I guess you know by now that I am a Sam Raimi fanboy, so it’s probably no surprise that Raimi’s horror/comedy Army of Darkness is also on my list.  From beginning to end this movie is instantly quotable, and if you see me on the street ask me and I’ll quote any line from it.  I have it memorized.  A couple of years ago, or maybe it was last year The Core along with Marcus Theatres had a midnight showing of this on the big screen and you can believe I was first in line to see this project high and mighty!

So Army of Darkness is really Evil Dead III, but that’s not what they ended up calling it.  It’s not really a scary movie at all, it’s pretty much a straight forward slapstick comedy.  Think Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein or The Three Stooges meet an army of the dead.  There are a ton of references in the movie as well.  You’ll notice stuff from Gulliver’s Travels, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Three Stooges, Ray Harryhausen and so much more.  Sam really through everything and the kitchen sink into Army of Darkness.  The really funny thing about it, it was basically a box office failure and has been re-cut at least four times by Universal to get what they thought was the right movie.  I actually saw the theatrical cut first on home video back in the day and still kind of prefer that cut to the Director’s cut which I eventually picked up on DVD.  Not so much for the ending, but some of the better lines are cut from the theatrical cut for the director’s cut, including the best line in the whole movie; “Good, bad, I’m the guy with the gun”.  Classic.

The movie also stars genre workhorse and all around awesome chin, Bruce Campbell.  I had the pleasure of meeting Bruce a few years back on a book tour and well, let’s just say I was less than articulate when I met him!

Army of Darkness is just a ton of fun.  It’s pure mindless entertainment for no purpose than to make you laugh for 90 minutes.  Get yourself a copy today.

This is the movie that nearly scared me out of horror films for life.  I was pretty young when I happened to catch this one with my parents back in the day.  People often credit Carpenter for changing their lives with Halloween, but for me it was The Thing.  A loose remake of the 1951 film The Thing from Another World, Carpenter’s version pushes the paranoia and gore to new levels with terrifying and sickening effects.

The image of the doctor doing chest compressions and what happens next will forever be stuck in my mind and always available for instant recall.  This is another one of those films that is fun to watch in the dead of winter too.  All the action takes place at a research outpost in the antarctic.  The white vastness along with the isolation is just too much at times.

This is easily my favorite Carpenter film and in my humble opinion his best work to date.  While Carpenter has done some great movies, nothing is quite as good or visceral as The Thing.  I also don’t think that Kurt Russell has ever given a better performance.

This is truly a terrifying movie that should be watched with the lights on!

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