ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - February 19th
"ARMY OF DARKNESS" released in 1992
When Ash (Bruce Campbell) is transported to the year 1300 A.D., he must once again battle an army of the dead and retrieve the Necronomicon so he can return home, Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness!
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After being sucked into a time vortex, Ash (Campbell) is transported with his Dodge Oldsmobile to the year 1,300 A.D., where he is captured by Lord Arthur (Marcus Gilbert) and turned slave with Duke Henry the Red (Richard Grove) and a couple of his men. When Ash is thrown into a pit, he defeats two monsters and wins respect of Arthur's army and vassals, also freeing Henry. The Wiseman (Ian Abercrombie) appoints Ash as The Chosen One that will retrieve the Necronomicon and free the land from the terror of the Deadites, but Ash is only interested in returning home. When he learns that the only way to return to his time is using the Necronomicon, Ash decides to travel to the unholy land of the Deadites. Along the way, Ash is attacked by his doppleganger Evil Ash (also played by Campbell), who has grown out of Ash's body. Ash eventaully shoots Evil Ash in the face, brutally dismembers him with his chainsaw, and buries him before continuing on his journey. Coming to an unholy cemetary, Ash retrieves the Necronomicon, but unfortunately forgets to say the words the Wiseman advised him to say - "Klaatu Barada Nikto" - to safely get the evil book, and unleashes an army of the dead! Returning to the castle, Ash must rally the people to defend the Necronomicon from the Deadites, lead now by the ressurrected (and very pissed off!) Evil Ash!
TRIVIA: Originally there was only meant to be one creature in the pit. Sam Raimi was convinced to add the second, dubbed The Pit Bitch by its creators, after being scared by it one day
Top: Ash must face the Deadites again, when he is transported to 1300AD!;
Above: Sheila (Embeth Davidtz) is taken by a Deadite.
Plans to make a third Evil Dead film had been circulating for a number of years after the release of Evil Dead II. Initially, writer/director Sam Raimi invited Scott Spiegel to co-write Army of Darkness because he had done a good job on Evil Dead II, but he was busy on rewrites for the Clint Eastwood film The Rookie. Raimi instead co-wrote the screenplay with his brother (and frequent collaborator) Ivan, working on the script during production of Darkman. With filming finished, they took the script out and worked on it in more detail, including star Bruce Campbell into the process. Moving the action from the well-known "cabin in the woods" to the medieval setting of the 1300's, Campbell remembers, "We all decided, 'Get him out of the cabin.' There were earlier drafts where part three still took place there, but we thought, 'Well, we all know that cabin, it's time to move on.' The three of us decided to keep it in 1300, because it's more interesting". Campbell and producer Robert Tapert would read the script drafts, and then give Raimi their notes from which he would decide which suggestions to keep and which ones to discard.
Evil Dead II's executive producer Dino De Laurentiis at that time had a multi-picture deal with Universal Pictures, with the studio contributing half of Army of Darkness' $12 million budget, making it Campbell's first (and unfortunately last) starring role in a studio produced picture. Before casting Embeth Davidtz in the role, Traci Lords auditioned for the role of Sheila, saying in 2001, "I didn't get the part but I clicked with Bruce [Campbell]," with whom she would later work as a guest star in the TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Davidtz, however, had such a rough time shooting the fight scenes, filming at night and wearing heavy prosthetics, that she contemplated quitting acting. In a later interview, she acknowledged the hardships she had to endure, but said that over the years, she had come to enjoy all the positive comments she got from fans of the film.
Evil Dead II's executive producer Dino De Laurentiis at that time had a multi-picture deal with Universal Pictures, with the studio contributing half of Army of Darkness' $12 million budget, making it Campbell's first (and unfortunately last) starring role in a studio produced picture. Before casting Embeth Davidtz in the role, Traci Lords auditioned for the role of Sheila, saying in 2001, "I didn't get the part but I clicked with Bruce [Campbell]," with whom she would later work as a guest star in the TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Davidtz, however, had such a rough time shooting the fight scenes, filming at night and wearing heavy prosthetics, that she contemplated quitting acting. In a later interview, she acknowledged the hardships she had to endure, but said that over the years, she had come to enjoy all the positive comments she got from fans of the film.
