History Film / ArmyOfDarkness

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/army_of_darkness_poster_4887.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:"''All right, you primitive screwheads! Listen up!''"]]

* ForgingScene: Ash and the villagers building his armored hand and supplying weapons to his car. "Groovy".

* TheBlacksmith: The nameless smith has a minor role, yet gets a fair bit of characterization. He's shown to be something of an OnlySaneMan among the primitive screwheads who seems to take pity on Ash and the other captives, Ash later saves his life when they're attacked by a Deadite witch, and the smith is the first man to volunteer himself to defend the castle.

* TrainingThePeacefulVillagers: Sort of. They weren't exactly peaceful to begin with, but showing them how to make gunpowder certainly was useful. Oddly enough there's another scene where he teaches them how to use ''their own'' BladeOnAStick weapons.

-->--'''Ash Williams'''

Also notorious for its many, many different [[ReCut Re-Cuts]] - at least four are known to exist - some of which had a [[RevisedEnding entirely different]] and [[DownerEnding considerably more depressing]] ending than the theatrical release.

!!This film provides examples of:
* AfterTheEnd: The original ending [[spoiler:has Ash accidentally drinking too much of the potion that will let him sleep for centuries and wakes up in a post apocalyptic London.]]
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: The Main/{{Tagline}}, as seen on the poster: "Trapped in time. Surrounded by evil. Low on gas."

** The hut Ash spends the night in - where he's attacked by the mini-Ashes - appears to have a modern heating system (at least, there are metal vents for him to hit his head on).

--> '''Deadite Sheila:''' You found me beautiful once.\\
'''Ash:''' Honey, you got ''reeaaaal'' ugly."
* BookEnds: The movie starts and ends with Ash narrating the story.

--> '''Good Ash:''' [[BondOneliner Good... bad... I'm the guy with the gun.]]

--> '''Good Ash:''' I ain't ''that'' good.

* BrickJoke: In the theatrical ending, when the coworker listening to Ash's story asks if Ash [[KlaatuBaradaNikto said the words right this time]]. [[spoiler: Of course not.]]

* CriticalStaffingShortage: The castle is evacuated leaving 60 men to fight an army of the undead that outnumber them about 10 to 1. They have to keep moving defenses from wall to wall as they simply don't have enough people to effectively guard each side at the same time.

* DeadlyRotaryFan: Taken up to eleven with the CoolCar's combat refit.

* EnemyMine: [[spoiler: Henry and his men [[TheCavalry riding in]] to save the very people who days previously were their captors, and about to execute them in an extremely horrific way.]]

* EvilTwin: Evil Ash is a [[AntiHero worse version]] of the original.

* HighPressureBlood: The poor sap that was thrown into a pit before Ash, which contained a Deadite, was turned into a geyser of blood which erupted to the surface, spraying it everywhere.

--> '''Arthur''': Are all men from the future loud-mouthed braggarts?\\
'''Ash''': Nope. Just me baby. Just me.

* LookBehindYou: Ash plays it straight early to get the drop on Arthur, with the old "your shoe's untied" move. When it's not even clear that Arthur even has shoelaces, no less. PlayedForLaughs when he buries Evil Ash, where he's doing it in part to [[ShutUpHannibal stop Evil Ash's gloating]] and in part [[IShallTauntYou to taunt Evil Ash by pointing out just where he's about to dump some dirt]].

* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: Sword actually. Happens in the ThisIsMyBoomstick scene, when Ash breaks a sword wielded by a knight by shooting it with his gun.

* NippleAndDimed: There's a short, blink-and-you-miss-it moment where a couple of topless slave girls are herded past the camera. It may have been intended as FanService, but the fact that they're being led off to be raped by demonic undead monsters achieves the [[FanDisservice opposite]] effect, underscored by the fact that it happens while [[spoiler: Sheila is being forcibly kissed by the Deadite copy of Ash]].

* RevisedEnding: Filmed originally was an CruelTwistEnding with Ash [[spoiler: waking up in post apocalyptic England after taking too much of a sleeping potion]], which was changed to a PreAssKickingOneLiner filled ending thanks to ExecutiveMeddling.

** At one point Ash calls The Wiseman "Spinach-chin." This is a reference to Film/TheThreeStooges short "Malice In The Palace."

** The Necronomicon was already a shout out to the works of Creator/HPLovecraft, but Ash stumbling over the "n-word" in the spell brings to mind Lovecraft's infamous racism.

* SuddenDownerEnding: This was the main reason for the original ending being changed - while Ash [[spoiler: screwing up the potion and getting trapped in the future]] likely fits his character (and the trilogy as a whole) better, it was considered by executives to be an extremely jarring shift in tone from the rest of the almost purely comedic film.

