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…
By my calculation, Army
Of Darkness has been released and re-released on DVD a whopping eight
times! And the Director’s Cut was only released on two of them. One being the
standard Director’s Cut DVD, and the other would be on the Boomstick Edition in
which you get both Theatrical and Director’s Cut. Now that we’re in the Blu-ray
era, Army Of Darkness is already on
its second release with the new fully-loaded Collector’s Edition three disc set
by Scream Factory. Universal Studios had the first go with the film on Blu-ray
with the Screwhead Edition flaunting the original cover art, which had a fair
amount of supplemental material on top of the clear picture quality. So, the
question begging to be asked is this: is the new Scream Factory re-release of
this cult classic really a necessary purchase?
Synopsis taken from
back cover: Back to do battle with the hideous “Deadites,” Bruce Campbell
returns to the role of Ash, the handsome, shotgun-toting, chainsaw-armed
department store clerk from S-Mart’s housewares division. Demonic forces time
warp him- and his ’73 Oldsmobile- into the Dark Ages, where he romances a
beauty (Embeth Davidtz, The Amazing
Spider-Man) and faces legions of the undead. Can Ash save the living from
the evil dead, rescue his girlfriend, and get back to his own time?
By far the best part about the new Collector’s Edition is
the fact that you get all four cuts of Army
Of Darkness; Theatrical Cut, Director’s Cut (first time on Blu-ray),
International Cut (4K transfer from inter-positive) and the TV Cut. No other
release has done this before, so it’s pretty exciting to have so many ways to
view the film now. Up until I owned the new Blu-ray, I have only seen the
Theatrical and Director’s Cut. I’ve always preferred the Theatrical to the
Director’s Cut, simply because I’m not a fan of the ending of the Director’s
Cut. Though now after viewing both the International Cut and the TV Cut, I’m
more inclined to lean towards the International Cut as my new favorite version
of the movie. To me, it has everything good about the Theatrical and Director’s
Cuts combined to make a perfect cohesive picture. There’s more Ash and Sheila,
Evil Ash and Shelia and Ash vs. Evil Ash! Even though every version except the
Director’s Cut share the same ending, they’re all worth a watch for their
differences. And after watching all of them, you’ll realize something that you
may never have really realized before; how hard Bruce Campbell worked. All the
different takes of the film show you all the different things Bruce had to do
for a lot of scenes that most people haven’t even seen before! Ash may be a
goofy character, but the man behind him is a true underrated talent. The
Director’s Cut runs the longest at 96 minutes, with the shortest version being
the Theatrical at 81 minutes. The International Cut runs 88 minutes long, while
the TV Cut runs two minutes longer at 90 minutes.
A lot of the bonus material can be found on a few other
releases, like the “Men Behind The Army” featurette, trailers and deleted
scenes. But what Scream Factory did was put them all in one place, on one set
of discs. Eliminating any reason to hold onto any other version you might own.
Then, there’s a new feature-length documentary called “Medieval Times: The
Making of Army Of Darkness”, which is
very amusing and informative. I particularly enjoyed learning about how much
Sam Raimi toyed with Bruce Campbell on the set, and how he bragged that he
could get Bruce to do whatever he wanted. I also liked hearing the struggles
they had making the movie, like the long tedious hours they kept. Ultimately,
if you don’t know a lot about the making of Army
of Darkness, you will after watching the new featurette. Other goodies
include a “Creating The Deadites” featurette, Behind-The-Scenes Footage from
KNB Effects, Inc., Still Galleries and more. The cover art is simply beautiful.
It’s elegant, yet heavily incorporates key scenes from the film to really give
it that essential collection feel. The jewel case under the slipcover gives you
the option of reversing the cover and flaunting the original poster art, if you
prefer the original artwork to the new art. All of the discs all have different
movie artwork on them and each disc has a different menu. Not to mention you
literally get every bonus feature ever available on top of the new stuff. Any
critique I could have would be sheer nitpicking. The picture and sound quality
is on par with what you’d expect from Scream Factory, all except the TV Cut which
is presented in its original standard definition format. This is by far the
best way to own Army of Darkness.
Scream Factory made sure they lived up to their reputation with this one by
making a true definitive release for the fans. I personally, couldn’t be more
satisfied. Owning this Collector’s Edition makes any future Blu-ray releases of
Army of Darkness null and void, which
I’m pretty sure was Scream Factory’s idea. Don’t miss out on this glorious
Blu-ray set that hits store shelves next Tuesday, October 27th. If
you order it directly from Scream Factory’s site HERE, you get it first, like
me. You also get a sweet limited edition poster of the commissioned cover art
free while supplies last!
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