Army of Darkness (AKA The Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness, Army of Darkness: The Medieval Dead)
Dir: Sam Raimi
1992
*****
After the success of Evil Dead II, Sam Raimi and team were given the green light to make a third film. This time they had enough money to make the film that the first sequel was intended to be that would see Ash leave the constraints of the cabin and travel back in time to the year 1300. At the end of Evil Dead II we see Ash, his shotgun (Boomstick) and Sam Raimi's 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 disappear into a porthole that appears in the woods. He's unceremoniously dropped outside a castle and promptly captured by Lord Arthur and enslaved until he proves his worth by killing an evil deadite. He is then sent on a quest that would see the evil dead banished forever, but as you'd expect, it's a lot less serious as all that sounds. Raimi, Campbell and team obviously had a lot of fun making this film. Raimi released his inner Ray Harryhausen, dabbled in a bit of Mark Twain, doffed his hat at 1950's sci-fi (Klaatu barada nikto) and once again made a horror version of a Three Stooges movie. Set in the middle ages. The result is something quite wonderful and the stuff of cult legend. It's a very different film than the first and while it has the same tone as the second, it's like the franchise suddenly took copious quantities of steroids and ran. Highlights include an Evil version of Ash, miniature version of Ash, a feisty (and flying) Necronomicon, a choice of two brilliant alternative endings and an army of talking skeletons, said army being part of one of my favorite film sequences of all time. Bruce Campbell cements Ash's status as being the best horror character of all time and also proves that he is the greatest B-Movie actor in the world. Ever. The film is so quotable that most fans probably know the script off by heart. A cross between the Stooges' Three Missing Links, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and....Evil Dead, shouldn't be as good as this but it is, in fact it's better. One of my favorite films of all time, "Hail to the King baby!".