Army of Darkness Review

Review of Army of Darkness (1992) by screenqueeen: 👍 4.5/5

Who am I kidding? After the first two EVIL DEADs who could ever say they wanted this as a conclusion to a trilogy of films that technically started as a proof of concept short, then feature, then a follow-up that a lot of people insist is a remake by the same director (it's not! there's a recap in both of these sequels!) and then we get a time travel reluctant hero narrative for the final part of the trilogy.

It's not something Raimi needed to do, at least for the entirety of the film but after DARKMAN he really showed off a larger scope while recalling the comedic style emergent from DEAD BY DAWN and retaining the more effective elements of the series' horrific imagery (the biggest sacrifice here being the blood & goop we've come to love from the first two but hey, if you've got Universal Studios backing you I'm sure there's a cost). This essentially goes above and beyond.

P.S.: My absolute favorite shot in this is a 2- or 3-second clip where an older guard in one of the castle's tower entrances gets stabbed by a skeleton Deadite that's clearly being puppeted from below with a vertical rod, shot with a low 3/4 angle, the guard dies dramatically (impressively so for about 1.5 seconds of this performance) and the Deadite chuckles maniacally as it speeds towards the edge of the frame in an almost Muppet-like energy for chaos and disruption. Think I rewinded and watched it about 3 or 4 times for my own satisfaction.

P.P.S.: I guess I should finally upgrade my Anchor Bay DVDs.