Army of Darkness

Army of Darkness

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Sam Raimi
Produced by Robert G. Tapert
Written by Sam Raimi
Ivan Raimi
Starring Bruce Campbell
Embeth Davidtz
Marcus Gilbert
Music by Joseph LoDuca
Cinematography Bill Pope
Editing by Bob Murawski
R.O.C. Sandstorm
Studio Dino De Laurentiis Communications
Renaissance Pictures
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s) February 19, 1993
Running time Theatrical Cut:
81 min.
UK Theatrical Cut
89 min.
Director's Cut:
96 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget $11,000,000
Gross revenue $21,500,000
Preceded by Evil Dead II

Army of Darkness (also known as Evil Dead III, Evil Dead III: Army of Darkness, Bruce Campbell vs. Army of Darkness, or The Medieval Dead) is a 1993 comedy horror film and the third installment in the Evil Dead series. Bruce Campbell stars as protagonist Ash Williams who finds himself in the Middle Ages where he must battle the undead in his quest to return home. The film was directed by Sam Raimi, and written by Raimi and his brother Ivan, and produced by Rob Tapert.

Army of Darkness is not as violent or gory as the prior Evil Dead films, relying more on slapstick. The film had a higher budget than its predecessors, estimated to be around $11 million. At the box office Army of Darkness barely made back its budget, with a gross of $11.5 million domestically. Since its video release it has acquired a cult following, along with the other two films in the trilogy.

Contents

Plot

After a brief flashback to Evil Dead II, which explains the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis and how Ash got to where he is, Ash lands in Medieval England, where he is almost immediately captured by Lord Arthur's men, who suspect him to be an agent for Duke Henry, with whom Arthur is at war. He is enslaved along with the captured Henry, his gun and chainsaw confiscated, and is taken to a castle. Ash is thrown in a pit where he fights off a Deadite and regains his weapons from Arthur's Wise Man. After demanding Henry and his men be set free, Ash is celebrated as a hero, and also grows attracted to the sister of one of Arthur's fallen knights, Sheila.

According to the Wise Man, the only way Ash can return to his time is to retrieve the Necronomicon. After bidding goodbye to Sheila, Ash starts his search for the Necronomicon. Entering a haunted forest, an unseen force pursues Ash through the woods. Fleeing, Ash ducks into a windmill where he crashes into a mirror. The small reflections of Ash climb out from the shattered mirror and torment him. One of the reflections dives down Ash's throat and uses his body to become a life-sized copy of Ash, after which Ash kills him and buries him.

When he arrives at the Necronomicon's location, he finds three books instead of one. Ash eventually finds the real one and attempts to say the magic phrase that will allow him to remove the book safely — "Klaatu barada nikto". (The line was taken from the film The Day the Earth Stood Still). However, forgetting the last word, he tries to trick the book by mumbling the missing word. He then grabs the book from the cradle, and rushes back to the castle, while the dead rise from graves all around. During Ash's panicked ride back, Ash's evil copy rises from his grave and unites the Deadites into the Army of Darkness.

Despite causing the predicament faced by the Medieval soldiers, Ash initially demands to be returned to his own time. However, Sheila is captured by a Flying Deadite, and then transformed into a Deadite. Ash becomes determined to lead the humans against the skeletal Deadite army. Reluctantly, the people agree to join Ash. Using scientific knowledge from textbooks in the trunk of his 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88, and enlisting the help of Duke Henry, Ash successfully leads the Medieval soldiers to defeat his Deadite clone, Evil Ash, and his Deadite Army, and save Sheila. After this, he is brought back to his own time using a potion made from the Necronomicon.

The final scene (See Different versions) begins with Ash back at the S-Mart store, telling a male co-worker (Ted Raimi) all about his adventure back in time, and how he could have been king. After this, a Deadite starts wreaking havoc on the store (it is implied that he again raised the dead by saying the wrong words needed to travel through time), and Ash slays the creature. The film ends with Ash in voice over saying, "Sure I could have been King, but in my own way, I am a king." He then says out loud, while kissing the attractive female co-worker whose life he has just saved, "Hail to the King, baby!"

