Army of Darkness

A feature-length reinforcement of the cult named Bruce Campbell. The story is non-existent, the atmosphere too and the other actors aren’t even worth a mention. But Bruce and his charisma make all of these negatives seem so petty. The end of the trilogy where Sam Raimi and his ingenious and inventive directing or any kind of a story is important anymore. It’s all about Bruce here, Bruce and... did I say that Bruce plays in this? (07/24/2007)

An hour and a half of unbridled fun. The film pretends to be horror, but there is nothing to be afraid of, it’s just fun and marveling at what Raimi has come up with again. There are countless gags and when you add Bruce Campbell, my personal cult actor with charisma to spare, the fun is guaranteed. Clearly the best film of the Evil Dead trilogy! (09/01/2002)

Raimi continues beyond the surreal Evil Dead 2 carnival into the realm of infantile pleasure and unfettered phantasmagoria. Campbell is the greatest hero to have ever worn household goods, and of the whole trilogy, I enjoyed this film the most. Probably even from the whole of Raimi's filmography. A festival of jokes and knee-deep fiction, in which the technical imperfection seems to me to be an integral part of the game. The much more perfect (and built on the same plot), whilst paradoxically less playful and imaginative, Oz: The Great and Powerful, is evidence of this. (04/03/2013)

The situation with Sam Raimi is strange - his early films have an unshakable cult status, even though they have been significantly affected by the passage of time, and if I were to go back to Evil Dead or Evil Dead II, I would probably need a stiff drink to encourage me because otherwise, they would seem too stupid to me. However, it is evident that they were made by someone who can do better. With each subsequent film, Raimi improved and each of his films had a weaker impact on the audience. Army of Darkness is not the younger sibling of the two aforementioned low-budget slasher films and instead is a much older relative of Raimi's film Drag Me to Hell. It is a horror comedy, where the director makes fun of genre clichés, horror props, over-the-top heroes of B-movie trash, and even himself. It can be criticized in a hundred and one ways, but it is filmed with such irony and quite a distinctive directorial style, that I generously overlook those flaws. It is entertaining, and undemanding, but not stupid, and in my opinion, it is the first work in his filmography that withstands stricter standards. Bruce Campbell with his lines, faces, and proverbial audacity simply gets to you and you instantly forgive Raimi for the lack of a proper script and the need for improvement in all aspects. Overall impression: 60%. (07/27/2012)

Where are the days when versatile directors dared to make something so incredibly outlandish. What I love about Army of Darkness is how Raimi subversively embellishes every filmmaking choice with the ultimate bizarre fantasy fable. The whole thing is based on hackneyed chivalric tales about the chosen hero, which the inventive director turns into a pure parody with a protagonist who repeatedly worsens the situation and behaves like the complete opposite of the ideal hero (he is rude to women and mean to his subjects, constantly harms himself, and unleashes the army of the dead due to his own sloppiness). The script is bursting with original ideas, and the work with style and environment is funny, too, highlighting the various parodied scenes (fire and silhouettes of characters in the love scene, close-ups in the heroic moments, quick-motion in the scene with the two Ashes). The effects may look outdated, but that’s very fitting. And yet the focus is entirely on the awesome Bruce Campbell, who gives one of the funniest performances I've ever seen (I'd give him an Oscar for the mill and cemetery sequences alone). It's definitely very guilty pleasure and sometimes out of control, but that makes me love it all the more and throw in that subjective fifth star. (09/03/2018)