Sometimes the format of movie club can lead to viewing experiences that probably aren’t what the director intended; going into Army of Darkness (1992), I was under the impression it was the second of two movies in the Evil Dead duology. This is, of course, completely false. I now know Army of Darkness is the final installment in the trilogy, but I feel like if Sam Raimi learned that this was the first of the three I was watching, he wouldn’t be terribly pleased. I’m familiar with his work on the Spiderman trilogy, as well as his recent Dr. Strange movie, but besides knowing he was known for clever camera tricks and gross-out practical effects, I really wasn’t sure what I was walking into. That said, a pick is a pick, it’s definitely Halloween themed, and I love a good skeleton. Read on to find out what I thought of the horror franchise-turned fantasy war film, Army of Darkness!

The following contains spoilers for Army of Darkness (1992)
When Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) is sent back in time with nothing but a chainsaw, a car, and a few textbooks, he’s captured and imprisoned by King Arthur, who mistakes him for an enemy spy. Ash is forced to fight a zombie in a pit, and is on the ropes until someone throws a chainsaw that slots perfectly into his missing hand into the ring. Upon felling the corpse, Ash is lifted from the arena and is crowned a hero by the people. He then cements his place as someone not to be messed with by showing off his “boomstick,” a shotgun introduced by a monologue so smarmy and self-aggrandizing that I was already quoting it before the movie’s end.

Things seem to be looking good for Ash, as he’s seated in the lap of luxury (for the time). A Wise Man informs Ash that if he wishes to return to the future, he needs to retrieve the Necronomicon, the Book of the Dead, and speak the incantation: Klaatu barada nikto (an easter egg phrase from The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)). Just as Ash seems set in his quest, a witch appears from nowhere and terrorizes the room. She floats, possessed and spewing curses before dropping to the floor and assaulting the knights with impressive physical strength. After throwing a cauldron of burning oil onto one man and disarming another, Ash takes on the witch with his shotgun, dripping with attitude and the occasional smear of viscera. After defeating the hag, Ash prepares for his journey. Setting up shop with the village blacksmith, they quickly produce a makeshift prosthetic hand for Ash from the gauntlet on a suit of armor. Crushing a silver chalice effortlessly in his automail accessory, Ash lets the world know his satisfaction with one word: “groovy.”

On horseback, Ash sets out on his quest, but quickly finds himself pursued by the forces of darkness. An unseen entity drives after Ash in a quick chase to an abandoned windmill, but upon barring the door Ash finds himself all alone, with no assailant to speak of. Unnerved by the feeling, Ash attacks a mirror, thinking it to be another attacker, only for miniature versions of himself to jump out of his reflections in the shards of broken glass. The Ash-gremlins put up quite a fight, and, like Lilliputians, manage to tether Ash to the floor. Breaking free, Ash decides to take out his captors by eating them alive, and boiling them with hot water (drank straight from the spout!) Campbell’s cartoon antics are particularly campy in this scene, and, not to spoil the review, somehow it all just works.

Ash’s victory over the tiny terrors is short lived, as he quickly finds himself sprouting another head from his shoulder. Ash scuttles across the countryside undergoing a horrific transformation, until finally an evil twin separates from his body. The “bad” Ash jeers and taunts his counterpart until a shotgun blast sends him sprawling; “good, bad, I’m the guy with the gun.” He drags the corpse of his doppelganger back to the abandoned mill, and, with the help of his trusty chainsaw, hacks the body into pieces. Don’t fault Ash for being so gruesome, when he throws the body parts into a freshly dug grave, the disembodied head spits some more threats at him. Clearly, Deadites never say die.

Ash stumbles across the unholy altar of the Necronomicon, but critically fails to remember the incantation the Wise Man told him, and fumbles the spell, accidentally causing the dead to rise from the ground. Thinking quickly, he grabs the book, and returns to the castle, narrowly evading the grasping claws of skeletal warriors. The castle is fortified, but unfortunately, Ash leads the Deadite army of skeletons, witches and gargoyles straight to them, and the forces of good are only barely able to hold off the attack. During the assault Sheila, Ash’s medieval love interest is kidnapped by the Deadites and transformed into a witch. Ash and the forces of good rally, and resolve to confront and destroy the Deadite army when they next attack. Remember those textbooks in the car from the beginning? They’re back, and in a huge way. We’re making gun powder with the chemistry book, we’ve got a can of gas in the trunk, and we’re turning the car into a kill wagon, complete with rotating saw blades on the hood.

Hey wait a minute… a protagonist from modern times gets transported to a fantasy world and uses modern technology?—this is an isekai, I’d recognize it anywhere! Maybe it was obvious from the start, but something about seeing the knights equipping themselves with explosive arrows suddenly had me realizing I had seen like eight anime that follow this sort of plot, and it was novel to recognize it in a different setting.