Cast

Production

Plans to make a third Evil Dead film had been circulating for a number of years, even prior to the production of Darkman.[1] Evil Dead II made enough money internationally that Dino De Laurentiis was willing to finance a sequel.[1] Director and script writer Sam Raimi drew from a variety of sources, including literature with A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels and films like The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, and The Three Stooges. Evil Dead II, according to Bruce Campbell, "was originally designed to go back into the past to 1300, but we couldn't muster it at the time, so we decided to make an interim version, not knowing if the 1300 story would ever get made".[2] Promotional drawings were created and published in Variety during the casting process before the budget was deemed too little for the plot. The working title for the project was Evil Dead III: Army of Darkness.[3] The title "Army of Darkness" came from an idea by Irvin Shapiro, during the production of Evil Dead II.[4] This was used after Sam Raimi was unable to use his original title "The Medieval Dead." ("The Medieval Dead" would later be used as the films subtitle for its UK release as Army of Darkness: The Medieval Dead).

Screenplay & pre-production

Initially, Raimi invited Scott Spiegel to co-write Army of Darkness because he had done a good job on Evil Dead II, but he was busy on rewrites for the Clint Eastwood film, The Rookie.[5] After the good experience of writing the screenplay for a film called Easy Wheels, Sam and his brother Ivan Raimi decided to co-write the film together.[6] They worked on the script throughout the pre-production and production of Darkman.[1] After filming Darkman, they took the script out and worked on it in more detail. Raimi says that Ivan "has a good sense of character" and that he brought more comedy into the script.[6] Campbell remembers, "We all decided, 'Get him out of the cabin.' There were earlier drafts where part three still took place there, but we thought, 'Well, we all know that cabin, it's time to move on.' The three of us decided to keep it in 1300, because it's more interesting".[2] Campbell and Tapert would read the script drafts, give Raimi their notes and he would decide which suggestions to keep and which ones to discard.[7]

The initial budget was $8 million but during pre-production, it became obvious that this was not going to be enough.[1] Darkman was also a financial success and De Laurentiis had multi-picture deal with Universal and so Army of Darkness became one of the films. The studio decided to contribute half of the film's $12 million budget.[8] However, the film's ambitious scope and its extensive effects work forced Campbell, Raimi and producer Rob Tapert to put up $1 million of their collective salaries to shoot a new ending and not film a scene where a possessed woman pushes down some giant pillars.[1] Visual effects supervisor William Mesa showed Raimi storyboards he had from Victor Fleming's film Joan of Arc that depicted huge battle scenes and he picked out 25 shots to use in Army of Darkness.[9] A storyboard artist worked closely with the director in order to blend the shots from the Joan of Arc storyboards with the battle scenes in his film.[9]

Principal photography

Principal photography took place between soundstage and on-location work. Army of Darkness was filmed in Bronson Canyon and Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park. The interior shots were filmed on an Introvision stage in Hollywood. Raimi's use of the Introvision process was a tribute to the stop-motion animation work of Ray Harryhausen.[9] Introvision uses front-projected images with live actors instead of the traditional rear projection that Harryhausen and others used. Introvision blended components with more realistic-looking results. To achieve this effect, Raimi used 60-foot-tall Scotchlite front-projection screens, miniatures and background plates.[9] According to the director, the advantage of using this technique was "the incredible amount of interaction between the background, which doesn't exist, and the foreground, which is usually your character".[10]

The shooting for Army of Darkness began in mid-1991, and it lasted for about 100 days.[11] It was a mid-summer shoot and while on location on a huge castle set that was built near Acton, California on the edge of the Mojave Desert, the cast and crew endured very hot conditions during the day and very cold temperatures at night.[12] Most of the film took place at night and the filmmakers shot most of the film during the summer when the days were longest and the nights were the shortest. It would take an hour and a half to light an area leaving the filmmakers only six hours left to shoot a scene.[13] Money problems forced cinematographer Bill Pope to shoot only for certain hours Monday through Friday because he could not be paid his standard fee. Mesa shot many of the action sequences on the weekend.[14]

