This horror masterpiece from the mind of writer/director Sam Raimi has turned into a horror movie classic.  The basic premise is as follows: Five friends drive up to a cabin in the woods for a relaxing weekend, but instead they uncover Necronomicon ex mortus, roughly translated as 'the Book of the Dead.'  Bond in human flesh and written in blood, the book held ancient Sumarian burial rights for the dead, and was never meant for the living.  The book was discovered by a doctor who once lived and ultimately died in the house.  The playing of a tape recorder unleashes these demonic undead souls lurking in the woodland area.  The undead souls posess the friends of one Ashley 'Ash' Williams, and now he must battle these demonic beings in order to survive.

This movie is perfect just the way it is, and should never be tampered with.  Bruce Campbell begins his legendary role as Ash in this movie, and he does it well.  The classic stop-motion animation, the great make-up effects, and the gallons of blood make this film a horror classic.  It took from late 1979 to early-to-mid 1983 to finish this film due to the extremely low budget they kept exhausting throughout the production.  The film was understandably NOT run by the MPAA & was released in theatres as "Unrated".  Also, the ending sets the stage for EVIL DEAD 2, which could also be called 'PART 2' because it begins where this one leaves off.

Like I said, right where the first leaves off.  Ash gets posessed by one of the demons, but it is driven away by the sunrise.  Ash attempts to escape the woods, but it seems as if the evil has destroyed his only exit, the bridge he came in on.  While Ash attempts to out-run the evil, Annie Knowby, the daughter of the professor who lived in that cabin, makes her way there with her companion, Jake (husband?/boyfriend?/colleague?), to that cabin.  Along the way they are shown their way there by two backwoods-types (father and daughter) as the bridge has been taken out.  Ash continues to battle the evil with a chainsaw & shotgun.  A few twists occur in this one, but I won't tell you about them for those who haven't seen it yet.  Although, the ending is the ultimate twist of fate for Ash as the following review demonstrates.

This sequel is VERY worthy as it doesn't try to be the original as it has different elements, but uses some of the same ones from the original.  The effects are still great, and should never be tampered with.  Although, because this one wasn't made by New Line Cinema, the beginning flashback scenes had to be re-filmed with it only being Ash and his girlfriend heading to the cabin, and the discovery of the tape recorder is different as it is just sitting on top of the desk when they arrive instead of finding it in the cellar.  Overall, this is a great movie.  Hell, people had to wait FOUR years for this sequel.

Unrated Version - Contains substantial graphic horror violence, gore, and crude humor.

Trapped in time.  Surrounded by evil.  Low on gas.

Army of Darkness moves completely into the slapstick humor genre with this film, and can hardly be called a horror film.  It's a comedy fanasty adventure film.  Yes, there are Deadites, but there's nearly no gore this time.  This was Sam Raimi's "studio" sequel.  He had a lot of politics and studio interference to trudge through, and the film released wasn't his vision.  The director's cut from Anchor Bay presents that vision, but honestly, some kind of restoration work would've been appreciated.  It looks as it is - like it's been sitting in a dusty film vault for ten years.  The main difference between the U.S. theatrical release and the director's cut is the ending, but I'll get to that later.  There are other differences such as some extra scenes/footage, rearrangement of scenes, and altered bits and pieces.  If you've seen the television cut, you've seen some amount of this director's cut footage.  Ultimately, I feel the director's cut version is better, but still could've been exponentially better than it is.

The story picks up, again, where the previous film left off.  Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) has been transported back in time to the year 1300.  Ash is thought to be one of the untrusting Henry the Red's (Richard Grove) men.  Lord Arthur tosses him into 'the Pit' to be at the mercy of two Deadites, but is helped by Wiseman John (Ian Abercrombie), the resident Merlin-type.  Ash is believed to be the 'Promised One' prophecized to deliver them from the Deadites.  Ash really doesn't care as he just wants to get back home, and has more than enough Deadites for one lifetime.  Along the way he falls in love with the beautiful Shelia (Embeth Davidtz), does the usual hot love-making, and goes off to retrieve the Necronomicon ex mortis from a nearby cemetery.  Along the way, Ash encounters several obstacles (including an evil, tormenting version of himself), and then, accidently unleashes the full force of the undead.  The armies of the dead march towards the castle with the Evil Ash Deadite in the lead.  While the battle is good for the budget Raimi had, it really doesn't hold up over time.  After seeing such enormous, large-scale battle sequences in The Lord of the Rings films, this seems pedestrian now.

I honestly used to like this film the best, but the more I look at it, the more potential seems to have been wasted.  While Bruce Campbell is still as great as ever, and really makes Ash the true cult hero he has become, I don't like how this film completely washes away the horror genre from it.  Gore is not even on the radar, and the comedy is over-the-top in all too much excess.  We don't get Ash covered in gallons of blood, or left with any maddening horror.  It's a real letdown considering the perfect balance Evil Dead II had between horror and humor.  Some of the casting seems a bit weak, despite acting being all right for the material.  Embeth Davidtz is beautiful and plays her parts very well, as per always.  But the supporting roles lack any real worth.  Campbell's got all the comedy, and everyone are left as his Shemps (partly intended as a pun).  It would've been even funnier, I believe, if Campbell was surrounded by very serious, dramatic actors to enhance his own comedic genius, in contrast.  It would've had him come off more as a baffoon, but also show a greater turn around when he does become an actual hero.

SPOILER.  The two alternate endings are stark opposites.  The original one has Ash taking a sleeping potion from Wiseman John with one drop allowing him to sleep for one century, but he takes one too many following a momentary distraction.  He wakes up one hundred years into our future to a post-apocalyptic Europe screaming out, "I slept too long!"  The studio-safe happy ending has Ash back in his own time working at S-Mart where he's telling his story to his fellow co-workers who believe none of it.  Then, a Deadite appears, Ash cracks wise, blows away the Deadite, and kiss the girl.  All very nice, but Raimi's original ending is the epidome of Ash's absent-mindedness.  He saves the world, vanquishes countless Deadites, travels through time, makes love to a beautiful woman, goes through all kinds of hell, and ends up in a world where it doesn't matter.  Perfect irony.  SPOILER END.

Iit was another five years before this one was released, which means it took over fourteen years from the start of production of The Evil Dead to the theatrical release of Army of Darkness to complete this trilogy.  I still doubt that we will ever see a fourth film.  Raimi's a blockbuster director now, mainstream and well known with his own production company.  He could easily makes another low budget Evil Dead film with little trouble, but he prefers to teaese us endlessly with no intentions of a pay-off.  But where Army of Darkness is concerned, it was a good film with a definite cult appeal, but it is such a missed opportunity that doesn't hold up well over time.  The effects are terribly dated and obsolete for the time it was made (Terminator 2 was release a year before, and Jurassic Park a year afterwards).  It was the dawn of the digital age of effects, and this is possibly the last film to ever use stop-motion animation.  I watch this film now, and see what could've been.  Still, I rate it 8 out 10 because it is a very enjoyable film, but not a satisfying end to this trilogy that began as grizzly, intense, gory horror and ended with gore-less, wisecracking, slapstick humor.