Army of Darkness - Will's Review.

Army of Darkness used to be one of my favorite films; in fact, I believe I saw it before I saw the original Evil Dead movies, and was initially disappointed by them in comparison.

That said, it was the mid 90's, and I was in my mid teens; With it's ramped up action and comedy, I think that teenage boys are exactly the target audience for the 3rd Evil Dead movie... How will it fare up now, while trying to look at it through adult eyes?

Actually, pretty well!

I can't be certain that some of my fondness isn't a hang-over from earlier viewings, but I like to think that I would still have enjoyed this if watching it for the first time last night.

As much as I love it though, it's best seen as an Evil Dead spin-off, rather than a true sequel; The slapstick is turned all the way up to 11 this time, way beyond Evil Dead 2, Ash has had a personality transplant, and is now a ballsy one-liner-cracking ladies man, and the horror is non-existent... Its the kind of movie my parents would have let me watch as a kid in between Hammer films.

Transported to England in the middle ages, Ash is tasked with retrieving the Necronomicon that the locals may free the land of "deities" (who may or may not be the Candarian Demons of the first two movies), the book will also allow the town wiseman to send him home. Of course all doesn't quite go smoothly, and instead Ash frees the evil fully, allowing it to amass an army of the dead, and potentially take over the world.

Although it does have a cohesive plot, at times it still feels more like a series of sketches (at least until the deadite army is risen in full force), as ash bumble from one misadventure to the next... he's attack by a miniature army of Ash-Clones, splits into two and fight himself, gets stretched cartoon-style and so fourth. He also seems immune to serious damage; at one point his face gets melted to a hotplate (to the extent that he needs to scrape himself free with a spatula) causing one cheek to be slightly reddened for a short time!

There are two endings, depending which version you see; an upbeat one, and a downer that sees Ash screwed in a whole different way. Army Of Darkness 2 is currently in development, and will apparently kick off from the downer ending.

I'll recommend this one; but as a fun action Comedy, not as a sequel to the Evil Dead movies.