Cybersurfing: 7th Voyage on Blu-ray

While surfing around the Internet, I stumbled upon DVD Beaver’s comparison of the various discs of 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD. The fantasy classic, featuring stop-motion monsters by Ray Harryhausen, is available in three different versions: Columbia Tri-Star’s DVD (from 1999), Sony’s 50th anniversary DVD, and Sony’s 50th anniversary Blu-ray (both of which were released last year. Author Gary W. Tooze offers a slew of screen grabs so that you can see the difference in color and framing among the three versions, and he earns extra points for linking approvingly to our article by Lawrence French on the subject of the 50th anniversary release. French’s article contains comments from Harryhausen regarding his preference for working in the standard frame aspect ratio, rather than in widescreen formats – which explains why the 50th anniversary discs have been transferred in a a 1.66 aspect ratio instead of the wider 1.85 ratio of the previous disc (and theatrical presentation.

SUPERNAL DREAMS: CORALINE in 3-D "looks so much better with the glasses!"

As is usual for animated films, CORALINE was completely storyboarded, allowing for a great deal of thought about where the camera should go for each and every one of its approximately 1,500 shots. This careful pre-planning allowed director Henry Selick to come up with some beautiful camera moves (and angles), as well as determine the best way to use 3-D in each shot. The result (to echo Leonard Maltin), is the best use of 3-D I’ve ever seen.
Unfortunately, the majority of past movies that were made in 3-D have been pretty awful. In fact, over the entire history of 3-D, you’d be hard pressed to name more than a dozen really good movies. Some featured exciting action sequences; some had great 3-D effects, but most were very bad, if judged strictly on their merits as movies. As DreamWorks animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg recently noted while promoting his newest 3-D movie, MONSTERS vs. ALIENS, “The one thing 3-D can’t do is make a bad movie into a good movie.”
So CORALINE is a rare double treat, because it works as a very good movie seen in 2-D, but becomes even more spectacular when seen in 3-D! In fact, CORALINE is the first stop-motion animated feature that was actually conceived to be photographed in 3-D. It’s what director Selick calls “a fully immerse three-dimensional movie-going experience,” adding, “The technology of today’s 3-D really can now be called ‘stereoscopic,’ because audiences can now look at things with both eyes as we’re designed to do as human beings anyway. 3-D captures the complete stop-motion world that we, the moviemakers, want to share with our audiences. With CORALINE, we are using 3-D to bring audiences inside the worlds that we create, and convey the energy that our miniature sets exude for real. It’s about that, rather than having gimmicks like things flying off the screen all the time. We do have some of those, but sparingly.”
Indeed, Selick wisely uses the 3-D effects in quite a miserly way. The opening and closing credits give audiences most of the more eye-popping moments, while the movie itself doesn’t use the kind of gimmicks that would merely take the viewer out of  it’s carefully constructed fantasy world.
Cinematographer Pete Kozachik explains that the 3-D moments had to “support the story and were carefully scripted for short bursts, rather than lengthy set pieces. We were advised, ‘It’s more about opening up space, rather than bringing stuff up in your face’.”
To that end, the cinematographer invoked the advice of two of his mentors; Academy Award-winning visual effects artists Dennis Muren (“one shot, one thought”) and Phil Tippett (“what’s the shot about?”).
Since the story of CORALINE involved parallel worlds, an interesting concept that Selick might have been tempted to follow was to use regular 2-D for one world, and have viewers put on their 3-D glasses when Coraline visits the Other World.
However, Selick felt that it would be much more consistent to convey the differences in the two worlds by subtle changes in style. He explains, “In the world that Coraline lives in, we made the sets more claustrophobic. The color is more drained out, since her life should feel flat. When she gets into the Other World, the sets may look similar but we built them deep and more dimensionally. We also tone up the color a bit, and move the camera more. In her real life, the camera is locked down and it’s like a series of drab tableaus. Her real life feels like a stage play. So the Other World feels more ‘real’ to her – and to the audience.”
Of course, CORALINE can and will be shown in 2-D at some theaters, but as Dakota Fanning enthuses, “It looks so much better with the glasses!” And be sure to sit through all of the end credits to see a final burst of amazing 3-D effects “Coming at You!”

See the 26 different CORALINE posters online here.

Coraline – Film Review

CoralineWhether you go through the looking  glass, down the rabbit hole, over the rainbow, or into the labyrinth, you are bound to encounter wonders beyond your imagination, sights and sounds that impress the senses and embed themselves upon the brain with all the enchantment of a beautiful dream, but somewhere in our minds we know that dreams are not real and that if something seems too good to be true, inevitably it is. This is the simple lesson of CORALINE, the amazing new stop-motion film from Henry Selick (director of Tim Burton’s THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS), but like all truisms, the very simplicity lends power to the moral; the old familiarity makes us feel as if we are re-learning something that was known and then forgotten, and in doing so we regain an important part of ourselves that was lost: a little piece of childhood imagination, a renewal of our Sense of Wonder. This is especially true when the lesson is painted in vivid hues that spark the imagination, that take the abstract concept and bring it to life. This is the triumph of CORALINE.
The opening titles perfectly set the tone – both fanciful and grim – as spidery metallic fingers perform surgery on an old doll, retrofitting its appearance for what we will eventually realize is a new victm. Coraline is a bored young girl who has just moved into a new home far from her old city life. Mother and Father are too busy writing a catalogue to pay much attention; fortunately – or so it seems at first – Coraline discovers a small doorway to a parallel world, where everything seems the same, only better. The “other” Mother and Father cook tasty meals instead of boring health food, and the lavish their daughter with love and attention. However, there are ominous hints for those with eyes willing to see – such as the fact that all the alternate characters have buttons instead of eyes. Like Pan’s Labyrinth, this alternate reality offers no real escape; gradually, this dreamworld of bliss and childish fun will transform into a nightmare world of horror, and Coraline will have to take a big step toward adulthood if she hopes to escape.
Typically, modern entertainment aimed at families and children tends to be told from a romanticized adult perspective that glosses over the emotional traumas of childhood. CORALINE, like the best fairy tales, dives right into the deep end of the dark pool, drowning its audience in uncanny images guaranteed to send a shiver down the spine: a cat crunching on a cute mouse (that turns out to be a rat in disguise) or the “Other Mother’s” eyes being clawed from her face. The sense of childish vulnerability in the face of unbridled malevolence lends CORALINE all the shuddery effectiveness of a horror movie; in fact, it would be no exaggeration to say that this is, in fact, as good as or better than any horror film we have seen so far this year.
The little joke embedded in the storyline is that the traditional figure of the Wicked Step-Mother is blurred and doubled. Coraline’s real Mother conforms to the stereotype, neglecting the girl, refusing to purchase finery for her, smf speaking in harsh reprimands that ignore the child’s need for affection. The Other Mother at first seems to be the “Good Mother,” the one who will supply all of Coraline’s childish needs. But this Goodness is really an illusion – or rather a mistake in perception. Like all selfish children, Coraline defines Good in terms of what is good for her, ignoring that there is a price to pay and that the well being of others must also be taken into account.

Coraline is indifferent to the plight of the mute Wybie.

