Reviews in Retrograde: Army of Darkness

Critical Outcast isn't my first attempt at a website, I had a few stutter steps in the late 1990's and early 2000's. These attempts generated a whole bunch of poorly written, often very short and spoilerific reviews. I recently stumbled upon them in my archives and thought you may be interested in seeing some of these early attempts at writing. They are as they were then, I make no apologies for how bad or how short they are. Feel free to have at them with reckless abandon! I present to you: Reviews in Retrograde.



In this sequel to the Evil Dead films, a discount-store employee ("Name's Ash. Housewares.") is time-warped to a medieval castle beset by monstrous forces. Initially mistaken for an enemy, he is soon revealed as the prophecised savior who can quest for the Necronomicon, a book which can dispel the evil. Unfortunately, he screws up the magic words while collecting the tome, and releases an army of skeletons, led by his own Deadite counterpart. What follows is a thrilling, yet tongue-in-cheek battle between Ash's 20th Century tactics and the minions of darkness.

Also known as The Evil Dead III, this movie is obviously the third installment of the Evil Dead series. This time Raimi has made a slightly more accessible film. The gore is turned down a bit and the comedy is turned up as everything you once new about horror films is blown to the heavens in a proverbial geyser of blood.

The film stars Bruce Campbell, as Ash, the S-Mart employee who finds himself in the Middle Ages battling the legions of the undead as well as his evil undead copy. And all he wants is to go home. The film plays out like some sort of demented comic book, with Ash as the chiseled wise-cracking hero. Raimi has melded who can make great movies with small budgets, this is just the latest example of what he can do, and hopefully we'll see more Evil Dead films in the future.

Three Stooges comedy with eighties gore to create a new style of movie spoof, the entertaining one. Raimi is a fantastic director.