Thursday, October 31, 2013

HMM '13: Army of Darkness

It's October! The doorway to not only the start of the greatest food season (early October to Christmas), but also to sexy nurses, zombies, and grown men dressing up like ponies. That also means it is time once again for Halloween Movie Madness! This year, I'll be taking a look back at the movies of my youth. Every movie this year was released before I turned eighteen. These are the Halloween movies that shaped me into the man I am today. Some of them are scary. Some are funny. Some are fantastical. Some are just weird. And not all of them are good. But to me, they are all Halloween movies. Now, stand back, for your own safety! 

Army of Darkness
1992


Today is Halloween, and that means this will be the last entry in this year's Halloween Movie Madness.  And since you always hear people talking about saving the best for last, that is exactly what I did.

Army of Darkness was the first movie I had seen from what has become my all-time favorite movie series. I overheard a guy in my biology class talking about how awesome it was, so I went to Panorama Video and rented it.  I watched it, and while the flashback stuff at the beginning really confused me, I loved the movie.  On the following Monday, I asked the guy what the flashback stuff was all about, and he told me about the first two movies in the series. 


Army of Darkness follows the continuing saga of Ashley Williams, a Michigan State college student who works part-time at S-Mart.  He travels to a cabin in the woods with his girlfriend (and before it was retconned out due to licensing issues, three other people), where demonic spirits are awakened.  To stop the evil, a passage is read from the Necronomicon that will suck it through a portal.  Ash gets pulled through, and ends up in medieval times.  There he must defend the Necronomicon from the Deadites.


This movie is very quotable, and it even provided some likes used by Duke Nukem.  It is also very funny.  It's campy and full of slapstic humor, and it doesn't try to hide it.

One of the things that bugs me the most about this movie is something that happens when they show it on TV.  There is some unnecessary censorship that occurs, and it is so stupid.  The line is "I'm Bad Ash, and you're Good Ash."  They censor out Ash.  Yes, they censor out the main character's name.  I hate it.

Even if you have seen them before, or even if you own them: Watch Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness tonight.  Treat yourself.

And my treat for you is today's Gifs Without Context.









That's it for this year's Halloween Movie Madness!  Starting tomorrow, I start to go into Christmas mode, so brace yourselves for that(Winter is coming, yadda yadda yadda).  And don't forget, I have Christmas Special Mania starting in one month!