[The Wiseman instructs Ash on what words to use before retrieving the book]
Ash: [repeating them] Klaatu Barada Nikto.
Wiseman: Well, repeat them.
Ash: [getting annoyed] Klaatu Barada Nikto.
Wiseman: Again!
Ash: I got it, I got it! I know your damn words, alright?
[Much later in the graveyard, Ash is about to take the Necronomicon]
Ash: Klaatu Barada N...
[Ash suddenly freezes, stumped as to how to finish the spell]
Ash: [struggling to remember] Necktie... Neckturn... Nickel... It's an "N" word
[Ash spins around as if he remembers, and then...]
Ash: It was definitely an "N" word!
Top: Ash battles his evil doppelganger, Evil Ash;
Above: Evil Ash is resurrected when Ash removes the book incorrectly.
With a schedule of just over 100-days, Army of Darkness was a mid-summer shoot - when the days were longest and the nights were the shortest - and while on location on a huge castle set that was built near Acton, California on the edge of the Mojave Desert, the cast and crew endured very hot conditions during the day and very cold temperatures at night. During filming the Oldsmobile Delta 88 falling out of the sky was shot twice. During the first attempt, the 25-ton crane lifting the car failed due to mechanical problems and toppled over the edge of a cliff at the quarry location where filming was taking place. Fortunately, no injuries occurred because the crane operator jumped from the cab before the crane went over the edge. Days later a larger 80-ton crane was brought in to remove the damaged crane and re-shoot the car drop. In the final edit, elements of the re-shoot as well as footage from the end of Evil Dead II were used.
It was a difficult shoot for Campbell who had to learn elaborate choreography for the battle scenes, which involved him remembering a number system because the actor was often fighting opponents that were not really there. Visual effects supervisor William Mesa remembers, "Bruce was cussing and swearing some of the time because you had to work on the number system. Sam [Raimi] would tell us to make it as complicated and hard for Bruce as possible. 'Make him go through torture!' So we'd come up with these shots that were really, really difficult, and sometimes they would take thirty-seven takes!". Later, while filming of the climactic sword fight at Arthur's castle, Campbell suffered a small gash to his face when a decorative pin on his cape cut him during a stunt. He was immediately taken from the Polsa Rosa Ranch location to see a plastic surgeon to assess the damage. At the examination the doctor had to have the actual injury pointed out amid the myriad special effect scars and cuts Ash's character had accumulated during the story. Campbell was treated and returned to set shortly afterward to finish the scene.
The interior shots were filmed on an Introvision stage in Hollywood. The Introvision process uses front-projected images with live actors, instead of the traditional rear projection that effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen and others used, and blends components with more realistic-looking results. To achieve this effect, Raimi used 60-foot-tall Scotchlite front-projection screens, miniatures and background plates, which, according to Raimi, the advantage of using this technique was "the incredible amount of interaction between the background, which doesn't exist, and the foreground, which is usually your character".
It was a difficult shoot for Campbell who had to learn elaborate choreography for the battle scenes, which involved him remembering a number system because the actor was often fighting opponents that were not really there. Visual effects supervisor William Mesa remembers, "Bruce was cussing and swearing some of the time because you had to work on the number system. Sam [Raimi] would tell us to make it as complicated and hard for Bruce as possible. 'Make him go through torture!' So we'd come up with these shots that were really, really difficult, and sometimes they would take thirty-seven takes!". Later, while filming of the climactic sword fight at Arthur's castle, Campbell suffered a small gash to his face when a decorative pin on his cape cut him during a stunt. He was immediately taken from the Polsa Rosa Ranch location to see a plastic surgeon to assess the damage. At the examination the doctor had to have the actual injury pointed out amid the myriad special effect scars and cuts Ash's character had accumulated during the story. Campbell was treated and returned to set shortly afterward to finish the scene.
