Army of Darkness: Screwhead Edition [Blu-ray] [1992] [US Import]

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!

Bruce Campbell, the hero of 'Army of Darkness' looks excellent in Blu-ray. The story about a one-armed (one-and-a-half, to be exact) man that falls into a very Hollywood-ish Medieval world, that is supposedly England, is a tall tale. That he would also bring with him his motor saw, that fits to his stump arm like glove, and his Remington double-bore, with enough ammo to last from here to eternity, is even taller! That this world not only is populated with English Kings and Scottish Chieftains, fair maids, and midgets (Tinkerbell-sized!), but also filled with ghouls, and other creatures of the dark, is just absurd!

But what a great yarn it is! Bruce is Bruce, and while the DVD we have is crap, quality-wise, the Blu-ray is surprisingly good (not impeccable, but OK), so
now the midgets are not just fuzzy, they are actually quite sharp - at least as good as a good normal DVD, and that's a great relief for us fans :-)!

So buy this gem, if you like a good yarn, with lots of humor, and like a wee bit of splatter - if you hate it, please avoid as the plague!

Army Of Darkness continues where Evil Dead 2 finished, with Ash going back in time through a portal to 1300 AD. He is immediately captured by Lord Arthur and his men, and accused of being one of Henry The Red's men. He's taken back to the castle and thrown into a pit, where he defeats a couple of Deadites and wins the respect of the people. He demands that the Wise Man send him back to his time, when he's given the bad news that only the Necronomicon aka the book of the dead can send him home. Ash must then begin a journey to retrieve the book, where he must say the three words Klaatu barada nikto to safely claim the book. In typical Ash style, he forgets the words and awakens a skeletal army of darkness. It's now down to Ash and what remains of Arthur's men to protect the castle and book, and to try and defeat the army of deadites.

Bruce Campbell is fantastic as Ash, he always has a sly or sarcastic remark on hand. He plays the role like he did in Evil Dead 2, with much more bravado and slapstick than the original. There's some pretty good support from Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert, Ian Abercrombie and Richard Grove, but the movie is all about Campbell, so much so that the opening title actually says Bruce Campbell vs Army Of Darkness. Bridget Fonda has a very small role as Linda, his girlfriend in the earlier films in a brief flashback. Ted Raimi has a few small parts, and for any huge horror fans, Patricia Tallman who played Barbara in the Night Of The Living Dead remake appears under heavy make up as a possessed witch.

Sam Raimi did the much more commercial Darkman after the first two Evil Dead movies, after that was successful it allowed Army Of Darkness a much bigger budget than the other two. It's clear to see this had a much bigger budget. Where the first two movies were set in a cabin in the woods, this film is more of an adventure film. I assume alot of the budget went on the special effects, and for a film from 1992, most of the effects work really well. The skeleton army look fantastic, and most of the make up looks great, especially the make up on the lead deadite.

I wasn't expecting much from the blu-ray, but i'm delighted to say that for most of the film it looks amazing. From the moment it started, I could instantly see a huge difference in quality between this and the standard version. The first thing you see when the film starts is sand, on the blu-ray, you can see all of the individual pebbles and grains of sand, on the standard version it just looks like porridge. Virtually every close up on Bruce Campbell's face shows remarkable clarity and detail, every pore on his face is visible and looks much better than some new films I have on blu-ray. The colours are now much more vibrant and the whole film looks like it was made last year instead of 1992 on a modest budget. There are moments when the film does drop in quality, the odd scene here and there is quite grainy but still holds good detail behind it, it just seems out of place when 90% of the film is grain free and looks magnificent. On two or three occasions the picture goes quite soft and looks dvd quality, but it's rare and this is just about the best blu-ray of a catalogue title that i've seen.

The problem that some people may have with the blu-ray, and it's the reason i've give it four stars instead of five, the blu-ray version is the theatrical version of the film which runs at 81 minutes, the director's cut which runs fifteen minutes longer at 96 minutes is on the disc but it's in standard definition. The difference in quality is massive, and I for one would have loved to see the longer version that Sam Raimi intended us to see in blu-ray. It's nice to have both versions, but I already had both versions on the 2-disc special edition which also had a few more extras on it than this. The 2-disc dvd wasn't packed with extras, but apart from the 2 versions of the film and the commentary from Campbell and Raimi, there's very little else here.

Army Of Darkness has always been my favourite of the Evil Dead films, probably due to the fact that I saw this one much more regularly as a kid. It does feel like more of a spin off from the first two, and relies much more on slapstick humour where the first two were very dark and had lots of gore. Anybody that enjoyed the humour of Evil Dead 2 should really enjoy Army Of Darkness, but with it being so different to the other films, you don't really need to have seen them to enjoy watching this one. If you're already a fan of the film, but wasn't sure if it is worth the upgrade to blu-ray, then I suggest you shop smart, shop S-mart and buy this as it looks absolutely amazing.