This first becomes apparent in the figure of Corline’s annoying neighbor, Wybie, who in the Alternate World has been permanently silenced by the Other Mother. Coraline’s concern is at best fleeting – she hopes the process didn’t hurt – but by the end of the tale she will have reached a point where, even when her own safety seems assured, she will put herself at risk to aid others. Like Peter Pan, she has (figuratively) flown away from home, looking for something better; also like Peter, she comes to regret her decision and flies eagerly back to the safety of the nest, only to find the safety gone. In Peter’ case, he was locked out, his parents having moved on; in Coraline’s case, her parents are gone, forcing her to rescue them (along with a trio of the Other Mother’s previous childhood victims).
Fortunately, Coraline has an ally or two. Besides Wybie, there is a feral feline, identified simply as Cat in the credits, who speaks in the Alternate World, doling out useful advice, and who also joins the fray at a crucial juncture. Whether intentional or not, the cat seems like the next step in evolution from the stop-motion kitty first glimpsed in Tim Burton’s short “Vincent” before reappearing in the Burton-Selick collaboration NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS; a similar cat also showed up in Burton’s CORPSE BRIDE.
At last, the cameo kitty has been given a major supporting role. There is something special and amazing about animals in a fantasy context, their familiar behaviors at once recognizable and also transformed into something more human, and without overdoing it, Selick plays up the Cat for all its worth, celebrating the importance of a friend in need without sugar-coating the relationship. Late in the film, the Cat tries to block Coraline from taking a risk and she all but kicks it out of the way – not out of cruelty but because she is past the point where her own personal safety is paramount to her. It is a moment that hurts emotionally, even while we understand why it happened.
This kind of sophistication is laced throughout the film, which  is filled with unpleasant but understandable actions that imbue the characters with a fallible humanity. Especially Coraline’s Mother and Father make mistakes, but we know they are not bad people; they are simply under a deadline that forces them to be abrupt, even curt, with her. This unvarnished view of the worl, seen through a child’s eyes,  is a big part of what makes CORALINE special – and also helps distinction Selick’s work from that of Tim Burton.
In Burton’s films, the bizarre and the strange seldom have much genuine menace to them; for example, Halloween Town is an whimsical place, where the residents proclaim that scaring people is their job but “we’re not mean.” CORALINE has a bit more of a jagged, unpleasant edge to it; with it Selick succeeds at crafting a film that successfully stirs darker themes into what might have been a simple fantasy (an effort at which he failed in MONKEYBONE).
The voice cast is excellent, especially Keith David as Cat. Terri Hatcher does a fine job  at delineating the different and overlapping aspects of both “Mother” and the “Other Mother.” The look and feel of the stop-motion animation – an old-fashioned technique polished to perfection here – is easily the equal of any computer-generated imagery; it perfectly suits the story, capturing the bizarre and horrifying elements while rendering them in terms appropriate for a fairy tale. And a special mention must go to the music by Bruno Coulais; often sounding like a haunting lullaby, it captures both childish innocence and and underling sense of the sinister.
The film is not perfect. Too often the pace is slack, especially in the early scenes. In attempting to portray Coraline’s boredom, Selick comes dangerously close to boring the audience. Fortunately, interest accelerates after Coraline discovers the Other World, but even then some of the highlights are so high that the intervening moments seem like let-downs. This occasional unevenness seems to be a result of trying too hard to lay the foundation and follow through carefully on all the plot points, when the film’s real strength lies in its darkly demented fairy tale trappings. This is a film where dream-logic should prevail, not a strict adherence to Dramatic Structure 101, but on the other hand, the careful approach allows us to engage fully with Corline as a character, ensuring that the film is as moving emotionally as it is beautiful visually.
It has been a rocky road for Henry Selick since NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. After that early promise, JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH and MONKEYBONE suggested Selick might turn out to be a one-shot wonder. CORALINE puts that concern safely to rest. Like the best movies allegedly aimed at children, it reminds adults that childhood is a time not only of fascination but also of fear -even if those fears are only of shadows and of nightmares rather than real danger.  Eventually we overcome that fear, but its echo lingers deep in our memory. Somewhere inside us, our child-self still lives, but it cannot be summoned with only sugar and sunlight, which feels too much like a comforting lie. CORLINE mixes the dark and the light in the perfect amounts; the result is all the sweeter for having dared to tread the bitter path of childhood fears and uncertainties that led us all to adulthood.
Coralines Other Mother turns out not to be so nice.
Coraline's "Other Mother" turns out not to be so nice.

CORALINE(2009). Written for the screen and directed by Henry Selick, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. Voices: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, John Hodgman, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Keith David, Robert Bailey Jr, Ian McShane.

Monkeybone (2001) – DVD Review

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Having launched his career with the weird and intriguing MTV short subject “Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions” (the first of what was supposd to be several episodes that, never, alas materialized), Henry Selick followed up by directing one of the most charming fantasy entertainments ever created for the screen, Tim Burton’s THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993). Selick not only evinced a formidable technical expertise, employing stop-motion and other effects to create images at once bizarre and beautiful; he also showed a seemingly sure hand for employing that expertise in the service of the greater good: creating a film that worked as a whole, not just a series of set pieces. He seemed to be a major new talent in the field of cinefantastique.
Unfortunately, Selick’s next directorial outing was a severe disappointment: JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH (1996) displayed the same impressive technical accomplishment, but the movie was an unengaging technical tour-de-force that prompted CFQ’s Dan Persons to note that looks “can only go so far” while criticizing the “formless story” and “flat characterizations.” 2001’s MONKEYBONE continued Selick’s downward career trajectory; not merely a disappointment, the film is a complete disaster that bombed with both audiences ($7.6-million worldwide gross on a $75-million budget) and with critics (20% approval at Rotten Tomatoes).
The terrible ticket sales prompted a typical round of the Blame Game, with filmmakers anonymously pointing fingers at 20th Century Fox for not supporting the film’s release, but even a casual glance at MONKEYBONE reveals serious flaws that rendered potential success virtually impossible. In a nutshell, Selick and company attempt to delve into darker, more adult territory, but they operate with all the sophistication of an immature kiddie flick, resulting in a film that appeals to neither parents nor their children.
The tone is set immediately in an animated prologue that depicts grade school student Stu Miley becoming sexually aroused by his overweight teacher’s flabby arms. Obviously intended as a comical scene about sex, the scene is neither funny nor sexy, prompting neither laughter nor arousal but only disgust. As a plot point, the sequence serves its function (Stu’s arousal led to the creation of a cartoon character named Monkeybone, representing his id), but the entertainment value is virtually zero.
The remainder of the film operates on the same level, serving up a series of scenes that are dull or uninteresting when they are not simply mildly repugnant. Stu (Brendan Fraser) is a successful cartoonist who winds up in a coma just as his Monkeybone character is being launched in a new animated series. His soul ends up in Dark Town, which is populated by a variety of bizarre characters, including Monkeybone, who manages to catch a ride back to the real world, where he inhabits Stu’s body, putting the moves on Dr. Julie McElroy (Bridget Fonda). Stu eventually manages to get back to Earth, occupying the body of a dead gymnast (Chris Kattan) and sending Monkeybone back to Dark Town.
All of these scenes roll on without any rhythm and with no consideration for whether or not they are working. No one involved with the film seems to have considered the fact that there is nothing funy about seeing Monkeybone possess Stu’s body and attempt to seduce Stu’s fiancee; the very concept is repulsive. That Fraser plays the scene by acting like a monkey (which Monkeybone himself seldom if ever does) only makes it worse. The gymnast sequences may have been funny out of context, but this late in the film they come across as desperate attempts to enliven a moribund film.
There is also an unnecessary plot complication: Julie is a sleep expert, whose experiments will create nightmares; Hypnos (Giancarlo Esposito) wants the formula to revitzlied Dark Town, so he double-crosses Stu, helping Monkeybone escape from Dark Town in his place. This takes up screen time but adds nothing vital to the story. Monkeybone is the kind of character who should act alone, on impulse, not as part of some conspiracy.
Rose McGowan goes feral as Miss Kitty.
Rose McGowan goes feral as Miss Kitty.

