbert	...	Lord Arthur
Ian Abercrombie	...	Wiseman
Richard Grove	...	Duke Henry the Red
Timothy Patrick Quill	...	Blacksmith
Michael Earl Reid	...	Gold Tooth
Bridget Fonda	...	Linda
Patricia Tallman	...	Possessed Witch
Ted Raimi	...	Cowardly Warrior (as Theodore Raimi)
Deke Anderson	...	Mini-Ash #1
Bruce Thomas	...	Mini-Ash #2
Sara Shearer	...	Old Woman
Shiva Gordon	...	Pit Deadite #1
Billy Bryan	...	Pit Bitch

Storyline

Ash is transported with his car to 1,300 A.D., where he is captured by Lord Arthur and turned slave with Duke Henry the Red and a couple of his men. When Ash is thrown into a pit, he defeats two monsters and wins respect of Arthur's army and vassals. The Wiseman points Ash as The Chosen One that will retrieve the Necronomicon but Ash is only interested in returning home. When he learns that the only way to return to his time is using the Necronomicon, Ash decides to travel to the unholy land of the Deadites. The Wiseman advises that he must say the words "Klaatu Barada Nikto" to safely get the evil book. However, Ash forgets the last word and an army of the dead resurrects to attack Arthur fortress and recover the Necronomicon. The battle between the living and the dead is about to start and the support of Henry the Red is the only way to help Ash and Arthur to defeat the army of darkness.

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Plot Keywords:

necronomicon | evil dead | skeleton soldier | 1990s | reluctant hero | 

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Taglines:

Sound the trumpets, Raise the drawbridge, and drop the Oldsmobile

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Genres:

Comedy | Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and horror

Details

Official Sites:

Deadites Online - Official Fan site Official Facebook

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 February 1993 (USA)

Also Known As:

Evil Dead 3

Filming Locations:

Acton, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$11,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,424,000, 21 February 1993, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$11,502,976

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$21,502,976

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dino De Laurentiis Company, Renaissance Pictures, Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

81 min 96 min (director's cut) 88 min (international cut) 90 min (Television Cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR Dolby Digital (5.1)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The words that Ash has to say to get the Necronomicon and to get home later are the same words that have to be said to Gort the robot to make him stop in the original version of the movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still"

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Goofs

When good Ash and bad Ash finally separate, neither of them have a mechanical hand, but later in the cemetery scene, Ash (good Ash) has his mechanical hand back.

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Quotes

[first lines]
[opening monologue]
Ash: My name is Ash and I am a slave. Close as I can figure, the year is thirteen hundred A.D and I'm being dragged to my death. It wasn't always like this, I had a real life, once. A job.
Ash: [now Ash is in a flashback] Umm... Hardware aisle twelve, shop smart, shop S-Mart!
Ash: [back to monologue] I had a wonderful girlfriend Linda. Together we drove to a small cabin in the mountains. It seems an archeologist had come to this remote place to translate and study his latest find...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

Ash can be heard laughing over the beginning of the credits in the original ending.

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Alternate Versions

US and UK versions feature different endings. The first ending has Ash battling a she-demon in a department store in the present. The alternative ending has Ash imbibing a secret potion that would make him sleep one century for each drop of the potion he drinks. He then goes to a cave to sleep. However, he drank one drop too many and wakes up to find a barren post-apocalyptic landscape. The final shot is Ash screaming in rage at a red sky. The Great Britain video version shows the ''potion'' ending, and the version shown in US theatres showed the ''she-demon'' ending.

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Connections

Referenced in The Great L.A. Pretenders: The Rules of the Game (2008)

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Soundtracks

London Bridge Is Falling Down
(uncredited)
Traditional
Performed by Bruce Campbell

User Reviews

Look what Michael Bay can do with hundreds of millions and wonder why it isn't nearly this good.

Evil Dead 3 goes by many different AKAs.