* TimePassageBeard: Happens to Ash in the deleted alternate ending, [[spoiler: when he "slept too long" and overshot the 20th century.]]

* TookALevelInJerkass: Justified since Ash had [[ButtMonkey gone through hell]] throughout the past two movies. By this point, he’s just done taking everyone’s crap and just wants to go home.

* TheWallsAreClosingIn: The beginning of the film sees Ash thrown into a pit containing a few demons that he has to fight, as well as this particular DeathTrap just to make things more exciting. He escapes by hanging onto the chain powering the closing walls as it moves up.
* WeaponizedCar: See CoolCar above.

* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: the English in 1300 are perfectly capable of understanding Ash's very slangy modern English, and themselves speak modern English peppered with thees and shalts.

* MsFanservice: as the skeleton army assembles we see a couple of scantily clad beautiful woman dragged across the front of the screen. In the DVD commentary Bruce Campbell admits this was simply because producer Robert Tapert wanted "Naked slave girls in chains" in his movie.

* MsFanService: as the skeleton army assembles we see a couple of scantily clad beautiful woman dragged across the front of the screen. In the DVD commentary Bruce Campbell admits this was simply because producer Robert Tapert wanted "Naked slave girls in chains" in his movie.

* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: Ash and Sheila's sex scene is played out as romantically as possible, with a rose-tinted lens, sunset and Ash gently letting Sheila's hair unravel as he gazes into her eyes. Evil Ash just rips Sheila's dress off and forces her to kiss his rotting, mutilated mouth.

** King Arthur is portrayed as a real person who rules England (represented by a single castle) in 1300 AD. King Arthur is a mythical figure who supposedly ruled around 400 to 500 AD, although it's never stated or really even implied that he's supposed to be ''[[Myth/KingArthur that]]'' Arthur.

** The hut Ash spends the night in- where he's attacked by the mini-Ashes- appears to have a modern heating system (at least, there are metal vents for him to hit his head on).

--> '''Deadite Sheila:''' "You found me beautiful once."
--> '''Ash:''' "Honey, you got ''reeaaaal'' ugly."

* BroadStrokes: Everything Ash explained in the opening happened in the [[Film/EvilDead2 last film]], they just didn't happen in the exact ways that the flashback in this one shown.

* ForgingScene: Ash and the villagers building his Armored-hand and supplying weapons to his car. "Groovy".

-->'''Wiseman:''' My Lord, I believe he is the one written of in the Necronomicon. He who is prophesied to fall from the Heavens and deliver us from the terrors of the Deadites.
-->'''Arthur:''' What? That buffoon? Likely he's one of Henry's men. I say to the pit with him!

--> '''Arthur''': Are all men from the future loud-mouthed braggarts?
--> '''Ash''': Nope. Just me baby. Just me.

* DeadlyRotaryFan: Taken UpToEleven with the CoolCar's combat refit.

Noticeably DenserAndWackier and largely LighterAndSofter than the previous two movies, ''Army of Darkness'' eschews the HorrorComedy of previous entries in favor of being an out-and-out slapstick comedy that's relatively tame in content. Due to this making it easier to broadcast on television with minimal edits, as well as being more accessible on home video due to being distributed by a major company, it has become [[SequelDisplacement the most widely seen and recognized]] of the ''Evil Dead'' films. Ironically, it was also a BoxOfficeBomb on its initial theatrical run, compared to the solid commercial success of the first two films.

[[quoteright:300:"''All right, you primitive screwheads! Listen up!''"]]

Noticeably DenserAndWackier and largely LighterAndSofter than the other two movies, ''Army of Darkness'' eschews the HorrorComedy of previous entries in favor of being an out-and-out slapstick comedy that's relatively tame in content. Due to this making it easier to broadcast on television with minimal edits, as well as being more accessible on home video due to being distributed by a major company, have made it [[SequelDisplacement the most widely seen and recognized]] of the ''Evil Dead'' films. Ironically, it was also a BoxOfficeBomb on its initial theatrical run, compared to the solid commercial success of the first two movies.

Noticeably DenserAndWackier and largely LighterAndSofter than the other two movies, ''Army of Darkness'' eschews the HorrorComedy of previous entries in favor of being an out-and-out slapstick comedy that's relatively tame in content. Due to this making it easier to broadcast on television with minimal edits, as well as being distributed by a major company, have made it [[SequelDisplacement the most widely seen and recognized]] of the ''Evil Dead'' films.

Also notorious for its many, many different [[ReCut Re-Cuts]] -at least four are known to exist - some of which had a [[RevisedEnding entirely different]] and [[DownerEnding considerably more depressing]] ending than the theatrical release.