The film throws so much at the audience that, inevitably, a few entertaining moments do stick, but they are few and far between. Miss Kitty (Rose McGowan) registers mostly as a teen-age boy’s fantasy – female sex appeal outfitted with a few feline accoutrement’s – but his sudden transition into feral ferocity (killing a guard to help Stu escape from Dark Town) is the one moment when the film’s attempt to twist its colorful imagery into something dark and twisted actually works.
Monkeybone may have had the potential to be a memorably off-the-wall character in the manner of other unleashed maniacs (think of THE MASK or Buddy Love in THE NUTTY PROFESSOR), but he is only obnoxious. Characters of this type usually intrigue because we are invited to enjoy their antics even as we disapprove of them, but nothing about Monkeybone is enjoyable. The rest of the characters are little better. Although we sympathize with Stu’s situation, he does not register much as a personality, and Bridget Fonda’s fressh-faced appeal is the only good thing about Julie.
The sets and special effects do provide some interesting sights, but they can be enjoyed far more easily in the trailer. Having created the potentially fascinating world of Dark Town on screen, Selick and screenwriter Sam Hamm simply have not managed to tell an interesting story in that setting. The problem is not that their approach was too adult for audiences expecting a family-friendly fantasy; it is that their “adult” approach displays a sad lack of maturity.

 DVD DETAILS

The special edition DVD presents the film with solid technical credentials, including a good image transfer and a 5.1 mix in both DTS and Dolby Digital. Extras include a photo gallery, a trailer, TV spots, 7 animation studies, 11 deleted scenes, and an audio commentary.
The “animation studies” show early rough versions of the effects sequences, accompanied by optional commentary from Selick, providing some insight into how these scenes are put together.
Ten of the eleven deleted scenes feature optional commentary by Selick. Mostly these are extended scenes rather than totally new material. In fact, considering the rumors that circulated about last-minute re-editing after disastrous preview screenings, it is surprising how relatively insignificant the additional footage is – no more than one would expect from the usual trimming for time. They offer no indication that the film underwent major surgery and only serve to remind us that, as poorly paced as the movie is, it could have been even worse.
Henry Selick’s audio commentary is the most interesting bonus feature. He provides plenty of information about how the special effects were achieved, along with behind-the-scenes stories about working on the film. Unfortunately, Selick seldom comes to grips with what is wrong with MONKEYBONE. He explains away the bad reception by suggesting the film was too sophisticated and adult (unlike the pure simplicity of Tim Burton’s work). The one notable exception comes when he admits to some reservations about the sub-plot involving Julie’s sleep experiments. Even with this caveat, Selick’s commentary is informative and entertaining enough to make it worth your while to sit through MONKEYBONE again, whether or not you liked it the first time.
MONKEYBONE (2001). Directed by Henry Selick. Screenplay by Sam Hamm, based on the graphic novel Dark Townby Kaja Blackley. Cast: Brendan Fraser, Bridget Fonda, John Turturro, Chris Kattan, Giancarlo Esposito, Rose McGowan, Dave Foley, Megan Mullally, Lisa Zane, Whoopi Goldberg.

Charles Schneer: Another Look at a Shadowed Icon

An affection tribute to one-half of the team that brought some of the movies’ most memorable monsters to life

Jason and the Argonauts

“Some people say Casablanca or Citizen Kane. I say Jason and the Argonauts is the greatest film ever made.”

Tom Hanks affectionately spoke these words while on stage at the 1992 Academy Awards ceremony for science and technology. It seemed fitting for him to be there and to speak as he did. After all, it was that film and the people behind it which made him want to become an actor.
Although the popular main figure behind the iconic piece of cinema was Ray Harryhausen, and the person for whom Mr. Hanks was at the ceremony to honor, there was another person heavily involved in its production, someone who was with Ray practically from the beginning of some highly influential motion picture history. He was Charles H. Schneer. His may not be a household name, but the films he made with Harryhausen stirred the imaginations of at least three generations and ignited a passionate flame within innumerable young souls – souls who would move and shake the visual effects industry.
That half of a salient team passed away in Boca Raton, Florida on January 21, 2009. He was 88. Together, Schneer and Harryhausen (who were born the same year) took millions of viewers on voyages of wondrous, dreamy imagination. With them, youngsters around the world fought giant bronze Titans, seven headed Hydras, one-eyed Cyclopes, Medusa, and even a horde of skeletons! They were practically inseparable in their work and one wonders, without each one would there have been a complete other?

A Ray Harryhausen sketch for 7th Voyage of Sinbad
A Ray Harryhausen sketch for 7th Voyage of Sinbad

At the time the potential production of one of their most successful and most fondly remembered films, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, came along Schneer and Harryhausen had already worked together thrice before. All three low-budget films had turned tidy profits, but even with these recent successes under his belt, Harryhausen’s Arabian Nights pet project was turned down by several studios. But in stepped an interested party: Charles Schneer. “Ray had done these absolutely splendid charcoal drawings,” said the producer. “I thought they were the most unusual visuals I’d ever seen. I was swept off my feet by the images they conjured up. But all Ray had were these spectacular drawings. He didn’t have a story. So I hired a writer named Kenneth Kolb, and together we built a story line around Ray’s drawings.”
It was also at this time that Schneer—in a clever turn of showmanship—coined the term ‘Dynamation,’ (later also known as ‘Dynarama’) partially to separate in the mind of the public Harryhausen’s unique work style from other forms of animation. “The ‘mation’ suffix comes from ‘animation,’ of course,” Schneer reminisced. “I knew it needed something to go with it.’Dyna’ came from a Buick I once owned, which had the word ‘Dynaflow’ printed on the dashboard. The term ‘Dynamation’ had never been used before, so I immediately patented it. That’s one word we put into the film business.”
You might say that in a sense, Schneer was a modest-budget George Lucas to Harryhausen’s Steven Spielberg. Both men were deeply involved in all aspects of their films. Schneer provided the means, the support, and extra inspiration, while Harryhausen provided much of the creative elements. They made a well matched team—one needed the other in order to create a cohesive and successful whole—and it remains a bit confusing as to why Schneer is a mere and minor afterthought. He is little known for his efforts or his loyalty to the genre he helped propel forward. There is something very sad in that.
It Came from Beneath the Sea
It Came from Beneath the Sea

Mr. Schneer sole-produced his first film in 1955 (under the Columbia Pictures banner, for which he worked). Rather prophetically, it was the first of the aforementioned films, It Came from Beneath the Sea and would be a Harryhausen effort. A year later both men teamed up a second time on the rather unique and gutsy effects endeavor, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. And in the next year they sent a Venusian creature on a trip that would be 20 Million Miles to Earth.
But something different had occurred in relation the production of 20 Million Miles to Earth.   Schneer had decided to go solo as a producer and moved away from Columbia Pictures and his long-time boss and mentor of sorts, producer Sam Katzman, to set up his own production company called Morningside Pictures. This move would come to allow Schneer and Harryhausen a sense of autonomy concerning their films.
Interestingly, though, Harryhausen didn’t immediately think of Schneer when he was finding himself in a state of rejection time and again whilst trying to get his Sinbad project off the ground. But while all that was going on Schneer had made an advantageous arrangement with Columbia that allowed him deeper access to the studio’s costumes and sets and generally gave him a bit more money and material with which to work. The planets must have been aligning just right, for it was about at this time that Harryhausen’s project came across his desk. With Schneer’s immediate interest in it, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad became the fourth Schneer/Harryhausen collaboration. And with that, it seems an historic film union had been decreed unbreakable by the film Gods.
The duo wound up making no less than 12 movies together. Schneer produced nearly all of Harryhausen’s work, except for Animal World (which actually came not long after It Came from Beneath the Sea and was an early Irwin Allen production that wound up landing on the ash heap of history) and Hammer Films’ One Million Years B.C. (that film was as famous for what Rachel Welch’s costume did for her fame as for anything Harryhausen did).
The two men understood each other, worked well together, and from that time on they would be nearly inseparable partners. They would go on to create eight more projects together: some that were held dear to fans (Mysterious Island, The Valley of Gwangi), and some that were bitter disappointments (Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger – though less due to Harryhausen’s work than to the horrendous storyline and overall execution).
Jason and the Argonauts

