So part three of a trilogy is a tricky thing. It
takes a lot of things to make it work you need to have a compelling
finish to your overall story line. You need to keep everyone invested in
the characters that have come and gone over the
past two movies while also still adding layers to them. You need to
reference the past two movies while also making this third film stand on
its own two feet. Most importantly it needs to have a strong finish
that solidifies the entire trilogy. Usually when
you hit part three of something it runs a bit long or doesn’t finish as
strong as it should. Most times it’s just an unnecessary grab for cash
because the first spawned the second and so on and so forth. Luckily for
all of us fans of “The Evil Dead” series
the third film in this franchise did more than meets the expectations.
The third film picks up where Evil Dead II left off
Ash (Bruce Campbell) is in the Middle Ages and is being led in chains
to a castle with other prisoners. We soon discover that too warring
castles are fighting because both believe that
the other has brought the evil of the Deadites to the land. Ash is
mistaken for one of Duke Henry’s (Richard Grove) men. He is thrown into a
pit in the castle of Lord Arthur (Marcus Gilbert) and is forced to
fight a beast to the death. Armed with only his
wits and a chainsaw Ash hands the beast a beating and climbs out of the
pit announcing to the world that he is running the show. Amongst the
members of the castle is a wise man who tells that Ash is the
prophesized one who will end the evil in the land. It
is said that he will quest for the book of the dead and speak the magic
words to end the evil. Ash agrees on the terms that if he gets the book
the wise man will send Ash back to his own time. He sets off on the
quest and horror and hilarity ensue. Ash finds
himself facing all sorts of foes including mini versions of him and
eventually an evil full grown version. He reaches the book and in
typical Ash fashion screws up saying the words and awakes the army of
the dead.
This film is so brilliant because like Evil Dead I
and II it brings you something new while also respecting the previous
films. We see Campbell play a guy fighting off a few demons to a hero
leading an army against an onslaught of demons.
It is also in this film where we see what might be Campbell’s best
performance as a leading man. He also gets to flex his romantic side as
he woos the beautiful lady Sheila (Embeth Davidtz). Campbell is stealing
every scene this movie and makes it a point
to give it everything he’s got. The film is also drastically different
then the first two in that we see much more in the way of sets and
characters. We also get more of a backstory on the book of the dead
itself.
This movie is a great finish to a classic trilogy
of terror and laughs and I think is the strongest of the three. It is
the strongest for all the reasons above and because of the fact that I
watched it first not knowing it was a trilogy
and had no problem following it at all. Raimi as a director manages to
catch you up on two whole films with a brief montage at the beginning
and doesn’t make it feel like you had to see the other two films before.
He would later use this filmmaking trick in
the Spider-man trilogy at the beginning of each movie. If the first
movie is a classic piece of music and the second film is 60’s rock song
then Army of darkness is a Hard rock 80’s ballad.
We have finished The Evil Dead trilogy now it’s on to a new cabin in the woods, however tomorrow will be a little more self-aware. For high weirdness I’m Ben Kolton reminding you “It’s Only a Movie.” “It’s Only a Moive.”
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