Halloween Special: Army of Darkness Review

Halloween is today and while I could cover a Toku with a haunting theme to it which would be… uhh… Kiva? Well I already reviewed that, but I do have some new thoughts on that show. It is still the first rider show I saw, but it does not hold up at all. I still want to say in my personal feelings it is a “C” or “C-“ and then my critical views is probably in the “D” or high “F” area. Anyways I want to talk about something that I love that actually can be a spooky scary movie or not… Screw it! While I could start with the first Evil Dead which is my favorite horror film around, but I just want to talk about Captain Supermarket!

Army of Darkness is the third film in the Evil Dead series and man what a change of pace for the series. Now Evil Dead 2 did have more humor compared to the original film, but it still kept the horror fashion the same for the most part. Army of Darkness is a whole different beast where Ash is sent to the middle ages where he continues his fight against the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. Now even though I can say Evil Dead 1 and 2 are stronger films in the terms of the horror concepts, but Army of Darkness is just my type of fun.

So what does Army of Darkness have over the other two films? First off the action is way higher with an amazing final fight where Ash rides a moving table while firing his boom stick like a mad man. While the Deadite pulls off amazing acrobatic skills while getting shot up. Also the Deadite bounces off a trampoline, why you may ask, because it’s awesome! This film just pulls me in with how insane it can get because things will just happen. Ash will fight an evil version of himself where it can make tiny versions of him. Again Ash is dealing with the Book of the Damned; this thing will pull any feature to stop its foes.

Another reason it is fun is because of the many lines of dialogue. I can remember some quotes here and there from my favorite films, but Army of Darkness just carries some of my all time favorites. “Good, bad, I’m the guy with the gun.” “Well hello mister fancy pants, I got news for you pal you ain’t leading but two things. Jack and Shit, and Jack left town.” “This is my BOOM STICK!” “Shop smart, shop S-mart.” The list can go on which it will. “Name’s Ash, housewares.” “Come get some.” I can't forget about, "Groovy" either. The lines are memorable to the highest value because of what is happening in this film. I don’t want to spoil most of the scenes because spoiling them will get rid of the surprise factor for those who have not seen this film.

Now this is a factor that all three films have, but I still have to mention it or him to be exact. It’s Captain Supermarket himself, Bruce Campbell. There are many actors who had to start with the silly and fun films and soon moved onto doing films of the higher art. I mean even the likes of Stallone and Schwarzenegger have done many different films compared to what they are famous for. Bruce though likes to stick with his A-game though which are mostly the B-films. Now he has done a show like Burn Notice and Xena, but in the end Bruce stays true to what he loves to do with any project and that is to have fun. He has said before that doing lawyer, cop, and that usual type of stuff would just bore him and I can see why he says that. He also loves the feeling that being a B-film star that he doesn’t have to please everyone, but he knows there are many who still do. Bruce is simply one of the actors who loves showing off his fun and to spread that to as many people as he wants to and it clearly has paid off. Army of Darkness is simply of those films where he is having a blast doing nearly everything in this film, even if the copyright policies got weird with Evil Dead. The character Ash Williams has been one of his key roles since it was the beginning of his acting career and he will be playing the character again in Ash VS Evil Dead.

Overall, Army of Darkness is pure fun and there is nothing wrong with that. Pretty much it is the Spiderman 3 of the Evil Dead films, but actually good. It may abandon some of the usual elements of the original two, but it makes a brand new image for itself and that image will continue in the upcoming series, Ash VS Evil Dead. I will probably do a review on that show or the first episode itself, either way though “Hail to the king baby!”

Also for a special bonus a spooky scary LP video from my channel!