'Army of Darkness' no match for Bruce Campbell

Yesterday, I scratched another Saturn Award winner for Best Horror Movie of my list when I watched the 1993 winner, “Army of Darkness.”

Released in February 1993 and directed by Sam Raimi (Spiderman, Spiderman 2 and Spiderman 3), this horror comedy stars cult movie icon, Bruce Campbell in the lead role of Ash Williams.

“Army of Darkness” is the third movie in the “Evil Dead” series of films, and in this installment, Ash, who works as a clerk at S-Mart, is transported back through time to the Middle Ages, where he must battle an army of the undead to return home to his own time.

There are several interesting bits of trivia about this movie, including a little known cameo appearance by Bridget Fonda as Linda.

Also, during one of the movie’s most memorable scene, Ash must speak a series of magic words before seizing a copy of a book called the Necronomicon, which he must use to travel back to his own time. Even though he makes a mess of saying them, the magic words that Ash is supposed to say is “Clatto Verata Nicto,” which is said to be a reference to “Klaatu, Barada, Nikto,” the words used to control the robot, Gort, in the classic 1951 sci-fi film, “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”

One funny gag in the movie concerns a beat up, 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 car that travels back in time with Ash. The car actually belonged to director Sam Raimi, who included it in a number of his early movies. The contents of the trunk are shown more than a few times, and they were actually what Raimi had in his trunk. An issue of “Fangoria” magazine can be seen in one shot, and in another shot, you can see a copy of “Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special,” which was published in April 1991 and includes the first installment of Frank Miller’s “Sin City.”

In the end, this movie was fun to watch, especially if you know going in that it’s a comedy and not to be taken too seriously. It’s full of a lot of childish gags, so be prepared if you’ve never seen it.

From here, it’s on to the 1994 Saturn Award winner, “The Interview with the Vampire.” Based on the Anne Rice novel, this movie stars Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst, Antonio Banderas and Christian Slater.