(Sam Raimi, 19 February 1993)
“My name is Ash…and I am a slave.”
Sam Raimi’s beloved fantasy-adventure-horror-comedy of epic proportions was released on this day in 1993, finally answering the nagging six-year old question as to where in the hell Ash exactly ended up in the last reel of EVIL DEAD II.
Taking cues from another beloved fantasy epic—Ray Harryhausen’s JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS—and playing Bruce Cambell’s delightful mock-heroics at full-tilt, DARKNESS is a wild-ride of practical effects (provided by both Tony Gardner’s Alterian, Inc. and KNB) and a self-aware parody of sword and sandal pictures. Raimi and co-writer Ivan Raimi wear their influences on their sleeve (which includes “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” the Twain novel overtly referenced in Landis’ AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON), and at the same time, move the EVIL DEAD series far from the cabin of its humble beginnings. Feeling that the cabin was now a somewhat hackneyed locale and plot point that “we all know well” and that it was “time to get him out of the cabin…and move [the story] on,” DARKNESS utilizes the cinematography of Bill Pope to retain the frenetic and kinetic roots of the earlier two films and enlists composer Joe Loduca to score Ash’s medieval exploits, creating significantly palpable ties to the earlier entries despite the intentional lack of overt horror. One element that also separated this installment from the preceding EVIL DEAD films is that we get double the Campbell here—Ash’s evil counterpart allows Campbell significant range here, which is a gift in and of itself.
Winner of the Saturn Award for “Best Horror Film” in 1994 and the recipient of several favorable reviews upon release—as well as a frenzied cult film status—ARMY OF DARKNESS is a film that sits squarely in the hearts of countless genre fans, and we’ve happily hailed to the king innumerable times, Fiends…innumerable times. This one is a classic, fueled with far more fun than frights, but that’s just fine with us…so shop smart, shop S-Mart, and give this film some sugar, baby.