It was in 1962 that the two would make what is considered their genre masterpiece, Jason and the Argonauts (originally titled “Jason and the Golden Fleece”). And for the first time Harryhausen asked for an official associate producer credit. This had much to do with the fact that the project was an original idea of Harryhausen’s and he was crucial to the design and execution of the picture. Schneer was more than willing to give him the title, saying later, “Actually, it was long overdue. Ray asked for that credit, and I had no problem with it. If he wanted it, he could have it.” Harryhausen would also be credited as associate producer for First Men in the Moon and The Valley of Gwangi; on all of their subsequent projects together he would receive equal billing as producer.
Harryhausen had a wonderful talent and was able to work in a disciplined fashion, but that in itself was not enough to ensure a successful career in his area of expertise. Demonstrative of this are the likes of the great American pioneer of stop-motion animation, Willis O’Brien (whose 1933 King Kong is one of the most admired and successful films of all time), and individuals like Art Clokey (who did find success on the small screen with the simple settings of the low-budgeted Gumby series), Peter Kleinow (who worked with Clokey for a time), Jim Danforth (who has kept busy over the years, but still seems to be known for his work on the soft-porn sci-fi spoof, Flesh Gordon) and David Allen (also known partially for his work on Gordon, in addition to the prehistoric dino-spoof Caveman). Talented men all, but none had a strong producer and supporter like Charles Schneer to fully propel their work into the public consciousness.
Allen, for example had a project that he’d been trying to get off the ground for years. Finally, in 1978 he began production on it with producer Charles Band. The film was the subject of a cover story in Cinefantastique Magazine that year, but despite the interest, the production was shut down. Examples like this are why the importance of Schneer’s contribution to Harryhausen’s success, as well as the fantasy & science fiction film genre, and film history itself, should not be undermined. He was a man who had illusory prowess, like his partner, and he knew his business.
Producer Paul Maslansky (Damnation Alley, Return to Oz, the Police Academy films,), who began his career with Schneer, once said of the seasoned producer, “Charlie was very particular about things. He was from the old Harry Cohen tradition; though much nicer, from what I hear about Cohen. His methods often weren’t exactly the way mine would be, but the biggest lesson I learned from Charlie was being tenacious, persistent. His brief was to make movies economically. If he got ‘No’ for an answer, he’d find another way of asking the question. That first price you get from someone is not necessarily the best price. You negotiate with technicians, with actors, everyone. Negotiate with strength, to find a better price, then hold up your end of the bargain. He taught me to be specific, not vague. Have facts and figures to back up your pitch. Don’t just say, ‘Oh, I think we’d need about six weeks to make this picture.’ Never be abstract. Have everything broken down; figures and boards, and say, exactly, ‘Here’s our schedule. We need precisely this much money and this much time.’” Schneer was a man who could make things happen in a tough industry—and he could do so on affordable budgets. It was why he was able to continue making fantasy films while the efforts of many others stalled.
Clash of the Titans

Schneer produced several films unrelated to Harryhausen over his near three-decade long career (Half a Sixpence, Good Day for a Hanging, Hellcats of the Navy – with future president, Ronald Reagan), but it seems fitting that 1981’s Clash of the Titans would be his—and, up to now, Harryhausen’s—last film. Both men essentially retired after that (though Harryhausen is reported to be serving as a producer for an old Merion C. Cooper story, titled War Eagles, set for a 2010 release). Titans was one of Schneer’s most ambitious projects, attracting some of the most respected actors in film, with Sir Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Burgess Meredith and Claire Bloom among them. A remake of the film is currently in progress, with a screenplay penned by Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark).
Mr. Schneer truly was a pioneering and visionary producer within the fantasy & science fiction genre. Harryhausen understood this better than anyone, writing in the preface of his book with film historian & archivist Tony Dalton, Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life, that Schneer was the “the unsung hero” of their films and Harryhausen’s own career. “He is a man I respect immensely. …He would supply the practical element, backed up with copious amounts of memos, and always knew what would work and what wouldn’t,” wrote Harryhausen. “Without his help and foresight, much of what we planned together would not have seen the light of day. …Thank you, Charles.”
The projects he and Harryhausen generated together inspired many of cinema’s greatest artisans: George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett, Rick Baker, John Dykstra Richard Taylor and, yes, Tom Hanks, to name just a few. These individuals are giants in their fields, and Schneer had a noteworthy, albeit indirect, hand in that. He has essentially been relegated to two-sentence footnotes in film history; however, he deserves far more recognition for what he helped make possible. And though Charles H. Schneer has largely remained a man in shadows, he is an important part of cinematic annals and someone of whom we should take note. I, for one, will miss his presence on this little dust ball of ours.
Filmography of producer Charles H. Schneer

  • Clash of the Titans (1981)
  • Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)
  • The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974)
  • The Executioner (1970)
  • Land Raiders (1969)
  • The Valley of Gwangi (1969)
  • Half a Sixpence (1967)
  • You Must Be Joking! (1965)
  • First Men in the Moon (1964)
  • East of Sudan (1964, executive producer – uncredited)
  • Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
  • Siege of the Saxons (1963 – uncredited)
  • Mysterious Island (1961)
  • Wernher von Braun (a.k.a., I Aim at the Stars – 1960)
  • The Three Worlds of Gulliver (1960)
  • Good Day for a Hanging (1959)
  • Face of a Fugitive (1959 – executive producer)
  • Battle of the Coral Sea (1959)
  • The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
  • The Case Against Brooklyn (1958)
  • Tarawa Beachhead (1958)
  • 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)
  • Hellcats of the Navy (1957)
  • Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)
  • It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955)
  • The 49th Man (1953 – associate producer)

Note: Ted Newsom kindly offered some statistical information in relation to this article.

Supernal Dreams: Enter the enchanted world of CORALINE

Henry Selick’s film of Neil Gaiman’s book ranks alongside the classics of fantasy filmmaking


10 years ago, in February, 1999, Cinefantastique celebrated the 100th anniversary of stop-motion with the publication of a special double issue. At the time, it looked very much like stop-motion might be poised to go the way of the dinosaur, as CGI threatened to make it obsolete as a viable movie form. However, director Henry Selick never stopped believing that stop-motion was still the best way to make certain animated movies. Now, 10 years on, Selick has proved his point most spectacularly with an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s book CORALINE.
Selick and his cadre of talented animators (Anthony Scott, Travis Knight, Trey Thomas and Eric Leighton) have toiled away for four long years, and the result has to be considered (to borrow an ad line from THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD), “nothing less than a miracle in motion pictures!” Indeed, I’m sure that CORALINE will thrill all stop-motion aficionados to their bones. One reason for this, no doubt, is that Henry Selick has managed to make the film so appealing to all ages. When, for instance, was the last time you heard a lengthy quote from Shakespeare in an animated film? As a result, I daresay CORALINE can rank alongside such classics of fantasy filmmaking as Jean Cocteau’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and Alexander Korda’s THE THIEF OF BAGDAD.
So special thanks for this success must go to all of the studio executives at Focus Features, along with producer Bill Mechanic, for shepherding such a time-consuming project to it’s successful fruition. Unfortunately, these days there simply aren’t that many producers like the late Charles H. Schneer, who can guide a stop-motion picture to completion.
Below are some of director Henry Selick’s comments about the film (from the press notes), along with excerpts from my interview with Mr. Selick, taken from CFQ’s special stop-motion issue.

