Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun...

Now, let’s see… where were we? Oh yeah, movies… I know, it’s been an absurdly crazy couple of weeks for me, so I have to get caught up on things. I spent as much time as I could NOT walking on my left foot because of foot surgery. I love it when doctors tell you to stay off your feet, and the world says, “Yeah, not so much with that…”

So, between that, and pain meds, and a berserk schedule, my “365 Degrees” commitment faltered, but, hey, I can catch up and spend some quality time talking about movies, something I am always in the mood for. And I am usually always in the mood for horror movies above all else, so it’s doubly good that I start back by talking about Army of Darkness.

Let’s get this out in the open first. I LOVE the original The Evil Dead. I remember watching it for the first time and being blown away by what I was seeing. Stephen King proclaimed it the ‘most ferociously original horror movie ever made” on the cover of the VHS. Rumor was, it had been banned in Europe, which is basically like giving it an engraved invitation to my video shelves. And it was a complete FREAK OUT!!!

Now, remember, this movie came out in 1981. These days, you see a movie with a bunch of college kids heading off to a cabin in the woods, you can count on all manner of shit to go sideways. I mean, they even made a movie called The Cabin In The Woods, making full reference to how these movies go (trust me, we will be talking about CITW later on in this blog’s life). But then, seeing the insanity of reading the Necronomicon and what happens as a result was mind-blowing to this young horror fanatic. You would see something, and think, “That was amazing! Nothing is gonna top that!” and then, five minutes later, THEY WOULD TOP IT!

The Evil Dead built a huge following, thanks to home video. So naturally, a sequel was made. But it wasn’t an ordinary sequel. It was almost what we would call, these days, a reboot. It had all the craziness, but it had a wonderful comedic tone that set it apart from the original, and the cult grew even more. And at the end of Evil Dead 2, a time warp was opened, and we see Ash (the great Bruce Campbell) sucked into the void, landing in a strange wasteland we knew nothing about.

Thus came Army of Darkness, where we take up almost immediately where the second movie ended, with Ash and his lovely Olds Delta 88 and his freshly-amputated-and-replaced-with-a-chainsaw right hand, dumped into this strange new (old) world. As it turns out, the ceremony to return the demons to hell landed Ash back in 1300 A.D. He is immediately captured by Lord Arthur and made a prisoner/slave with Duke Henry the Red and some other warriors. Ash is thrown into a pit, where he defeats two demons and earns the respect of The Wiseman and Lord Arthur. The Wiseman declares Ash “the chosen one” to return the Necronomicon to the safekeeping of the kingdom, but Ash just wants to get back home to his housewares department at S-Mart and his girlfriend, Linda (Bridget Fonda).

When he is informed that the only way he can be returned home is through the use of The Necronomicon, Ash agrees, grudgingly, to travel to the land of the Deadites (I know, ain’t it great?) to get the book. The Wiseman advises Ash that he must say the special words “Klattu Barada Nikto” to safely acquire the book. Naturally, Ash, being Ash, forgets the last word and makes up some mumbo-jumbo, thinking that will satisfy the gods. Well, guess what, it don’t satisfy them one bit. The Deadites rise and declare war on the world, and it’s up to Ash to pull Lord Arthur and Duke Henry the Red together if they want to save mankind!

There is so much to love about Army of Darkness, it’s hard to decide what to share and what to let you find on your own. Bruce Campbell is in peak form this time out. He knows Ash, he IS Ash, and Campbell knows what people like about Ash, so together with his school buddy, director Sam Raimi (who played “Stick” in our last movie, Indian Summer), they let Ash loose to do his thing. And let me tell you, Ash became a demigod in the horror world because of this movie. Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn may have been the metamorphosis of Ash from horror movie hero to cult phenom, but Army of Darkness locked it in with one of those gates like Elvis had in front of Graceland. There are so many in-jokes from the previous movies, from classic sci-fi movies, you name it, it’s in here. Even Raimi’s precious “Three Stooges” slapstick gets a few turns in this thing.

I will say this – if you go into this expecting true horror, you are out of luck. This is a comedy in the broadest sense, with only a scant few scenes that could even remotely be called “horror.” But the fascinating thing is, for an Evil Dead fan like me (and a few bajillion others, it seems…), you don’t seem to mind that the series has crossed over into a more mainstream world. Sure, the first one was a supreme gross-out, wince-inducing classic. But, if Raimi and Co. had tried to do a sequel in that same vein (heh… vein..), it would have never worked the same way. It would have run The Evil Dead into the same ‘here we go again’ realm as the plague that jaded most of the Friday the 13^th and Nightmare on Elm Street fans for a long time. Instead, Raimi used the sequel to re-invent the movie with outrageous bits of humor, building Ash into an almost-mythical superhero, with his wisecracks and cachphrases. Evil Dead 2 was the bridge, as it were, from the horrific masterpiece that was made legend by Stephen King’s endorsement and a cult following of fans. We cross the bridge and see a new version of horror, one full of fun and laughs and slapstick moments, and we walk into Army of Darkness, not knowing exactly what to expect. The results speak for themselves.

It speaks volumes that, when The Evil Dead got ANOTHER reboot, this time as the pure horror movie the original was, the best surprise moment was Bruce Campbell’s cameo at the end. Sure, the movie was a good watch, and it had all the elements, but it was almost mundane – until Ash showed up, even for that fleeting moment, and every fan was satisfied that this reboot could be considered part of the canon.

If you are new to the series, start at the beginning. The Evil Dead (1981), then Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn, and on to Army of Darkness. Watching the evolution of Ash, of Bruce Campbell, and of Sam Raimi as a director, is well worth the time you will invest. You will scream, you will hide your eyes, then you will chuckle, then you will laugh out loud. And you will love every moment of it. 

Groovy, baby…