Army of Darkness

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Movie
German title Army of Darkness
Original title Army of Darkness
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1992
length German theatrical version: 85:06 minutes
Director’s Cut : 96:10 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Sam Raimi
script Sam Raimi
Ivan Raimi
production Robert G. Tapert
music Danny Elfman
Joseph LoDuca
camera Bill Pope
cut Sonny Baskin
Bob Murawski
Sam Raimi
occupation

Army of Darkness is the third part of the Dance of the Devils trilogy ( The Evil Dead ) by Sam Raimi . Again, Bruce Campbell plays the main character Ash. In contrast to its predecessors, this part is much more humorous and less violent . The cost of the film was $ 11 million, Dance the Devils had a budget of $ 350,000, and Dance the Devils 2 had a budget of $ 3.5 million. In Germany, the film opened in cinemas on April 22, 1993.

action

Flashback: The protagonist Ash, a household goods seller at S-Mart , finds the Necronomicon , an unholy book full of incantations. In the fight against the evil forces that were awakened by the book, he loses his girlfriend Linda and his right hand. Finally, he, his weapons and his car are transported through a time tunnel to the Middle Ages.

Ash gets into a fight between rival Lords Arthur and Henry the Red. As a supposed supporter of Henry, Ash is captured by Arthur and brought to his castle. Ash is thrown into a pit full of demons and defeats them in battle. Now he is revered as a hero by Arthur's people and allows Henry the Red to flee. Ash starts an affair with the girl Sheila. A scholar, Arthur's adviser, recognizes Ash as the chosen one who will free her from the threat of the demons that are devastating the land. To this end, he should find the Necronomicon, in return he will be sent back by the scholar to his own time.

While searching for the book, Ash is attacked by an evil force in a forest and takes refuge in a windmill. There he is attacked by an evil copy of himself, which he kills, dismembered and buried. Ash finds the Necronomicon in a graveyard, but mispronounces the spell taught by the scholar, inadvertently summoning the undead army of darkness . Ash brings the book back to Arthur and, after a flying demon kidnaps Sheila, decides to join Arthur in the fight against the undead.

Together with the army of darkness, the evil Ash has also risen from the windmill and takes over its leadership. He besieged Arthur's castle with the undead army in order to gain possession of the Necronomicon. With the help of modern science, which Ash brought with him from the present, and the support of Henry the Red, the army of darkness and the evil Ash are defeated and Sheila is saved. Ash wants to go back to his own time.

In the epilogue, Ash is back in the present day S-Mart, where he tells a colleague about his adventure. Apparently he mispronounced the magic formula again as he had to fight off a witch's attack. Ash wins the fight and kisses a colleague.

Alternative film ending

In the original version of the ending, Ash drinks too much of the potion and ends up a century too far in the future, where he then finds out that his world has meanwhile destroyed itself through wars. Since Universal preferred a less dark version, this ending was replaced by the S-Mart ending for theatrical release. The Director's Cut, however, ends with this downfall scenario.

Cut versions

There are many different versions of the film:

US theatrical version
Runs around 80 minutes and has been given an R rating by the MPAA.
European theatrical version
Runs about 5 minutes longer than the US version and was approved by the FSK for ages 16 and up. Compared to the US Theatrical Version, not only material was added, but to a lesser extent, scenes were also removed.
European Director's Cut
Running time around 96 minutes, not checked by the MPAA, also approved by the FSK for people aged 16 and over. In the Director's Cut additional material was added, but scenes were also removed. In particular, the ending from the two theatrical versions has been replaced by the originally intended ending described above. This version was never completely dubbed in German.
American Director's Cut
In the American version of the Director's Cut, a few seconds are missing compared to the European Director's Cut. This mainly concerns a scene in which the kidnapped Sheila is undressed.
US TV version
A version was also made for American television, which has been shortened by some violent scenes compared to the US theatrical version and contains some newly recorded dialogues without the original swear words. So that the film was not neglected, some scenes from the Director's Cut and two sequences that are otherwise only included in the New Remastered Special Limited Edition have been added to extend the running time.