It was a difficult shoot for Campbell who had to learn elaborate choreography for the battle scenes, which involved him remembering a number system because the actor was often fighting opponents that were not really there.[15] Mesa remembers, "Bruce was cussing and swearing some of the time because you had to work on the number system. Sam would tell us to make it as complicated and hard for Bruce as possible. 'Make him go through torture!' So we'd come up with these shots that were really, really difficult, and sometimes they would take thirty-seven takes".[15] Some scenes, like Evil Ash walking along the graveyard while his skeleton minions come to life, blended stop-motion animation with live skeletons that were mechanically rigged, with prosthetics and visual effects.[15]

Soundtrack

Danny Elfman, who composed the score for Darkman, wrote the "March of the Dead" theme for Army of Darkness,[16] but after the re-shoots were completed Joseph LoDuca, who composed the music for The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II, returned to score the new film.[17] LoDuca sat down with Raimi and they went over the entire film, scene by scene. The composer used his knowledge of synthesizers and was able to present many cues in a mock-up form before he took them in front of an orchestra.[16]

Post-production

While Dino De Laurentiis gave Raimi and his crew freedom to shoot the movie the way it wanted, Universal Pictures took over during post-production.[18] Universal was not happy with Raimi's cut because it did not like his original ending of the movie and felt that it was negative.[18] A more upbeat ending was shot a month after Army of Darkness was made. It was shot in a lumber store in Malibu, California over three or four nights. Then, two months after Army of Darkness was finished, a round of re-shoots began in Santa Monica and involved Ash in the windmill and the scenes with Bridget Fonda done for very little money.[18] Raimi recalls, "Actually, I kind of like the fact that there are two endings, that in one alternate universe Bruce is screwed, and in another universe he's some cheesy hero".[19]

In addition, Raimi needed $3 million to finish his movie, but Universal was not willing to give him the money and delayed its release because they were upset that De Laurentiis would not give them the rights to the Hannibal Lecter character so that they could film a sequel to Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs.[20] The matter was finally resolved, but Army of Darkness' release date had been pushed back from its original summer of 1992 release to February 1993.

For the movie's poster, Universal brought Campbell in to take several reference head shots and asked him to strike a sly look on his face. They showed him a rough of this Frank Frazetta-like painting. The actor had a day to approve it or, as he was told, there would be no ad campaign for the film.[21] Raimi ran into further troubles with the Motion Picture Association of America over the film's rating. The MPAA gave it an NC-17 rating for a shot of a female Deadite being decapitated early on in the film. Universal, however, wanted a PG-13 rating, so Raimi made a few cuts and was still stuck with the MPAA's R rating.[16] In response, Universal turned the film over to outside film editors who cut Army of Darkness to 81 minutes in length and another version running 87 minutes that was eventually released in theaters. Eventually, Army of Darkness ended up with an R rating.[16]

Reception

Box office performance

Army of Darkness was released by Universal Pictures on February 19, 1993 in 1,387 theaters in the United States, grossing $4.4 million (38.5% of total gross) on its first weekend. In total, the film earned $11.5 million in the US[22] and $21.5 million worldwide.