What a piece of work is Man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

—Shakespearian actresses Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, while performing in a theater for 248 Scottish Terriers and Coraline.



HENRY SELICK: When I first read Neil’s manuscript, I was struck by the juxtaposition of worlds; the one we all live in, and the one where the grass is always greener. This is something that everyone can relate to. Like Stephen King, Neil sets fantasy in modern times, in our own lives. He splits open ordinary existence and finds magic.
Coraline is very appealing to me, and I hope that she will be very appealing to children seeing the movie for a variety of reasons. She’s brave and imaginative and has got an overwhelming curiosity; if she sees something interesting, then she has to know about it. I loved that her ‘grass is always greener’ scenario turns out to be scary. When Coraline – an ordinary girl – faces real evil and triumphs, it really means something, as Neil has said.
Neil invites the reader in to participate in Coraline’s adventure, and I wanted to do the same for the moviegoer. This was an ideal opportunity to take all I know about storytelling through animation, bringing those tools to bear on a story with a strong lead character. Neil was there with help and advice right from the start, yet was not overly precious with his book and would step away when I needed to focus. You want to honor the important parts of a book in adapting it, but you also have to invent and change as well.
LAWRENCE FRENCH: John Lasseter was telling me that one of the things he has discovered is that people are inherently fascinated with the idea of miniature worlds. Whether it’s in CGI, stop-motion or in model railroads and cars.
HENRY SELICK: That’s probably what drew me into stop-motion, after having been a 2-D animator first, and having come to stop-motion from that tradition. I can’t get around the fact that you actually see the world in front of you, three dimensionally, lit, with the puppet there on the set. It may not be moving, but you know it’s going to be brought to life in the camera. I love that tactile, touchable realness of the miniature world. It’s something you can never get with drawn or computer animation. I’ve always loved Ray Harryhausen’s work, George Pal and later on Starewicz. I’d always loved it, but I didn’t really know how to do it, so I gradually shifted from one form to the other.
LAWRENCE FRENCH: Besides Starewicz, you also like a lot of the eastern European animators, don’t you?
HENRY SELICK: Yes, I love Jan Svanjkmajer, who did FAUST, and CONSPIRATORS OF PLEASURE, that’s quite a brilliant piece of work. It’s 90% live action and incredibly entertaining, and he uses stop-motion in a very powerful way for the climax. He’s one of my all time heroes. The ideas behind the animation in his films are always really powerful. He’s the inspiration for the Quay brothers. And in Jiri Trinka’s film, THE HAND, he has a really free spirited character.
LAWRENCE FRENCH: How do you define good stop-motion characters?

HENRY SELICK
: That’s hard to say. For me, I’d say the more stylized or simplified way you go, combined with really believable acting. That’s where you find the best characters developing. The way the puppet moves has to make it really seem to be alive, depending on both the design and how well it’s lit. But I’ve never really gone for realism. I’ve never had the job of doing realistic effects for a film.
LAWRENCE FRENCH: Are you committed to stop-motion over the long haul, depite the rise of CGI?
HENRY SELICK: Yes, I love stop-motion, so I’m pursing projects in stop-motion. I’ve talked to people about them, but it’s got to be the right story and done economically, so it can continue to be commercially viable. Also, now with the help of video cameras, and computers, it’s easy to do stop-motion on your own. I have a 13-year old nephew who has a camera with single frame capability, and he’s making movies. He goes from live action to animated figures, and edits in the camera. It’s so simple. You can animate aluminum foil, blobs of clay, G.I. Joe dolls, anything! So I always think there’s going to be some kid doing stop-motion, it’s so accessible and low-budget. Over the years, most of what has been done in stop-motion is pretty awful. Not just a little bit bad, but usually very bad, and that really bothers me. When that gets out, it can really hurt the reputation of stop-motion. We are in this era of BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD where animation is the last thing on the list of what’s important to those shows. I’m committed to it, but I’ll have to take it a step at a time. I also need to do what I need to do to survive. I almost feel that Phil Tippett, in his heart, still is dedicated to stop-motion, but he’s also not foolish, so he’s going to do what he has to do, to continue making his brilliant special effects.
LAWRENCE FRENCH: Phil Tippett told me that his argument for using stop-motion was you would get the input of one animator in creating a character.
HENRY SELICK: Yes, that’s right, because very often one animator could do the entire scene. You cast the animators, just as you’d cast actors. Sometimes according to characters, or sometimes according to the scene. Trey Thomas, who is a kind of motorcycle guy, ended up doing a lot of the most delicate female animation to Sally in THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Josephine Haung did the most gorgeous close-ups of James face, in JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH.

Obituary: Charles H. Schneer, producer of 7th Voyage of Sinbad

7th Voyage of Sinbad, produced by Charles H. Schneer
7th Voyage of Sinbad, produced by Charles H. Schneer

Charles H. Schneer – the producer of 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD and numerous other science fiction and fantasy films – passed away on January 21, at the age of 88.
Schneer’s filmography includes over twenty-five titles, but he will be most remembered for the twelve movies he produced for stop-motion maestro Ray Harryhausen, including EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS, FIRST MEN IN THE MOON, and their last and biggest collaboration, CLASH OF THE TITANS.
The Schneer-Harryhausen collaboration began in the 1950s, during the era of cinematic sci-fi devoted to alien invasions, giant bugs, mutated monsters, and radioactive dinosaurs. Harryhausen had apprenticed under effects pioneer Willis O’Brien (KING KONG) on 1948’s MIGHTY JOE YOUNG at a time when stop-motion effects (a time-consuming process) were the province of big-budget studio pictures. When the bottom dropped out of the market after the relatively poor showing of MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, Harryhausen adapted his techniques for low-budget films, starting with THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953) for producer Jack Deitz.
Schneer, who was developing IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA (1954) at Columbia, hired Harryhausen to supply the film’s giant octopus – which, famously, had only six tentacles, due to budget reasons. The success of that film led to two subsequent black-and-white sci-fi films, including 1957’s 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (about a creature from Venus that hitches a ride to Earth on a space probe) .
Schneer convinced Harryhausen to work his movie magic in color. Shifting from sci-fi to fantasy, Schneer and Harryhausen created 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD, one of the most beloved fantasy films ever. This led to subsequent efforts like 3 WORLDS OF GULLIVER and JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, the latter being one of their most highly regarded efforts. Eventually, two SINBAD sequels were produced, 1974’s GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD and 1977’s SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER.
An allosaurs is roped like a steer.
The allosaurs in VALLEY OF GWANGI.

