Box Art Review #3 - Army of Darkness

Box Art Review # 3
Army of Darkness (1992)
Directed by Sam Raimi
Starring Bruce Campbell

The Movie

Army of Darkness is a slapstick comedy, action, adventure, horror, spoof about a guy who travels back in time with a shotgun, a car, and a chainsaw attached to his wrist to fight ancient demons that killed his girlfriend. It’s pretty great, and if you’re reading this you’ve probably seen it. If you haven’t, you should really get on that, man.

Basically Bruce Campbell ramps up the goofy slapstick from Evil Dead 2 to full blast in this one, so much so, that it’s only really loosely kind of tangentially linked to the horror genre on a technicality. I mean, there are some great creature effects, but no gore and literally none of the atmosphere of either of the first two films. What we do get though, are some truly classic one liners, witty dialog, and a lot of homages to classic fantasy and science fiction movies. I gotta say though, while I love this movie, all the three stooges bits don’t do much for me; I’ve never seen the appeal and still don’t.  

Probably the most classic scene of the film is the finale (where the line “Hail to the King, baby” comes from) but I didn’t always know that. The first time I saw the movie (like, from start to finish) I saw the European ending which is cool in its own right, but much darker and less entertaining; Stick with the one that’s classic. Speaking of foreign markets, the alternate title outside of the U.S. was The Medieval Dead which is just fucking rad as hell.

The Cover

First of all, it’s gotta be said that Darkman is criminally underrated. Second, I honestly think they could’ve hooked more fish with the byline From the Director of Evil Dead. Like Evil Dead 2, that font choice is killer. The tagline, “Trapped in time. Surrounded by Evil. Low on gas.” is brilliant and it sets the tone of the film up before you even pop the movie into the VCR. The cover painting is a clear homage to the fantasy stylings of Frank Frazetta and is an identical silhouette of the posters for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, and National Lampoon’s Vacation. From afar, it looks pretty basic, and then you realize he’s wielding a chainsaw, standing on a tire, and being attacked by miniature versions of himself with a fork. Oh yeah, and there’s a really badass looking skeleton warrior giving the whole scene a stern look of disapproval down there in the bottom right corner.

Like Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness has one of the most iconic posters/VHS box art in the horror game, but more importantly, it’s teamed up with a movie that actually delivers everything that’s on the cover.

Movie: 5/5
Cover: 5/5

Army of Darkness (Screwhead Edition) [Blu-ray]