Critical reception

Army of Darkness was well received by critics with a 75% "Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes,[23] which made its critical reception above average but is lower than The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II, which received 100% and 98% critical approval, respectively.[24][25] Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars and wrote, "The movie isn't as funny or entertaining as Evil Dead II, however, maybe because the comic approach seems recycled".[26] In her review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin praised, "Mr. Campbell's manly, mock-heroic posturing is perfectly in keeping with the director's droll outlook".[27] Desson Howe, in this review for the Washington Post praised the film's style: "Bill Pope's cinematography is gymnastic and appropriately frenetic. The visual and make-up effects (from artist-technicians William Mesa, Tony Gardner and others) are incredibly imaginative".[28] However, Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "C+" rating and wrote, "This spoofy cast of thousands looks a little too much like a crew of bland Hollywood extras. By the time Army of Darkness turns into a retread of Jason and the Argonauts, featuring an army of fighting skeletons, the film has fallen into a ditch between parody and spectacle".[29]

Awards

Army of Darkness won the Saturn Award for Best Horror Film (1994). It was also nominated for Best Make-Up. Army of Darkness was nominated for the Grand Prize at Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival, and won the Golden Raven at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film in 1993. The film also won the Critics' Award at Fantasporto, and was nominated for the International Fantasy Film Award in the category of Best Film in 1993. It was also nominated Best Film at the Sitges - Spanish International Film Festival.[30]

Different versions

There are four different versions of Army of Darkness: the 96-minute director's cut, the 81-minute U.S. theatrical version, the 88-minute international edit, and the 88-minute U.S. television version. The director's cut includes numerous new scenes and extensions compared to the US theatrical version. Among the changes are more violence in the pit, a love scene between Ash and Sheila, an extended windmill scene, different dialogue between Good and Bad Ash, an extended speech on the castle roof and a vastly different ending. The TV version (which is not available on DVD) is particularly notable for including two scenes not in any other version of the film (though they do appear in rough cut form in the "Deleted Scenes" section of the DVD.)

The theatrical release picks up after Ash has returned to the present, in which he stages one final confrontation with the "she-bitch" in the S-Mart Housewares Department. The alternative ending, which was favored by Raimi and Bruce Campbell, depicts Ash as he sits in his Oldsmobile (the same 1973 Oldsmobile featured in many Sam Raimi films), in a cave, the entrance caved in by some of the black powder he made earlier. As he drinks the magic potion (given to him by a person that may or may not be Merlin - the king's name being "Arthur"), he is distracted by a falling rock and takes one drop too many. Ash sleeps well beyond his time, not ageing but growing a very large beard, and shouts "I'VE SLEPT TOO LONG!" after awakening in a post-apocalyptic England.

When test audiences didn't approve of Raimi's original ending, he cut the film down to the international cut that now exists on DVD. When it was again rejected by Universal, Raimi was forced to edit it again to the U.S. theatrical version. The original cut had an opening that was more in tune with the Evil Dead series (included as a deleted scene on Anchor Bay's director's cut DVD).

The MGM Hong Kong Region 3 DVD edits together the U.S. altered theatrical, European and director's cuts into a final, 96-minute cut of the film. The film is digitally re-mastered, compiled from original source prints (not from VHS sources as the Anchor Bay Entertainment releases are). A new Blu-ray release of Army of Darkness from Optimum Releasing in the UK was rumored to be of the director's cut, however it was released on September 19, 2008 and included the Director's Cut as an extra, in standard definition. The movie was released as Bruce Campbell vs Army of Darkness for the UK Blu-ray release.

