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Contains
spoilers.
I hate reviewing old
cult films. It's not that I don't have an opinion or said opinion is divisive
or controversial and will unleash the proverbial internet army of darkness on
me. It's just hard to really offer anything vaguely original or garner much
interest in a review of a film everyone and their dog made their mind up about
a long time ago. It's also hard because I too have old opinions and fond memories
though it must have been twenty years since I watched it and there's always the inherent dangers of returning to something after so long.
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The Evil Dead 1 and 2 are farces of a sort but
they're still, in my mind anyway, unquestionable horror flicks full of provocative
vision, disturbing ideas and gratuitous bad taste. They're comedies but
dark, quite nasty and definitely for adults. Army of Darkness for all the
imagination and dark undertones never quite achieves the same level of
nastiness or malice and I'd almost use the word tempered. Yes there's still
possession, bloodshed, dismemberments and yes Ash still wields his chainsaw
hand with manic desperation but it's all rather fantasy horror comedy and The
Goonies, than unrepentant and unapologetically dark and The Exorcist. This isn't to say this is a bad thing and does allow Raimi off the leash and able to explore is undoubted talent in a more expansive and extravagant sandbox; it's just the shift in tone half way realised in Evil Dead II is more acute.
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Zombies. There's
much debate whether the Evil Dead films could ever be considered zombie ones
and I'm still kind of on the fence. Evil Dead 1 and 2 contain possessed living and dead;
taken over by evil spirits unleashed by someone reading from the necronomicon. Army of Darkness has possession, reanimated corpses and skeletons
that seem to have a will, consciousness and dare I say personality each of their
own. They're a bit of a mixed bag of well made and
choreographed live actors, and jerky stop motion Jason and the Argonauts animated figures. Such is the playfulness of proceedings it's never overly distracting, even when jarring and obvious, and it's not something we'd want to start worrying about anyway or we'd soon be over run
with questions, like exactly how does a bag of bones talk and laugh without
lungs.
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Army of Darkness is
brilliant Sam Raimi yet again and a joy to watch. Full of imagination, skilful, playful directing and cinematography it flows from scene to scene with grace
and confidence. Taken for what it is though, a goofy action adventure with a slightly
darker undertone than Spielberg would try, it's an incredibly fun and rewarding ride and always entertaining. Bruce Campbell also quite rightly has his name emblazoned proudly on the cover as this is his show and
it is him, not Ash from the prequels, that's up against the undead horde.
Brilliant, wacky, proudly b-movie-esque and cheesy, and replete with some of
the best (and worst) of one line quipping, I still love it, 8/10.
Steven@WTD.
Steven@WTD.
It's hard to write about anything that's been written about as much as Army of Darkness. You did good though! Nice review! I reviewed Evil Dead 2 at one point, but I need to eventually get around to the first film, and DEFINITELY this one.
ReplyDeleteCheers, I hadn't realised you hadn't reviewed it yet. I've rewarded myself with a pile of 1p obscure DVDs as a reward! Huzzah!
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