Director Report Card: Sam Raimi (1992)

5. Army of Darkness

The first idea Sam Raimi and his band of merry madmen had for an “Evil Dead” sequel was to toss Ash back in time to the 1300s. Yet when “Evil Dead II” was coming together, the budget wasn’t quite high enough for such an ambitious premise, causing Raimi and co. to make the expanded version of the original we got instead. Following the box office success of “Darkman,” Universal and Dino De Laurentiis agreed to put up the money for this time travelling third “Evil Dead” adventure. Known “The Medieval Dead” during pre-production, the film would be released as “Army of Darkness,” probably under the logic that mainstream audiences weren’t that familiar with the “Evil Dead” brand. Disagreements with the studio resulted in a delayed release, likely contributing to the film’s underwhelming box office. Since then, “Army of Darkness” has become one of the definitive cult movies.

“Army of Darkness” doesn’t quite pick up where “Evil Dead II” left off, rewriting the previous ending slightly. Ash has still been flung backwards into a medieval England threatened by demonic evil. He is kept as a prisoner in-between two warring kingdoms, until proving himself against the Deadites and impressing the medieval populace with his abilities. Eager to return home, Ash is sent on a quest to retrieve the Necronomicon. Upon finding the book, he accidentally unleashes an army of undead evil, led by a monstrous double of himself. Now, Ash must defend the kingdom from this army of darkness if he ever hopes to make it home.

In many ways, “Army of Darkness” represents Sam Raimi and his team attempting to soften the “Evil Dead” franchise for mainstream audience. The movie was even shot with a PG-13 rating in mind, which is quite a change from the notorious gorefests the previous films were. (The film was still given an NC-17 by the MPAA. Extensive recuts were only able to get it down to an R, probably thanks to a giant blood geyser.) The sequel largely retreats from the horror movie atmosphere that characterized the series up to this point. Though zombies and demons are present, this is a highly comedic fantasy/adventure film through-and-through. A swashbuckling adventure largely set among ancient castles is a pretty far leap from the standard “spam in a cabin” set-up of the first “Evil Dead.”

But don’t think Raimi was fleeing from the history of his trademark franchise too much. “Army of Darkness” is very different and toned down from the first two films, but this is still an “Evil Dead” movie. Many of the series’ trademarks are accounted for. After entering a dark forest, Ash is pursued by an unseen force, which splits tree stumps in its effort to get to him. He hides in a creaky windmill, a period version of the first two’s cabin setting. A mirror ends up fucking with his mind, the climax to the mirror gags present through the other two. There’s a stylistically cut montage involving a chainsaw, as well as a reprise of Ash suiting up for action and saying “Groovy.” Raimi even includes an obviously fake shot of the moon in the sky. Most important of all, “Army of Darkness” is still a movie largely devoted to tormenting Ash and by extension Bruce Campbell. And isn’t that what “Evil Dead” is really all about?

“Army of Darkness” is, in fact, more extreme than “Evil Dead II” in one way. The Three Stooges-style slapstick is pushed even further than before. After all, not long after it begins, the film features a Deadite somersaulting through the air and doing karate. Totally divorced from any sense of realism, “Army of Darkness” is allowed to become a live-action cartoon. Bruce gets sucked into a black hole-like book, his face stretched out to Looney Tunes proportions. A lengthy and utterly brilliant scene involves Ash fighting a collection of tiny versions of himself, resulting in fork stabbing, sing-alongs, head bopping, and floor siding. Probably the funniest scene in the movie has Ash unsuccessfully fighting off a collection of mischievous skeleton arms. It’s completely insane and utterly hilarious, the kind of thing I can’t believe a major studio put out in 1993.

Yet perhaps one man most deserves thanks for “Army of Darkness’” transformation into a cult classic. Ash Williams began as a dorky survivor, almost a deconstruction of a heroic protagonist. He then became a mentally unhinged but deeply resourceful bad-ass, able to absorb limitless abuse. With “Army of Darkness,” Ash’s transformation into an action hero is completed. Ash is, beautifully, an asshole. He spends the entire movie mocking and talking down to everyone around him. Despite that, he’s also kind of an idiot. He repeatedly makes mistakes that could have been easily avoided by one more second of reasonable listening. That includes unleashing the titular evil force. He manipulates a vulnerable young woman into sleeping with him. He’s motivated entirely by the selfish desire to return home. As an oft quoted line goes, Ash is neither good nor bad but simply “the guy with the gun.”

And yet, Ash remains a beloved film character. While he’s a hilarious subversion of the traditional fantasy hero, that’s not why people love him. Mostly, it’s because Bruce Campbell is so amazingly good at playing this character. His perpetually sarcastic voice is well utilized as a smart-ass out of time who greatly overestimates his own worth. Campbell is clearly having such a good time on-screen, playing a total buffoon whose stubbornness turns him into a hero. This is most evident in the litany of hilarious one-loners he cracks throughout the film. The entire “This is my Boom-stick!” monologue is my favorite, though “It’s a trap, get an axe” deserves special mention. When you get right down to it, Ash is simply awesome. He goes back in time, cleaves monsters in half with a chainsaw, uses a belt as a grappling hook, and builds a robot hand in a 12th century blacksmith shop. And Campbell deserves a lot of thanks for that.