This edition with a running time of over 100 minutes was released on video cassette by Screenpower in addition to the main versions mentioned at the end of the 1990s . The beginning of the three versions above has been replaced by an alternative, which is introduced by Ash's prologue and refers more to the previous film Tanz der Teufel 2, and three sections lasting several minutes are added compared to the Director's Cut. However, like the original ending, this beginning was too gloomy and didn't match the humorous mood of the rest of the film. It was therefore replaced in the theatrical version and in the Director's Cut. The alternative beginning as well as the additional scenes of the Screenpower version are contained in various other releases as "Deleted Scenes".

The Red Edition released on DVD by Laser Paradise in Germany does not contain any new material, only the Director's Cut, which can, however, optionally also be viewed at the end of the theatrical version. The scenes that the Director's Cut also contains compared to the European theatrical version have poor image quality and are only available in English with German subtitles.

The New Remastered Special Limited Edition and the Red Edition have neither been tested by the FSK.

Reviews

Army of Darkness got 73% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes based on 48 reviews with the consensus: " Army of Darkness is a crazy adventure worth taking with Bruce Campbell's wacky charm and Sam Raimi's acrobatic direction, despite a deliberate lack of shocks makes the film a contradicting ending to the Evil Dead franchise. "

The lexicon of international films said that the film was "shot with remarkable trick technology" and that "although it does not find any distance from its paranoid hero", "the comic-like staging makes it almost a surreal comedy full of macabre humor".

The conclusion of Cinema : "Over-the-top, surreal fantasy monster ghost."

Awards

Sitges Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya 1992

  • Nomination in the category Best Film for Sam Raimi

Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival 1993

  • Golden raven for Sam Raimi

Fantastic postage 1993

  • Critic award for Sam Raimi
  • Nomination for the International Fantasy Film Award in the category Best Film for Sam Raimi

Saturn Award 1994

Others

  • The magic formula "Klaatu Verata Nektu" is strongly reminiscent of the phrase "Klaatu Barada Nikto", which is used in the film The day the earth stood still . Both should be used to save the earth from destruction.
  • A computer game was also released that ties in with the story of Army of Darkness (see Dance of the Devils ) .
  • The "Little goody Two Shoes" scene, in which Ash first fights his evil doppelganger, was later parodied in an episode of Hercules , also a Sam Raimi production. The local character Autolycus, who is also played by Bruce Campbell, fights in a similar way against his former self. The dialogues and choreographies were adopted almost identically.
  • A real-time strategy game for the iPhone and Android devices was also released in the setting of Army of Darkness .
  • As a more or less official sequel, the Ash vs Evil Dead series plays as "Amazon Originals" from Amazon Studios 30 years after the Army of Darkness and ties in with the storyline of the Dance of the Devils trilogy. The series is also cast with Bruce Campbell in the lead role.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Certificate of Release for Army of Darkness . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , November 2004 (PDF; test number: 69 507 V / DVD).
  2. ↑ Comparison of the cut versions of the uncut US DVD by Anchor Bay (Theatrical Version / R-Rated) - uncut US DVD by Anchor Bay (Director's Cut / Not Rated) by Army of Darkness at Schnittberichte.com
  3. ↑ Comparison of the cut versions of the uncut FSK 16 DVD by MGM (theatrical version) - uncut US DVD by Anchor Bay (Director's Cut / Not Rated) by Army of Darkness at Schnittberichte.com
  4. ↑ Comparison of the cut versions of the abridged US Director's Cut from Anchor Bay - the uncut German Director's Cut by Koch Media from the Army of Darkness at Schnittberichte.com
  5. ↑ Comparison of the cut versions of the US TV version and the US theatrical version of Army of Darkness at Schnittberichte.com
  6. ↑ a b Comparison of the cut versions of the Red Edition DVD by Laser Paradise with the 2nd VHS edition of Screen Power in the New Remastered Special Limited Edition of Army of Darkness at Schnittberichte.com
  7. ↑ Rotten Tomatoes : Army of Darkness
  8. ↑ Army of Darkness. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  9. ↑ Cinema.de: Army of Darkness - Cinema criticism