Comics

Army of Darkness had a comic book adaptation and several comic book sequels.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Muir, John Kenneth (2004). "The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi". Applause. pp. 152. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Warren, Bill (2000). "The Evil Dead Companion". St. Martin's Griffin. pp. 143. 
  3. ↑ Warren 2000, p. 107.
  4. ↑ Sam Raimi. DVD audio commentary, 3:12.
  5. ↑ Warren 2000, p. 140.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Warren 2000, p. 142.
  7. ↑ Warren 2000, p. 145.
  8. ↑ Warren 2000, p. 144.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Muir 2004, p. 153.
  10. ↑ Robley, Les Paul (March 1993). "Mobilizing Army of Darkness via "Go-Animation"". American Cinematographer: pp. 74. 
  11. ↑ Warren 2000, p. 147.
  12. ↑ Muir 2004, p. 155.
  13. ↑ Warren 2000, p. 151.
  14. ↑ Muir 2004, p. 156.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Muir 2004, p. 157.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Warren 2000, p. 153.
  17. ↑ Muir 2004, p. 160.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Muir 2004, p. 159.
  19. ↑ Warren 2000, p. 156.
  20. ↑ Muir 2004, p. 162.
  21. ↑ Warren 2000, p. 158.
  22. ↑ "Army of Darkness". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=armyofdarkness.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-22. 
  23. ↑ "Army of Darkness Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/army_of_darkness/. Retrieved 2010-05-21. 
  24. ↑ "The Evil Dead Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/evil_dead/. Retrieved 2010-05-21. 
  25. ↑ "Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/evil_dead_2_dead_by_dawn/. Retrieved 2010-05-21. 
  26. ↑ Ebert, Roger (February 19, 1993). "Army of Darkness". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19930219/REVIEWS/302190301/1023. Retrieved 2008-07-22. 
  27. ↑ Maslin, Janet (February 19, 1993). "An Army of Skeletons In a Dark Ages Battle". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE4DF123EF93AA25751C0A965958260&scp=2&sq=%22Army+of+Darkness%22&st=nyt. Retrieved 2008-07-22. 
  28. ↑ Howe, Desson (February 19, 1993). "Army of Darkness". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/armyofdarknessrhowe_a0af6d.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-22. 
  29. ↑ Gleiberman, Owen (March 5, 1994). "Army of Darkness". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,305759,00.html. Retrieved 2008-07-22. 
  30. ↑ "Army of Darkness: Award Wins and Nominations". IMDb.com. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106308/awards. Retrieved 2010-05-21. 

Bibliography

External links

Renaissance Pictures productions
Motion pictures
The Evil Dead (1981) · Crimewave (1985) · Stryker's War (1985) · Evil Dead II (1987) · Darkman (1990) · Lunatics: A Love Story (1991) · Army of Darkness (1993) · Hard Target (1993) · Timecop (1994) · The Grudge (2004)
TV movies
Hercules and the Amazon Women (1994) · Hercules and the Lost Kingdom (1994) · Hercules and the Circle of Fire (1994) · Hercules in the Maze of the Minotaur (1994)
TV series

M.A.N.T.I.S. (1994) · Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995–99) · Xena: Warrior Princess (1995–2001) · American Gothic (1995–96) · Young Hercules (1998–99)

Jack of All Trades (2000) · Cleopatra 2525 (2000–01) · Legend of the Seeker (2008–2010)
Direct to video/DVD
Darkman II: The Return of Durant (1994) · Darkman III: Die Darkman Die (1996) · The Animated Movie: The Battle for Mount Olympus (1998) · Young Hercules (1998) · Xena: Warrior Princess - A Friend in Need (2002)
Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series
Films
Within the Woods (1978) · The Evil Dead (1981) · Evil Dead II (1987) · Army of Darkness (1993)
Video games
The Evil Dead · Evil Dead: Hail to the King · Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick · Evil Dead: Regeneration
Comic books
Ashes 2 Ashes · Shop till You Drop Dead · Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness · Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash · Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors
Unofficial sequels
La Casa 3 · La Casa 4 · La Casa 5
Other topics
Ash Williams · Necronomicon Ex-Mortis · Characters and locations · Evil Dead: The Musical
Wikipedia book Book:The Evil Dead series · Category Category:The Evil Dead · Portal Portal:Horror
Films directed by Sam Raimi
1980s
The Evil Dead (1981) · Crimewave (1985) · Evil Dead II (1987)
1990s
Darkman (1990) · Army of Darkness (1992) · The Quick and the Dead (1995) · A Simple Plan (1998) · For Love of the Game (1999)
2000s
The Gift (2000) · Spider-Man (2002) · Spider-Man 2 (2004) · Spider-Man 3 (2007) · Drag Me to Hell (2009)