In 1992, Director Sam Raimi ended his Evil Dead Trilogy with the practical effects extravaganza known as Army Of Darkness (Originally titled Bruce Campbell Vs. Army Of Darkness).
This time instead of releasing the film independently, like the first two, Army Of Darkness was distributed through
Universal Studios, making it the only studio film out of the three. Using like
humor of Monty Python and The Three Stooges, the concept for Army Of Darkness was supposed to be the
sequel to 1981’s The Evil Dead, but
the recourses weren’t there at the time. So, what was then-called Medieval Dead was put on hold and Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn (1987) was
made as a middle film. Army was made
for a PG-13 rating, hence why there’s not nearly as much gore as the prior two
flicks. However, as ridiculous as it is, the MPAA gave the film an NC-17
rating! So after editing nothing, the film was resubmitted and garnered an R
rating. People involved in the making of Army
wonder if the film would have been gorier had Raimi known the MPAA was going to
screw the film in the end anyway. Some even assume that the MPAA deliberately
put the boots to Raimi because of him bypassing them and releasing the first
two films unrated. Either way, it doesn’t matter because since the studio
didn’t want the film’s title to have Evil
Dead in it, fans didn’t identify it as a sequel in the series. In effect,
it failed miserably at the box-office and was pulled from theaters quicker than
you could say “boomstick”. However, the film has since become an immediately
recognizable cult classic thanks to word of mouth and home video releases…
