Army Of Darkness was released in 1992 and was long awaited by many fans of the previous two movies. This time around Raimi ignored most of the horror element and went straight for an action movie but still keeping the same atmosphere and style set by the last two movies.

The story takes place where Evil Dead 2 ended, with Ash be transported back to medieval England. Here he is taken captive by Arthur and his knights where he is thrown in a pit of deadites. After escaping the pit Ash is hailed as a savior and is sent on a quest to retrieve the Book of the Dead. Ash, not been too bright calls out the wrong words when he takes the book and raises the army of the dead. Now it's up to him to put things right and save the day before he can be transported back to his own time.

This is the third and final of the Evil Dead series. It has all the comic elements of Evil Dead 2 and this time Ash comes out with more than a handful of cheesy one-liners which since have become part of what the trilogy has been known for and have been used in games such as Duke Nukem. It's a kind of swords and sorcery comedy adventure and is probably the most mainstream of all the movies. Still it keeps along the lines of the other films and Raimi plays his cards straight to make what is probably the most popular of the trilogy even if it isn't recognised as much by die hard fans.

The film it has a far bigger budget than the previous films and thus the make up and special effects are an improvement on The Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2. It even allows for a huge battle with the army of the dead which is mainly done with stop motion which works very effectively and allows for one hell of an ending to the trilogy.

Two Endings?
There are two endings to Army Of Darkness. In the original ending Ash wakes up to find himself in the future after drinking too many drops of the potion. This ending was changed for the cinema release to Ash getting back to his normal time where he does battle with some deadites in the shop where he works.

Linking From Evil Dead 2
As before Army Of Darkness doesn't take off exactly where Evil Dead 2 ended. In the end of Evil Dead 2 Ash defeats a flying deadite and is hailed as a saviour yet at the beginning of Army Of Darkness Ash is taken in as a slave and it isn't until he wins the battle in the pit that he's hail as the one sent to defeat the evil.

The Budget
Army Of Darkness as you may tell has the biggest budget of the trilogy and was made for a good $13,000,000.

DVD
There are three versions of Army Of Darkness on DVD. Two from Anchor Bay. One with Behind-The-Scenes, Trailer, Bios, Original Ending, Documentary and Storyboards.
The other is a limited addition double disk set with two versions of the films with both endings. Also included is commentary from Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi with a 96 minute Director's Cut plus all the other extra's. This will be the one most fans will be after but it's a limited edition with only 30,000 available.
There is also a release from Universal Home Video with Production notes, Cast & Crew bios, Film Highlights and the Trailer.