The interior shots were filmed on an Introvision stage in Hollywood. The Introvision process uses front-projected images with live actors, instead of the traditional rear projection that effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen and others used, and blends components with more realistic-looking results. To achieve this effect, Raimi used 60-foot-tall Scotchlite front-projection screens, miniatures and background plates, which, according to Raimi, the advantage of using this technique was "the incredible amount of interaction between the background, which doesn't exist, and the foreground, which is usually your character".
TRIVIA: All three Evil Dead films can be seamlessly cut together (which has been done by fans), though some introductory footage in the sequels was needed to be cut out.
Top: Writer/director Sam Raimi on set;
Above: The final animatronic puppet of Evil Ash
While De Laurentiis gave Raimi and his crew freedom to shoot the film the way they wanted, Universal took over during post-production, and they were not happy with Raimi's original ending - in which Ash wakes up in a post-apocalyptic England, and sets up the storyline for a fourth film - feeling it was negative. A more upbeat ending was shot a month later in a lumber store in Malibu, California, which involved a shoot out with a Deadite at the S-mart where Ash goes back to work at. This ending has become the canon version since the release of the TV series Ash vs Evil Dead. Raimi recalls, "Actually, I kind of like the fact that there are two endings, that in one alternate universe Bruce is screwed, and in another universe he's some cheesy hero".
Unfortunately, due to an unrelated dispute between Universal and De Laurentiis over the character rights for Hannibal Lector, the studio delayed the release of Army of Darkness for over a year, and eventually handed the film over to outside film editors to cut the film to 81 minutes and another version running 87 minutes that was eventually released in theaters. Campbell was displeased with the studio's delayed release of the film and its re-editing of it, later stating he "wasted a year of my life" waiting for the film to get released to cinemas.
Finally released on February 19th, 1992, Army of Darkness grossed less than $4.5 million on its opening weekend, eventually earning only $11.5 million at the US box office (and another $10 million in foreign markets). Army of Darkness received mostly positive reviews on its release, holding a 72% rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, much lower than The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II, which received 96% and 98% respectively. Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars and wrote, "The movie isn't as funny or entertaining as Evil Dead II, however, maybe because the comic approach seems recycled." In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin praised, "Mr. Campbell's manly, mock-heroic posturing is perfectly in keeping with the director's droll outlook", while Desson Howe, in his review for The Washington Post praised the film's style: "Bill Pope's cinematography is gymnastic and appropriately frenetic. The visual and make-up effects (from artist-technicians William Mesa, Tony Gardner and others) are incredibly imaginative."
Unfortunately, due to an unrelated dispute between Universal and De Laurentiis over the character rights for Hannibal Lector, the studio delayed the release of Army of Darkness for over a year, and eventually handed the film over to outside film editors to cut the film to 81 minutes and another version running 87 minutes that was eventually released in theaters. Campbell was displeased with the studio's delayed release of the film and its re-editing of it, later stating he "wasted a year of my life" waiting for the film to get released to cinemas.
Finally released on February 19th, 1992, Army of Darkness grossed less than $4.5 million on its opening weekend, eventually earning only $11.5 million at the US box office (and another $10 million in foreign markets). Army of Darkness received mostly positive reviews on its release, holding a 72% rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, much lower than The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II, which received 96% and 98% respectively. Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars and wrote, "The movie isn't as funny or entertaining as Evil Dead II, however, maybe because the comic approach seems recycled." In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin praised, "Mr. Campbell's manly, mock-heroic posturing is perfectly in keeping with the director's droll outlook", while Desson Howe, in his review for The Washington Post praised the film's style: "Bill Pope's cinematography is gymnastic and appropriately frenetic. The visual and make-up effects (from artist-technicians William Mesa, Tony Gardner and others) are incredibly imaginative."
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 75%
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Umm.....1993.
ReplyDeleteNot 1992.