Conor Lowery Film Studies Blog: MYST #3: Army of Darkness

For those of you who don't know me very well, let me start off by telling you something about me. I LOVE history, and have since a kid. So don’t be surprised to see primarily movies that take place in history.

How I ended up watching this movie starts back on Halloween, and doesn't even start with this movie. Me and my friends were deciding on a "scary"(Neither of them were scary) movie to watch. We ended up watching Shutter Island and Evil Dead 2, the prequel to Army of Darkness. After seeing that, I thought it was hilarious and wanted to see the first and third. Not long ago, a friend bought all three and I finally was able to watch Army of Darkness.

**Spoilers**

Ash (Bruce Campbell) finds himself stranded in the year 1300 AD with his car, his shotgun, and his chainsaw hand. Soon he is discovered and thought to be a spy for a rival kingdom and is taken prisoner. After proving his merit in The Pit (Which is full of monsters), he decides to help the kingdom retrieve the Necronomicon (which will also help him return to his own time), which they need to battle the supernatural forces in the land. Ash accidentally releases the Army of Darkness when retrieving the book, and a fight to the finish ensues.

The acting for this movie is nothing special, of all the cast members, Campbell is the most notable. His acting I enjoyed because of how ridiculous of a character Ash is. Ash is one of one of my favorite characters in movies now because of how hilarious, crafty, and bad ass he is. He has a chainsaw hand, how is that not hilariously bad ass.

Special effects were relied on heavily in this movie. The movie is over 20 years old, so it is easy to see some of the effects and how cheesy they are. I also think that it is purposefully bad due to how comedic the movie is. Blood was a special effect that was used heavily in this too. This surprised me for such a comedic movie. However it’s not the slow and dark blood that you usually see in movies, it’s more tinted, fast as waterfall and goes on for 5 minutes type of blood.

The dialogue, much like the sound effects is cheesy and generic. By this, I mean the

King kicks over his squire as he pulls his sword, monsters doing gymnastics, and Ash going Winchester 73' on a monster. All stupid, but very funny. Dialogue between most of the charters is very dry. In the scenes with both kings it seems generic that they hate each other. Ash's scenes with Shelia (his love interest) seem dry and uninteresting.

My favorite scene in the movie is when Ash first explains who he is and his circumstance. He yells "This is my boom stick". He establishes himself as a new king almost due to his knowledge and power.