Army of Darkness
Trapped in time. Surrounded by evil. Low on gas.
Army of Darkness (1992)
Budget
$11 000 000
Revenue
$21 502 976
Director
Scenario
Composer
Producer
Actors
Embeth Davidtz
Sheila
Marcus Gilbert
Arthur
Ian Abercrombie
Wiseman
Richard Grove
Duke Henry
Michael Earl Reid
Gold Tooth
Timothy Patrick Quill
Blacksmith
Bridget Fonda
Linda
Short description
Army of Darkness follows Ash, a department store clerk who is thrown back in time to medieval England after the events at a forest cabin. Captured by the locals, he learns that an ancient book holds the key to returning home, and that the kingdom is under attack from an army of the dead. His efforts to retrieve the book set loose a greater threat, and he must lead the people against it.
Sam Raimi directed and co-wrote the film with Ivan Raimi, and it was released on Halloween in 1992. It is the fifth of the seventeen features Raimi has directed in chronological order, arriving between Darkman and The Quick and the Dead. Bruce Campbell, who also produced alongside Robert Tapert, stars as Ash, with Embeth Davidtz as Sheila, Marcus Gilbert as Arthur, Ian Abercrombie as Wiseman and Richard Grove as Duke Henry.
Made for about 11 million dollars by Universal Pictures, the Dino De Laurentiis Company, Renaissance Pictures and Introvision International, the film took in roughly 22 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.4 out of 10 from around 208,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 7.3 from a much smaller base of about 3,700. A critics' rating of 6.5 from 91 reviews places it somewhat below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The original script consisted of only 43 pages.
- According to the original script, Ash was supposed to lose an eye.
- A significant portion of the film was shot with multiple cameras simultaneously, with one capturing a wide shot and the other a close-up. Because of this, the boom microphone had to be held further away from the character to capture quality sound. This is why Bruce Campbell was regularly given a wireless transmitter for use on set (the actor kept it in a gun case on his back), and the microphone was hidden in the chainsaw’s belt buckle. He just had to make sure that the black foam (covering the sound-receiving part of the device) didn’t get into the frame.
- The working titles for the film also included "Evil Dead 1300AD" and "MediEVAL Dead".
- A copy of "Fangoria" magazine can be seen in Ash's car trunk.
- The scene in which an 'Oldsmobile Delta 88' falls from the sky had to be filmed twice. During the first take, the 25-ton crane lifting the car into the air veered off course due to purely mechanical problems, tilted, and collapsed into a quarry near where filming was taking place. Fortunately, the crane operator was able to get out of the cab in time, so no one was injured. A few days later, a more powerful crane (with an 80-ton lifting capacity) was used to retrieve the wreckage of the first crane from the quarry, and the entire scene was reshot. Some footage from this second take and footage from the finale of the second film in the franchise (Sam Raimi, 1987) were inserted into the film.
- Bruce Campbell was very unhappy with the studio's decision to move the film's release from summer 1992 to February 1993 and to re-edit it. The reason for this was the studio's unwillingness to pay $3 million to complete filming, as well as a desire to use the film as leverage in a dispute with producer Dino De Laurentiis over the rights to the Hannibal Lecter character from Jonathan Demme's thriller "The Silence of the Lambs" (1990). Campbell stated that a whole year, while he waited for the film's release, was wasted.
- Filming was so difficult for Embeth Davidtz (plus the need to wear special prosthetics appropriate for her role as Sheila) that she seriously considered quitting acting.
- The words Ash was supposed to say before taking the "Book of the Dead" are "Clatto Verata Nicto." This is a reference to the phrase "Klaatu, Barada, Nikto," which was used to control the robot Gort in the film "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951).
- Ash’s car actually belongs to Sam Raimi (the film’s director). Sam used this car in all his early works, and with each film, the car’s appearance visibly deteriorated. The various items that lie in the car’s trunk are not product placement. During filming, the exact same items were in Raimi’s car trunk.
- Ted Raimi played at least four characters: a cowardly warrior who doesn’t want to die; the man who says to Ash, “You can count on my steel”; a knight with an eye patch; and a clerk in an S-mart store.
- Bridget Fonda played a cameo role as Linda.
- There are two different endings to the film. In the original ending, Ash drank seven drops of the potion instead of six and woke up in the year 2100: a post-apocalyptic world where a nuclear war had occurred. Audiences at test screenings found this ending too pessimistic, and the film's finale was reshot. The other ending (the most common one) is that Ash returns to our time and tells a clerk at an S-Mart store about his adventures in the Middle Ages. The clerk asks him – did he pronounce the incantation correctly? Ash replies – yes… I think so. After which, a witch appears in the store, and Ash, grabbing his Remington, sends her back to the afterlife.
- According to Bruce Campbell, the audience was convinced that the chainsaw was constantly running by means of tobacco smoke, which was pumped through a hose that ran under his right trouser leg and shirt and was connected to the chainsaw.
- According to Bruce Campbell, in the original script, the main character, played by Bruce Campbell, lost an eye. The action was only moved to the Middle Ages in the second half of the film, while the first half recounted the events of the first two films in the franchise. In addition, the audience learned much more about Ash himself (for example, about his time in college and working in a store). Screenwriters Sam and Ivan Raimi wrote the script this way, believing that the management of Universal Pictures was unlikely to agree to sponsor a low-budget independent film, and they planned to make a partial remake. Therefore, they were pleased with the studio's decision to approve a full-fledged sequel and decided to remove almost all fragments related to the cabin in the woods from the script (with the exception of the prologue).
- There are four versions of the film: an 81-minute version that was shown in theaters in the United States; an 88-minute version that was released internationally; a director's cut lasting 96 minutes; and an 88-minute version that aired on American television channels. Some versions contained scenes absent from others, while in some, these scenes were extended. This is partly explained by the fact that the American Film Association gave Sam Raimi's director's cut an "NC-17" rating. The version for international release received an "R" rating. Studio executives handed the film over to outside editors, and the resulting version – for theatrical release in the US – was given a "PG-13" rating. The director's cut is considered the most complete version, and it also includes the "bad ending". The version for US television contains two scenes not found in any other version. Over time, other versions of the film were released on DVD and Blu-ray – for example, the director's cut but with a happy ending; or the Hong Kong version, which combines the American television, international, and director's cut versions.
- During the filming of the sword fight in Arthur's castle (played by Marcus Gilbert), Bruce Campbell received a small wound on his face. He was immediately taken off set to a doctor, who had to be shown exactly where the wound was – because the actor's face was covered with numerous prop wounds, cuts, and scars thanks to the makeup artists. After the doctor treated the wound, Campbell returned to the set.
- The film was shot on location in a variety of scenic places in the United States (such as Bronson Canyon or caves, Vasquez Rocks Park, etc.), and on specially constructed sets of a castle on the edge of the desert in California.
- In the scene where Ash is stoned, prop stones were used. To make Bruce Campbell’s performance more convincing and realistic (and as part of a prank), director Sam Raimi ordered that potatoes be used instead of prop stones. This take made it into the film. Furthermore, Raimi instructed the special effects artists and stunt coordinators to make the fight and clash scenes as difficult as possible for Campbell. The actor had to memorize a complex set of movements during clashes with invisible enemies (with the actual enemies inserted into the footage only during post-production), so he constantly swore in front of the camera, as up to 37 takes were required for individual scenes.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
