Attention S-Mart Shoppers:
I doubt it’s possible to love movies without loving Army of Darkness. This movie has everything: knights, wizards, skeletons, a princess in distress, and a hero with a chainsaw who isn’t afraid to belt out a lusty “Gimme some sugar, baby!” when he has a damsel in his arms.
The film represents the culmination of Sam Raimi’s “Evil
Dead” series. The first, a reasonably
straightforward horror movie about college kids in a remote cabin, is
respectably scary. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, mixes horror
with comedy, as when its protagonist amputates his own (possessed) hand atop a stack
of books that features A Farewell to Arms. Army of
Darkness goes for full slapstick, with scenes paying comic homage to films
as diverse as Return of the Jedi, The Seven Samurai, The Three Stooges, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Gulliver's Travels, and
The Day The Earth Stood Still. It’s goofy, it’s silly, and it’s an
all-around good time at the movies.
I doubt it’s possible to love movies without loving Army of Darkness. This movie has everything: knights, wizards, skeletons, a princess in distress, and a hero with a chainsaw who isn’t afraid to belt out a lusty “Gimme some sugar, baby!” when he has a damsel in his arms.
The film represents the culmination of Sam Raimi’s “Evil
Dead” series. The first, a reasonably
straightforward horror movie about college kids in a remote cabin, is
respectably scary. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, mixes horror
with comedy, as when its protagonist amputates his own (possessed) hand atop a stack
of books that features A Farewell to Arms. Army of
Darkness goes for full slapstick, with scenes paying comic homage to films
as diverse as Return of the Jedi, The Seven Samurai, The Three Stooges, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Gulliver's Travels, and
The Day The Earth Stood Still. It’s goofy, it’s silly, and it’s an
all-around good time at the movies.
That’s if you’re an adult.
Last Halloween, I saw Army
of Darkness with my pre-teen boy and his friends. They found it much better than a “good time
at the movies.” In fact, the movie had
them howling with laughter, frequently rewinding to re-view parts they’d missed
because they’d been laughing so hard.
Somehow, this film’s combination of slapstick and horror resonated in a
way I hadn’t expected, turning Army of
Darkness from a beloved amusement (for me) to an instant Halloween classic
(for them).
And y’know what?
Laughter is catching. The more
they laughed, the more I laughed with them.
And when I laughed at the gags specifically directed to the older
members of the audience (there’s a whole Chuck Conners in ‘The Rifleman’ thing
going on), they cracked up just because they were in the zone.
So this was the Halloween in which I learned to love Army of Darkness even more. I didn't think that was possible. Hail to the king, baby!