Along the way, Schneer and Harryhausen returned to a contemporary setting one last time for THE VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969), about a dinosaur discovered alive in an isolated valley. The storyline had been developed years earlier by Harryhausen’s mentor, O’Brien, but like many of O’Brien’s dream projects, it never came to life. Thanks to Schneer’s efforts as a producer, Harryhausen was able to succeed where O’Brien had not.
The films that Schneer produced for Harryhausen were modestly budgeted, peopled with reliable character actors rather than big name stars. Critics complained that the scripts short-changed plot and characterization in favor of monster set-pieces, but many of the films stand up better than expected on subsequent viewings, thanks to the light-hearted family-friendly tone that makes the monster-mayhem enjoyable fun instead of terrifyingly traumatic.
CLASH OF THE TITANS (which, like JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, was based on Greek mythology) was the one opportunity for Schneer and Harryhausen to work with an A-list cast, including Laurence Olivier. Rather more elaborate than their earlier efforts, CLASH suffered somewhat from being released in the post-STAR WARS era when special effects and audience sophistication had shifted. Nevertheless, the film was a grand affair that did solid box office, providing a perfect coda for their long collaboration.
Harryausen is the figure beloved by fans, because he supplied the amazing movie monsters that were the films’ true stars, but Schneerwas responsible for getting the films made. During an era when fantasy and science fiction were low-budget affairs that typically relied on man-in-a-suit effects, when studios were loath to finance Harryhausen’s more intricate stop-motion magic, Schneer produced a series of stop-motion films whose colorful effects and lovely location work often overcame their limited resources, turning them into mini-classics.
Schneer’s importance to the genre is perhaps best illustrated by comparing Harryhausen with his mentor O’Brien, whose career after MIGHTY JOE YOUNG consisted of providing effects for a handful of low-budget titles (e.g. THE BLACK SCORPION, THE GIANT BEHEMOTH). Harryhausen could easily have devolved down a similar path – a technician for hire, supplying special effects for other people’s movies. Instead; instead, Schneer turned Harryhausen into a virtual star, enabling him to develop his own projects, specifically designed to showcase his unique brand of movie magic. 
For that, all fans with a Sense of Wonder should be truly grateful.

Coraline trailer

CORALINE is the upcoming stop-motion fantasy film from Henry Selick, director of the uber-wonderful Tim Burton’s THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Selick’s follow-ups, JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH and MONKEYBONE, have come nowhere near matching that initial blaze of glory; fortunately, this time out he is working from a piece of source material by Neil Gaiman, about a young girl who finds a mysterious door in her home that leads to a parallel world. Originally slated for December 2008, the release date has been pushed back to February 6, 2009.

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride

Tim Burton’s second stop-motion feature film bears some obvious similarities to THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, but it has almost as much in common with BEETLEJUICE (not to mention touches of EDWARD SCISSORHANDS and the excellent short subject VINCENT). Not only does the story involve a “newly-dead” couple in a bizarre afterlife, populated by characters whose appearance betrays comically obvious evidence of how they departed the land of the living, there is also a BEETLEJUICE-type of manic energy — a sense of imagination run riot that makes the film always worth watching, even when the story loses traction.
As a technical achievement, CORPSE BRIDE goes far beyond NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. The stop-motion work is breath-taking in its ability to imbue life into the characters; the expressive capability of the armature puppets puts the vast majority of computer-generated animation to shame (even Pixar, the king of all things CGI, has never made human characters half this impressive).
Moreover, the film is stylistic tour-de-force of amazing camera angles and intricately choreogrpahed movements. There is no proscenium arch staging here; scenes play out in dynamic fashion that makes the action come alive, and the fabulously detailed sets and costumes create a world far more vivid and three-dimensional than scene in any other form of animation.
And in a welcome departure from the SHREK films, CORPSE BRIDE is not afraid to wear its heart on its sleeve. There is plenty of humor but none of the knowing, almost condescending winking to the audience that says, “We all know this is fairytale nonsense, so let’s just smirk and have a ball.”
At the center of its story is the titular, tragic character (voiced by Helena Bonham Carter) who was murdered while waiting for her fiance to elope with her. In Victor (Johnny Depp), she finds a replacement, but like Sally in NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS she has trouble making him appreciate her charms (there are other similarities, such as her detachable limbs, which work independently).
Unfortunately, once the premise is set up, the film doesn’t seem to know quite what to do with it; it’s almost as if the script couldn’t figure out what story to tell. The initial idea seems to be that Victor is being forced into an arranged marriage with a live woman named Victoria; the monochromatic look of of the land of the living makes this prospect resemble an extremely unpleasant living death. The passionate love of the Corpse Bride, coupled with the (literally) colorful characters in the world of the dead, makes marriage to her seem far more appealing, but the film fails to follow through on this idea.
The basic problem seems to be a failure of nerve. The Corpse Bride, whose name is Emily, is obviously fashioned convey a ghoulishly erotic allure, with her beguiling eyes, thin waist and half-exposed breasts (even the lack of flesh on some of her bones only emphasizes how slim her figure is). Yet the film shies away from the implications. Although inspired by a Russian folktale, the story is pure Victorian Gothic in its ambience, an essential requirement of which was always that the heroes and heroines be so pure and virtuous that they were often insufferably dull as well. Contrasted with these lifeless characters was the darkly hypnotic dynamism of the villains/monsters (think of Erik in PHANTOM OF THE OPERA or the Count in DRACULA). Of course, virtue always won out in the end, but the element that made the stories truly interesting was the flirtation with the dark side.
From Tim Burton, we expect a little bit more than flirtation. Like David Lynch (but with much more colorful approach and commercial appeal), Burton is a director who views the bizarre and the macabre not with disgust but with eager fascination. His “monsters” (with a few exceptions) are usually demented artists and outsiders, yearning for love and acceptance, who only seem monstrous when viewed through a lens of ignorance and misunderstanding. Emily fits this mold to perfection, and it would have been dramatically satisfying to portray the process by which Victor overcomes his initial alarm and learns to embrace love from beyond the grave, turning his back on conventional normality in favor of something new and exciting.
Alas, it is not to be. Instead, Victor falls in love with Victoria, his living fiance on first sight; consequently, Emily is reduced to being a fly in the ointment, an impediment on the way to this happy marriage to a living bride. This story could have worked too, if Emily had been a genuine threat, a monstrous succubus from beyond the grave, tempting Victor away from marital bliss in favor of a lust-filled damnation, but the character is too sad and tragic to fill the role of monster.
Instead, the plot turns into Victor’s quandary about being forced to disappoint one of the women who loves him. In a way, the situation is not that different from the third act of of the Japanese classic UGETSU, in which a wayward husband finds himself enthalled by a beguiling female ghost. The difference is that Kenji Mizoguchi’s 1953 classic is a 94-minute, adult-themed film that benefited from its complexity — but CORPSE BRIDE is a 64-minute fairy tale, which would have benefited from a fairy tale simplicity to its storytelling. With Victor truly in love with his Victoria, but sympathetic to Emily’s plight, the tug-of-war inherent in his situation sends the story tacking back and forth, and it requires some fairly manipulative and convenient twists to provide conventionally satisfactory solution.
The weakness in the plotting is easy enough to tolerate as long as the visuals and Elfman’s songs carry the film. The Corpse Bride’s resurrection from the grave is a stunningly realized sequence that makes the film worth seeing all on its own (in fact, the incredibly smooth animation of wedding veil is enough to make the film worth seeing), and her sad refrain upon realizing that Victor does not love her (“I know that I am dead, yet I have more tears to shed”) is genuinely moving.
But surprisingly, some of the songs fall flat (the opening number has a dirge-like pace that almost stops the film before it can start — it’s all recitative-style exposition, unlike the blissful arias that launched NIGHTMARE). And the script’s attempts at humor (including a Peter Lorre-inspired maggot filling in the Jiminy Cricket role) often elicit groans rather than chuckles.
The great thing about NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS was that it set the standard; it had no immediate precedent by which it could be judged. CORPSE BRIDE bears the burden of having to live up to that earlier achievement. On a technical level, it more than meets — and even surpasses — expectations. But on an overall artistic level, it is no match for its illustrious predecessor. It’s dark, demented, and fun, but it’s more of an extremely clever trick than a truly delightful treat.

