Army Of Darkness Aka Evil Dead III [Blu-ray]

I know what you're thinking - this classic film starring Bruce Campbell has been released so many times already (and it has)... but whether you're a long-time fan or newcomer, it's worth getting this movie on Blu-Ray. Essentially, it's the HD-DVD version transferred to the Blu-Ray format, but what a difference HD makes - the quality of the picture is the best I've seen of this film. One thing worth mentioning, as it neglects to tell you under EXTRAS on the box cover: This Blu-Ray edition is the U.S. theatrical cut with the S-Mart ending - but the Director's Cut appears as an "extra" in standard definition. Incidentally, the DVD release (with the same box art and extras information) is the Director's Cut! All in all, worth £14 of anyone's money. Hail to the king baby!

Having abandoned genuine scares in favor of all-out slapstick, Army of Darkness, the third entry in the Evil Dead series sees Bruce Campbell lost in time, low on gas, surrounded by evil and facing the Medieval Dead with only a chainsaw, a '73 Oldsmobile, his trusty boomstick and a lot of attitude in a film that owes more to Ray Harryhausen than George A. Romero, albeit with an R-rating (it's one of the last films to use stop-motion extensively, with more sword-wielding skeletons than Harryhausen managed in his entire career). Never quite as much fun as you'd like it to be, it's certainly aged much better than expected - initially regarded as a disappointment, today it stands up rather well, especially when seen away from its two more small-scale predecessors. Joe LoDuca's unapologetically old-fashioned epic score is a lot of fun too, particularly cues like `Manly Men' and `Building the Deathmobile.'

Seeing the two versions of the film side by side on Anchor Bay's 2-disc DVD - the US theatrical version with the S-Mart ending and the longer director's `Bootleg cut' with the original `Planet of the Apes' ending, the differences in the longer version are mainly extended scenes rather than deleted ones, though the use of a few alternate takes means that some of the most quotable lines from the shorter version are lost ("Good, bad, I'm the one with the gun." "Maybe my men can hold them. Maybe I'm a Chinese jet pilot." "Hail to the king, baby.") and the picture quality is a lot softer. It has to be said that both versions have their merits: there's a bit of repetition in the long version (Marcus Gilbert's every other line in the last half hour seems to be "We are deserted!") and while a lot of good stuff was lost when the film was trimmed for the US, the shorter version IS a lot snappier and the S-Mart Dedite ending is quite fun even if it doesn't set up the will-it-ever-get-made Evil Dead 4 promised in the original ending.

Finally a decent DVD version of Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness! I was ecstatic originally when the first Director's Cut of the film came out on a 2-disc edition (the second disc being the US Theatrical Cut - I wasn't so bothered about that version). Of coarse, as I'm sure many of you came to realise as I did, that "edition" wasn't so special after all. It just felt like Anchor Bay released someone's bootlegged version (a title the Americans had used) from some cheap VHS cassette. The picture was poor for the extended scenes and even the sound on the final battle was extremely ropey. I fobbed the DVD off rather rapidly afterwards.

Right, anyhow.

Now, Optimum has stepped in and finally done something about it and what we have... is another DC of the film, yes, but with better sound and picture quality, well as better as it can get for AoD. This is it; this is the version that is a definite keeper. The extended scene in the mill doesn't add much to the film admittedly, just a couple more giggles but the final battle has changed considerably and, to my mind, is a little more exciting with a few more antics in it. Plus they have kept the much favoured "apocalyptic ending". All in all this is the version of the film (since the European Cut) I'm going to stick with, and hope all you fellow AoD fans can enjoy just as much as I have. My only tiny gripe really is the lack of special features (which include the rather stupid "happy ending" - sorry to those who liked it, hail to the king baby!), but it's the film that matters.