I sat down tonight and watched the first three movies in this Sam Raimi horror series, "The Evil Dead", "Evil Dead II" and "Army of Darkness". Each has its own charm and the third film is a huge departure from the first two films in many ways. But what is interesting is that although the films were made over a 11-12 period, it's actually one continuous story...which each new film picking up where the previous one ended.

At the end of "Evil Dead II", Ash (Bruce Campbell) is transported back to the year 1300...and that's exactly where this one picks up. Apparently, Ash needs to find the "Necronomicon" and it will enable him to return to the present day. But there is a huge problem. After he gets the help of the locals, Ash is a bit of an idiot and says the invocation spell wrong...and accidentally summons an army of the undead. Well, he CAN return to the present now...but he finds he can't leave the locals in peril of being wiped out by these zombies and skeletons.

In so many ways, this movie is like combining Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" with "The Evil Dead". It also is the first of the Evil Dead films to be truly comical. While there were bits and pieces of funny stuff in the previous films (particularly in "The Evil Dead II"), this third installments way played much more for laughs. It also sported a huge budget by comparison to the first two movies...though it's still pretty cheap and you'll really notice it when it comes to the stop-motion animation.

Overall, a fun film to watch...my favorite of the three, mostly because it is so different and never takes itself the least bit seriously. Well worth seeing...even if you aren't into zombie films.

A horror comedy, the third in the trilogy of EVIL DEAD films. This one sees Ash, the hero from the first two films, transported back in time to Medieval England as a consequence of the actions occurring at the end of the EVIL DEAD 2. A brief summary of the events in ED2 is shown at the beginning of the film to help those without prior knowledge to understand more fully the events that are going on.

ARMY OF DARKNESS is an amusing comedy with a few horror elements thrown in but compared to the first two films in the trilogy it really isn't all that great. A weakness is that the film tries too hard to be funny and can be embarrassing at times. Another downfall are the enemies, while the stop-motion skeletons look convincing and are reminiscent of THAT classic scene from JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, most of the time the skeletons are obviously being carried along by guys crawling just below the camera! If, like was originally intended, the army had been composed of zombies then we would have had some great gore scenes, but they decided to tone it down for a PG-13 release and we were left with this. The gore in the first film gave it the reputation it has and look at what has happened now. Good old Bruce does his best, playing straight-faced as always, but he lacks the manic-eyed character he had in EVIL DEAD 2. Still, he's once again a one man show, carrying the plot when it lets him down and making every line a classic, much-quoted piece of cinema history.

The film's main disappointment is in that it tries to cater for a wider audience whereas the low-budget '80s films didn't. It is a slightly disappointing third in the trilogy, but saying that it still has some good moments, and I'm only berating it because it's the follow-up to two amazingly good films. If this was a stand alone film then I would praise it more highly, but there's some truth in that all of the best bits are mere retreads from what came previously. Although ARMY OF DARKNESS is worth seeing (especially if you're a fan of slapstick), if you are looking for an intense, ferious horror comedy then I would recommend the superior EVIL DEAD 2.

Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) used to be an S-Mart employee with girlfriend Linda. They go to a cabin in the woods and Ash is pulled into a vortex and lands in the middle ages. He is taken prisoner along with Henry the Red by Arthur's men. He is thrown into the pit with the evil dead. Wiseman sends down his chainsaw and he uses it to defeat them. He becomes a feared hero and sets Henry and his men free. Sheila (Embeth Davidtz) hopes that he would battle the evil but Ash only wants to go home. He needs to quest for the book Necronomicon to return home.

This is a fun romp of a medieval horror misadventure. Sam Raimi is having fun and Bruce Campbell is the guy to deliver it. The over-confident irreverent Ash is hilarious. It's both a great comedy and a fun action adventure.