SECOND VIEWING

A second viewing of the film helped me overcome my initial disappointment and somewhat revise my opinion. The story still the wanders back and forth a bit, but the heart-felt emotion invested into the plight of the lead characters — Victor, Victoria, and especially Emily the Corpse Bride — helps offset the structural weaknesses.

TRIVIA

In an early scene, Victor sits down at a piano in his fiance’s home and begins to play while the camera performs a graceful, sweeping arc around him (worthy of any live-action Hollywood musical). When we finally get a closeup look at his hands on the keyboard, we see that the brand name on the piano is not Steinway but “Harryhausen.” Ray Harryhausen, of course, is the maestro behind the stop-motion effects for such classic fantasy films as THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD and JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS.

Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (2005). Directed by Tim Burton, Mike Johnson. Written by John August and Pamela Pettler and Caroline Thompson, story and characters by Tim Burton. Music and songs by Danny Elfman, additional lyrics by John August. Voices: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, Tracey Ulman, Paul Whitehouse, Joanna Lumley, Albert Finney, Richard E. Grant, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Jane Horrocks, Enn Reitel, Deep Roy, Danny Elfman.

RELATED ARTICLE: Mainstreaming Necrophilia for the Masses

Copyright 2005 Steve Biodrowski

Army of Darkness – Review & Retrospective


In this film, the Evil Dead are back, but now their ranks have swelled to become an ARMY OF DARKNESS. After the un-rated cult horror hits THE EVIL DEAD and EVIL DEAD 2, director Sam Raimi turned the third film in the series into an R-rated fantasy-adventure. When last we left Ash (Bruce Campbell), at the conclusion of EVIL DEAD 2 (1987), he had been unwittingly transported to the 13th century, where he was reluctantly hailed as a hero sent to oppose the Deadites. In the follow-up, Ash must find the Necronomicon (the Book of the Dead), which contains a formula to send him back to his own time. Unfortunately, Ash, not being the brightest of heroes, misspeaks an important incantation while retrieving the book, inadvertently resurrecting an army of the dead, led by his own alter ego, Evil Ash. Reluctantly, Ash stays to help in the ensuing battle, using his 20th-century technical knowhow to combat supernatural forces of evil.
With its multi ‑million dollar budget and a major Hollywood distributor, ARMY OF DARKNESS is not, technically, a direct sequel to its low-budget predecessors; rather, the film pretends to be almost a stand-alone effort. Universal Pictures asked for a title change to ARMY OF DARKNESS instead of EVIL DEAD 3, and a brief prologue, as if starting from scratch, strands a slightly older version of Campbell’s character in the past. The sequences incorporates some scenes from EVIL DEAD 2, along with new footage featuring actress Bridget Fonda (a fan of the films, who had previously played Mary Shelley in Roger Corman’s Frankenstein Unbound), as Ash’s ill-fated girlfriend, Linda.
Unfortunately, despite its production values, outrageous action, and imaginative visual effects, the film is perhaps the least effective of the series. As a director, Raimi’s strength lies in his manic inventiveness – which is somewhat in abeyance here, as he tries injecting some traditional plot elements into the old formula. These actually dilute the overall effect, because the enterprise is too outrageous to engage us in a traditional way (i.e., make us care what happens to the characters).
With the horror elements mostly toned down, the film seems tame in spite of its outrageous action. There is a sense of “anthing goes,” along the lines of the most far-out Hong Kong fantasy flicks, but those films (e.g., A Chinese Ghost Story) somehow manage to mix romance, comedy, and thrills without diluting any of the elements. ARMY OF DARKNESS, on the other hand, doesn’t always gel; too often, the low comedy undermines the fantasy heroics. At times, the film even descends into outright silliness, obviously inspired by the Three Stooges. The result is a sort of goofy geek idea of a great movie, with lots of exploding skeletons, bony fingers poking eyes, and the occasional geyser of blood to remind us of glories past.
On the plus side, Bruce Campbell’s Ash is a perfect parody of the archetypal mythic hero: a self-centered, loud-mouthed jerk who happens to be good at fighting monsters, as long as he relies on instinct rather than intellect. (The minute he stops to think, the consequences are devastating for all concerned.) To a large extent, Campbell’s over-the-top performance is the film’s saving grace. Although he sometimes falls prey to the film’s tendency to milk a joke too long, he actually carves a distinct character that’s worth watching for a whole film. He even manages to immediately differentiate the two versions of Ash when the character divides into himself and an evil twin. Sometimes called the “Rambo of the gore world,” Ash is actually closer to Inspector Clouseau: we laugh at his incompetence while he pretends to know what he’s doing, and we cheer on those occasions when, through luck or providence, he actually does something right. Too often in movies we are presented with white male heroes who can do no wrong and thus are allowed to act like a law unto themselves as they interfere in situations that have nothing to do with them (the sort of delusional fantasy that underlies American interventionism in real world situations like Iraq); therefore, it’s nice to see a film that finally calls bullshit on this concept. You just wish uber he-men like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger would get a clue.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Whereas THE EVIL DEAD and EVIL DEAD 2 were horror films centered on an isolated cabin besieged by a handful of possessed zombies and a hand‑held camera representing an unseen evil presence, ARMY OF DARKNESS is a time travel fantasy featuring a medieval castle under attack by a literal army of skeletal “Deadites,” brought to screen life through a combination of animation, mechanics and prosthetics. The film features extensive use of the Introvision front projection process, which combines the go-motion skeletons with their live-action counterparts and also provides numerous miniature settings that would have been too expensive to build full-scale.
The epic concept behind ARMY OF DARKENSS (jokingly called “The Medieval Dead” by Raimi) was first developed for EVIL DEAD 2, until budgetary restrictions dictated that the script be cut back. “After THE EVIL DEAD, our sales agent at the time, the late Irvin Shapiro, suggested we make a sequel,” recalled producer Robert Tapert. “Sam came up with the idea of going back to the Middle Ages. Shapiro really liked the idea and took out ads in the trades, announcing EVIL DEAD 2: ARMY OF DARKNESS, in ’82 or ’83. We had a story fairly similar to this, but it was too expensive to make at the time, so Sam wrote a new version of EVIL DEAD 2 that didn’t take place in the middle ages.”
Though unable to make his “Medieval Dead” movie at that time, Raimi retained one hint of his original concept: transporting Ash to the 13th century for the twist ending of EVIL DEAD 2. Perhaps this was his way of insuring that any future sequel would adhere to his ARMY OF DARKNESS storyline. EVIL DEAD 2 ended up being financed by the Dino DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group, to the tune of $3.75-million –a step up from THE EVIL DEAD, but nowhere near the amount needed to realize the ARMY OF DARKNESS storyline.
After EVIL DEAD 2, Sam Raimi turned his attention to directing Darkman (1990) for Universal Pictures, his first experience with Hollywood filmmaking. The deal to make a third EVIL DEAD film was struck during the long development process on Darkman. Dino DeLaurentiis, who had retained sequel rights to the EVIL DEAD franchise, approached the Renaissance Pictures team of Raimi, Tapert, and Campbell, who agreed to make EVIL DEAD 3 even though it represented a step down from the budget of DARKMAN.