However even though the film is nearly 20 years old and was low budget even then it still holds up. It remains unbelievably quotable and helped make Bruce Campbell move from a B movie actor into a B Movie Star, and the director Sam Raimi a bona fide Hollywood big shot, I think the Spiderman films might've helped though…

In the first 5 minutes Raimi effortlessly manages to catch us up on the first two films by showing the summarised backstory, only now including new scenes and events that featured Bridget Fonda as Ash's lady friend, and introducing his S-Mart career. Only a few details actually line up with the events of the first two films – which were in reality the same film made twice anyway – but who cares when the new elements are this fun? In short we rejoin Ash as he is dragged inexorably into another dimension by the forces of evil, ending up in an earlier time of (say) the 1200s, when men were men, demons were prevalent and a constant threat, and American people spoke with thick and contrived British accents – especially the extras.

Ash immediately finds himself stuck between two warring factions, the heavily armed castle fortress of Arthur and his men, and the (allegedly) vicious and desperate forces of Henry the Red – so named due to his amazing flaming mullet. Both sides believe the other are responsible for bringing the evil to wreak havoc on one and all.

After Ash hilariously proves that he is neither a "Deadite" nor a disciple of Henry the Red – and with his shotgun nor is he a man to be f*cked with – the local "wise one" declares him the "One" that has been foretold (look out Keanu, Eddie Murphy et al).

On hearing this and enjoying the subsequent grovelling and fawning that the desperate villages bestow upon him Ash reverts back to the wisecracking, self centred and cocky character that he gradually morphed into in ED2 – though it must be said that this attitude get ratcheted up a few notches with this film. If Evil Dead was a horror film with a few chuckles, and Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn was a horror-comedy, Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness is a comedy-horror, with perhaps 75% laughs and 25% scares and gore. But even the scares are more funny and the gore is more played for laughs than gasps.

Ash heads off to find the magical Book of the Dead – the Necronomicon – which will banish the forces of evil and allow Ash to head back to his own time and minimum wage job. Of course his solo quest is destined to never run smoothly, and over the journey Ash must face and defeat a series of mini Ashes (in an amazingly creative Must-see scene), his evil doppelganger Evil Ash and his interred horde of undead minions who range from mere skeletons to more recently deceased zombie soldiers.

Along the way there is much over the top gore and action, some witty and incredibly arrogant dialogue, some "Three Stooges" homages and the extraordinary physical acting abilities of a young Bruce Campbell. He and Raimi are well acknowledged as longtime best friends, and they obviously had a ball making this film and threw everything but the kitchen sink into it… amazing considering this is only an 80 odd minute film depending on which version you have. Raimi is well know for reveling in the on screen torture of pal Bruce so in the film Ash must perform some incredible "backwards acting", get attacked by flying and biting books, get attacked by underground bones and perform lengthy and intricate sword fighting combinations.

The evil dead soldiers are often shown in stop motion animation, and there are some shots that I would guess are either homages or were influenced by the work of Harryhausen. Perhaps if they made the same film today CGI might make it look prettier and make some of the actions of the undead a little less herky-jerky, but it wouldn't make the film any better. Every one of the apparently precious few dollars can be seen on screen, with the diminished budget demanding that the film-makers and crew simply had to be more creative than ever before.

Thankfully Raimi, Campbell and co were up to the task, the rough edges of Army of Darkness don't detract from the film at all, if anything they make it funnier. A scene in which one of Evil Ash's generals asks for orders and then rides off is hilarious when you look at the General's riding partner who is obviously little more than a skeleton shaped scarecrow, and the appearance of an unwitting crew member in the original version is another quirky and amusing oversight that enhances my enjoyment of this brilliant film.

The Evil Dead trilogy already represents some of the best examples, in horror, horror-comedy and simply comedy in cinematic history.

Not a bad effort for a few blokes with a miniscule budget and a few crazy ideas. After all look at what Michael Bay can do with hundreds of millions of dollars and ask yourself is that better? I'll break the suspense for you: Hell no it isn't!

Final Rating – 9.5 / 10. A brilliant conclusion to one of the better trilogies in cinema history. Ash will go down as one of the horror genre's defining characters.

P.S. I know a remake is slated for release next year, with a 0% chance of improvement on the originals why bother?