Get Your Reps In: You Know What’s Super Fun? “Army of Darkness.”

Army of Darkness (1992)

Few franchise installments delight in their also-ran status quite like Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness. The third Evil Dead film was once saddled with being the original trilogy’s misunderstood studio-backed effort, with a reputation paling next to the first film’s legendary guerrilla filmmaking and the second’s incomparable shift to horror comedy. Thirty years on, though, Army of Darkness gets to live forever as the “you know what’s super fun?” Evil Dead movie.

As with Evil Dead II, the initial joy of Army of Darkness lies in its utter lack of self-consciousness about completely resetting the series. Here, the story becomes a Harryhausen-inspired slapstick adventure. Ash (Bruce Campbell) finds himself stranded in 1300 A.D., doomed to seek out the Necronomicon (“book of the dead”) to aid the medieval English against the Deadite scourge.

Campbell goes to another level. Viewed as a foretold messiah, Ash poses like Errol Flynn, but with the “I’m walkin’ heeuh” manners of a Ratso Rizzo. And, of course, he’s as game as ever to be his buddy Sam’s favorite crash-test dummy.

Army of Darkness plays at Cinemagic on April 15 and 16 as part of the theater’s Evil Dead retrospective, leading up to the release of Evil Dead Rise (2023) on April 20.

ALSO PLAYING:

5th Avenue: Shithouse (2020), April 14-16. Academy: Santa Sangre (1989), April 14-20. Cinema 21: A Face in the Crowd (1957), April 15. Cinemagic: The Evil Dead (1981), April 14, 16, 19. Evil Dead 2 (1987), April 14, 15. Evil Dead (2013), April 15, 19. Clinton: Le Samouraï (1967), April 13. Lost Highway (1997), April 15. Fast Break (1979), April 16. Multiple Maniacs (1970), April 17. Polyester (1981), April 18. Hollywood: Village of the Giants (1965), April 13. Audition (1999), April 14-15. Titanic (1997), April 15. Redline (2009), April 16. Dazed and Confused (1993), April 17. The Doom Generation (1995), April 18.