It’s tempting to refer to Raimi’s direction here as “restrained.” But that’s only when compared to the theatrics of the other “Evil Dead” films. “Army of Darkness” is still way more energetic than most of the American action movies of its time. Raimi affixes his camera to Ash’s chainsaw as it whirls through the air. He does the same with an arrow fired from a crossbow. As a deadite is shot into a pit, the film whirls head-over-heels with it. During a fight with a witch, the camera goes completely nuts, slingshotting around the room in a way that is never incoherent but utterly exhilarating. His montage are high-energy and the sound design is impressively odd. It’s not quite as nuts as “Darkman” but is still pretty fucking crazy.

If you’re looking for a horror movie, “Army of Darkness” might be disappointing. Raimi does include some funky horror atmosphere among the story’s spooky graveyards, night battle scenes, or abandoned forest. But it’s mostly action and comedy that drive this one. Yet one thing keeps the darkness in this army and that’s the crazy monsters. Not long after being tossed into a pit, Ash is fighting a bloated, slimy bog hag. There’s a grotesque flying demoness with pendulous breasts. A delirious sequence, that includes a hilarious injection of stop motion animation, has Ash sprouting an evil copy from his own body. This soon results in the bloody-faced Evil Ash, with his monstrous overbite and chewed up skin. And do you like skeletons? Brother, you’re gonna get some skeletons. Almost the entire last third of “Army of Darkness” is devoted to bony goofballs performing visual gags and getting smashed to pieces. Among the many homages to Ray Harryhausen and “Jason and the Argonauts,” this is by far the wackiest. Utterly delightful.

In its last third, “Army of Darkness” has Ash’s small force facing off against the titular march of the dead. This is when the film’s worlds of goofy comedy, fantasy adventure, and monster kid horror collide. You have visual gags, like skeletons blowing steam out their ears or playing femurs like flutes. You have demonic undead soldiers attack battlements and stabbing knights. Mostly, you have the film’s most joyfully ridiculous action theatrics. Super elaborate effects — Campbell having pin-point choreographed sword fights with stop-motion skeletons — co-exist with the film’s most low tech gags, like someone just off-screen tossing a prop skeleton at Bruce’s head. The movie’s world has become so exaggerated by this point that it can get away with Ash riding into battle with his Oldsmobile, now converted into a steampunk war wagon. It’s hilariously goofy stuff that is united by a wonderfully child-like sense of creativity.

Bruce Campbell is so definitively the star of “Army of Darkness,” that he even plays the movie’s bad guy. (It must be said that Evil Ash is hilariously hammy in an altogether different way from regular Ash.) Which leaves everyone else in the movie to act as the collective straight-man to Campbell’s antics. Performers were smartly cast with this in mind. Embeth Davidtz is the very ideal of a fair medieval maiden, utterly unprepared for Ash’s modern charms. Ian Abercrombie, as the castle wise man, remains a serious image, acting unaware of the silliness around him. Marcus Gilbert and Richard Grove, as the dueling kings, are similarly straight laced. It’s an underrated supporting cast, because nobody much notices the people acting seriously around Campbell, but the film wouldn’t work without their commitment to their roles.

Unsurprisingly, Raimi and Universal would feud about what direction the film should go in. This resulted in multiple edits of the movie, such as Raimi’s approved director’s cut and the slightly shorter wide release version. With a few exceptions, the two cuts are not that radically different. There’s more physical comedy with the little Ashes, the skeletons, and the birth of Evil Ash that I miss in the theatrical cut. And without their love scene, only seen in the director’s cut, Ash and Princess Sheila’s arc feels slightly incomplete. There’s really only two moments exclusive to the general release version that I prefer to Raimi’s choices. The “I’m the guy with the gun” one-liner is much funnier than the joke in the director’s cut.

And then there’s the matter of the endings, the biggest difference between the two versions. The original conclusion, of Ash sleeping too long and awakening in a post-apocalyptic world, certainly fits the series tradition of Ash always escaping a bad situation only to end up someplace much worst. It also would’ve set up an even more ambitious fourth “Evil Dead” adventure, unleashing Ash into a Deadite-filled Mad Maxian wasteland. Yet there’s something more satisfying about the theatrical cut’s “S-Mart” ending. It’s one more ludicrous action sequence to take us out on, with blazing guns, acrobatic enemies, and moody lighting. And maybe, by this point, Ash has earned something like a happy ending, where he gets to be a braggart hero-in-his-own-mind who does occasionally get to actually kick some butt. Where he wins a girl that won’t end up possessed by demons.  Either way, I sort of like that both endings are available now, giving “Evil Dead” fans an option and giving Bruce Campbell’s Hero a multiple choice future.

The unrated gore of the first two “Evil Dead” films largely kept them off television, even most of the premium channels. This limited their cult following largely to the horror section of video stores and monster conventions. “Army of Darkness,” designed as the more accessible entry, reached a much wider audience. Not necessarily in theaters, as delays stuck it in a limp winter release date which resulted in underwhelming box office. Countless cable showings caused “Army of Darkness’” cult to swell, making it essential horror nerd viewing for dorks my age. While so very different from its predecessors, I love this as much now as I did then. An absolute joy of relentless energy and fun, “Army of Darkness” still makes me want to hail to the king, baby. [Grade: A]