Army of Darkness (1992): Still Groovy After All These Years!

I’ve been a huge fan of horror comedies for as long as I can remember. One of the films that started this love was Sam Raimi’s second sequel to his 1981 horror classic Evil Dead, 1992’s time and genre hopping cult classic Army of Darkess.

Army of Darkness marked a significant departure from the previous film. While Evil Dead 2 was equal parts horror and slapstick comedy, Army of Darkness took the horror elements and mixed them with adventure elements akin to The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts while taking significant influence from literary works such as A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and Gulliver’s Travels, all while fully embracing the slapstick elements that made Evil Dead 2 such a fan favorite. Our dimwitted hero, Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell), finds himself sucked into Camelot which is overrun by deadites. If he wants to make it home, he will have to embark on a quest for the Necronomicon Ex Mortis and help King Arthur and his brave knights fight Ash’s evil duplicate and his skeleton army.

There are several things I love about Army of Darkness. The first, of course, is Bruce Campbell. Bruce Campbell plays Ash with oafish charm. He is a capable if dimwitted action hero. He will get the job done but not before almost screwing up completely and making the situation worse, yet this is why we love the character. He just doesn’t know when to quit. He also plays the villainous role of Evil Ash under heavy prosthetics.

The second is the excellent cast that also includes Embeth Davidz (in her acting debut), Ian Abercrombie, Ted Raimi and self confessed Evil Dead fan Bridget Fonda makes an appearance as Ash’s girlfriend Linda in flashbacks. The third is the over the top slapstick action. There are several amazingly hilarious action scenes that include the deadite pit fight, the fight between Ash and his mini clones, Ash being beaten silly by skeletal arms, and  Evil Ash’s “little goody two shoes” exchange with Good Ash that ends with a bang, as well as the reshot studio ending with Ash fighting a deadite and saving a beautiful damsel in distress at S-Mart.

My fourth reason for living Army of Darkness is the excellent makeup effects from Tony Gardener, Alterian Inc., Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger of KNB Effects. Last but not least is the fabulous quoteable dialogue, with, “Give me some sugar baby!” and “This is my Boomstick!” just being the tip of the iceberg. The fact that this movie wound up being so good in spite of all the studio interference during post production is a testament to Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell’s talents at their respective crafts.

Do you love Army of Darkness as much as we do? Let us know in the comments below and stay groovy!