The Deadite army descends upon the castle, and after a perilous battle, Ash and the forces of good ultimately defeat the evil army. (Was that too anticlimactic of a summary? It’s at fifteen minute sequence and the effects are fantastic.) After saving Sheila and winning the day, the Wise Man again tells Ash the incantation to return to his home time, and this time, presumably, he gets it right. We see Ash returned to the modern era, back at his post at S-Mart, and discussing his exploits with an unimpressed coworker. A sardonic hero’s welcome feels an appropriate end for Ash, until he mentions that maybe he didn’t get that incantation right, and a witch suddenly appears, wreaking havoc in the store. But of course, we’re at the end of the adventure, this isn’t Ash’s first rodeo; while the rest of the store panics, Ash methodically knocks the witch onto a trampoline and unloads several shots into her as her body is flung into the air. She’s dead by the time she hits the ground, and Ash makes out with a female coworker. Hail to the king.

What a weird ride! I went in thinking this was a straight horror flick, but with the level of camp and comedy it goes for, I found myself comparing it more to Warcraft than a scary movie. The ambitious effects like Bruce Campbell’s face and arms being stretched when sucked into the Necronomicon, and the frantic cartoon scrambling of the mini-Ashes completely outshined their dated quality. I love how much they were trying to do at a time before CGI animation could have easily taken away all the creative problems to solve. The Deadite army was comprised of stop motion skeletons and puppets, but none of them feel confined to their medium, or like they aren’t interacting with the world around them. Sam Raimi’s camera trick shots, like the POV of a thrown axe or the doggedly pursing unseen force also enhance the practical charm of the movie, and really make it feel like Raimi got the most out of everything he was working with, even managing to invent suspenseful scenes without big set pieces or flashy effects.

The comedy horror genre is something I don’t have a lot of experience with, but I really liked the offbeat tone Army of Darkness went for, and it makes me curious what other entries in this genre are like. I was surprised how often the movie went for a joke or punchline (and usually a cheesy one at that) rather than dwell on its violence or horror. Ash’s iconic chainsaw-arm and shotgun combo is also very “power fantasy,” which has a way of defanging most of the scares this movie has to offer. Ash’s advantage over the forces of evil due to simply having a gun is hilarious, and does not get old, especially when every other kill is accompanied by a Duke Nukem-style quip. This movie honestly felt like it had the trappings of a video game storyline in more than one place, but I can’t say for certain why. Ash does spend most of the film roaming the fantasy world alone, and he does sort of collect upgrades over the course of the story, but may have something to do with how the scenes flowed into one another that made it feel “gamey.” The plot moves with an unrelenting, almost dreamlike pace, there isn’t really any downtime, and it can be hard to tell what is ultimately going to be of consequence and what is going to be a gag. Ash’s injuries follow cartoon logic, yet his hand has been maimed, so he can be hurt; the contrasting tones sometimes make it difficult to tell what the stakes are.

Sources say that originally the film had a different, darker ending in which Ash drinks a potion that would return him to the present, but takes too much and finds himself in a post-apocalyptic future where civilization has been destroyed. The descriptions of how this scene would have looked are pretty vivid, and the cynical ending feels well within the tone Sam Raimi establishes in the movie. Universal Pictures are to thank for the ending we got, however, as they were the alleged decenters who asked for a more optimistic ending. Having not seen much of his other work, Bruce Campbell must have been a joy for Raimi to direct, as he seems to channel the frantic, slapstick energy that his role calls for perfectly. It totally follows that years later they would make a TV series from this premise in Ash vs. Evil Dead. Ash is dripping with Johnny Bravo levels of personality, and his character lends itself to serialized content; I’d tune in to see Ash in different dangerous situations!

My only real hang up about the movie was not the movie’s own fault, but more the nature of our club’s. From beat one of this movie I got the feeling I was already supposed to know who Ash was, and in some ways I felt I might have even been seeing a Flanderized version of the character. I can’t say how my experience would have been different had I seen the first two Evil Dead movies before this, but the fact I hadn’t did settle into my mind every now and then during our viewing. That said, the movie was still a lot of fun, and I appreciated how accessible it was despite being the endcap to a trilogy.

I had a lot of fun watching Army of Darkness, but I can’t say it was an easy watch. As much as I had heard about it at pop culture conventions growing up, I think it’s too cynical for me to have liked at a younger age, and without seeing the earlier movies first, I can’t help but feel my viewing experience was hindered. This campy horror comedy isn’t going to appeal to everyone, but people who like scares, adventure, and goofy violence will enjoy it. I had a great time with Ash, and I’m sure will the next time our paths cross again too, but on its own, I couldn’t help but feel like I was missing part of the picture. Klaatu barada… what was it again?