“This is back to the kind of hands-on filmmaking that we grew up with,” Raimi explained. “Dino DeLaurentiis […] gives us an incredible amount of freedom. That’s why we want to make this picture: we can tell any kind of story we want in as wild a way as we think the audience would like it. Therefore, we’re happier, and maybe the audience that really wants to see something wild is happier, even if it is somewhat smaller.”
DeLaurentiis made a deal with Universal Pictures to handle domestic distribution rights, then sold the foreign rights at the February 1991 American Film Market. Thus, the proposed EVIL DEAD 3 became a “negative pick-up,” a deal in which the distributor agreed ahead of time to reimburse DeLaurentiis for his negative costs after he delivered a completed film to them.
Knowing that the film would be released by Universal, Raimi and his brother Ivan developed a script that was quite different from its predecessors, with more conventional qualities, such as being more story-driven.
“Ultimately, it’s about a guy trying to get home, but he has to do some pretty hasty things in order to do that, and the question is whether or not he’s competent enough,” said Campbell. “In the script development, that’s what we — primarily Sam ‑‑ tried to do. Sam’s tastes have evolved: just doing gags won’t hold for him anymore; he wants to tell a story now.”
When Darkman finally went into production, ARMY OF DARKNESS was moved to the back burner. The delay was fortunate, because the successful release of Darkman encouraged DeLaurentiis to raise the budget for ARMY OF DARKNESS, which would eventually reach approximately $11-million, after Universal kicked in additional funds during post-production.. It was unprecedented for a major studio to release up a sequel to two relatively obscure cult films and try to sell it to a wider audience – which may or may not have heard of the originals. For this reason, Universal opted to change the title and market the film as an original.
Noted producer Robert Tapert, “Universal – and they’re right to do it – said, ‘The EVIL DEAD title is a drawback because, based on bow it did theatrically, no one saw EVIL DEAD 2.’ It was a flop for all practical purposes — ­though it did very well on video, far outstripping what it had done at the box office. So they felt that fans would know this is EVIL DEAD III, and the rest of the audience would just see it as ARMY OF DARKNESS.”
“The fact that it’s called ARMY OF DARKNESS, I think, is fine,” said Campbell. “If more people will come and see it, I’m all for it. The first two were limited releases. I think it’s a logical progression, in that we hope this one is as entertaining as, or more entertaining than, the others. It’s not as graphic. The others were unrated: the first one rightfully so; the second one, we just went around the MPAA because we knew they were going to give us such grief.”
EVIL DEAD 2 had represented a considerable shift in tone from the first EVIL DEAD, and ARMY OF DARKNESS continued the evolution, to a certain extent. The earlier films were not noted for plotting so much as for stylistic flourishes; in fact, Darkman was Raimi’s conscious attempt to make a film plot and characters that were more than a mere excuse for special effects. ARMY OF DARKNESS is a bit of a throwback that falls somewhere between the two approaches.
“It’s somewhat of a departure, but it’s still in the same vein as EVIL DEAD 2, with a much heavier emphasis on comedy and scope,” said Tapert. “We don’t have scenes like the head falling into Ash’s lap. But we’ve tried to find other ways to go over the top and still remain within the limitations of the MPAA. We don’t have nearly the money of DARKMAN but twice the scope, with medieval archers, horses, castles and flaming catapults.”
Likewise, Raimi saw ARMY OF DARKNESS as an evolutionary step rather than a huge departure. “It’s the same thing: Bruce Campbell — kick him in the face, hit him in the head, kick him in the face again, spit out the blood and make the funny face ‑‑ cut! It’s the old routines. It was a bigger change from EVIL DEAD to EVIL DEAD 2.”
The contractually mandated R‑rating necessitated that ARMY OF DARKNESS be much less graphically violent than its predecessors, and an emphasis on comedy was designed to help run the ratings board gauntlet. Of course, EVIL DEAD 2 had its share of black comedy, but as Raimi pointed out, “Our policy at that stage was still, ‘the gore, the merrier.’ I thought that [the tongue-in-cheek tone] would buy some leniency with the ratings board, but they lack a sense of humor, and they have some hang‑up about self‑mutilation,” he explained, in reference to one of the film’s most memorable scenes. “This picture has even more comedy, and I do feel satisfied – it’s great to make the audience laugh.”
While trying to make ARMY OF DARKNESS original and different, Raimi was also conscious of incorporate elements of the EVIL DEAD films that audiences had enjoyed in the past. “But it’s always hard for me to know exactly what they liked,” he admitted. “I’m always wrong — that’s my motto. I’m trying to go William Goldman’s ‘Nobody knows nothing’ one better.”
Attention‑grabbing camera angles and movement had been a major component of the previous films; in a sense, the camera was the star of THE EVIL DEAD and EVIL DEAD 2. Similar gyrating visuals were employed for ARMY OF DARKNESS, but Raimi insisted, “Campbell’s really the star of this film. My favorite thing in the film is his character. He’s a loud mouth a coward and a liar. Just like you or me.”
Campbell more or less agrees with Raimi’s assessment of the character: “Ash is a little bit like a cartoon character: the anvil flattens him, but then he gets up. He’s basi­cally a dork on the human side. He goes back in time and, even though he’s an idiot, he assumes that these people are primitive, and he thinks he knows more than everybody. I like the fact that he makes horrible mistakes that cost hundreds of lives — which sets him apart from the guys who can do no wrong. Ash is a for‑the‑moment sort of guy: whatever needs to be done at the time, he’ll do. When­ever he has to fight somebody, he knows what’s going on — for some reason he knows how to ride a horse and swordfight, ­but he screws up in every other department of life. Ash’s prob­lem is: if he thinks about it, he makes a bad decision; if he doesn’t have time to think and just goes for the ax, he comes through with flying colors. Actually, I think he represents the average guy, in that he will clearly panic in a given situation — which I think is cool, because you can get into the trap of having a lead character who says, ‘Stand back – I’ll take care of it!’ To the audience that’s fine, because they can feel protected, but Sam, I don’t think, has ever wanted his audience to feel that comfortable.”
The film shot on location in Acton, California for several weeks in the summer of 1991.It soon became apparent that the film’s ambitious action was more than could be accomplished on the limited budget and schedule. DeLaurentiis was ame­nable to adding an extra week on location. However, even after extending the schedule and cutting money elsewhere in order to spend it on the cli­mactic battle, Raimi still found himself coming up short.
“Cer­tain ideas had to be compro­mised for the lack of budget,” he said. “Instead of 200 extras on horseback, how about 100 extras and 50 horses?”
“When they started shooting the battle, I think Sam realized he wasn’t going to get a lot of the shots that he wanted,” said special effects supervisor William Mesa, who suggested a cost‑saving alternative that allowed the principal action to be com­pleted back on the Introvision stages. “We proposed that we go out there and shoot a series of plates, with all the extras fighting, from various angles. That way, when it came to the battle between the Good and the Evil Ash, in the upper area of the castle, then behind them could be all of this major battle going on, because you couldn’t afford to set up battles just to have close‑ups on actors.”
Raimi managed to finish location work by late July­ and then moved to the Introvision facility for seven weeks to complete the bulk of shooting. In many cases effects shooting is a tedious post‑pro­duction process during which the director surrenders much of his control. The Introvision process, on the other hand, was actually part of principal pho­tography, with Raimi directing the actors as if they were on set, the difference being that most of the sets were projected back­ground plates.
“Because they have a great technician and artist, Bill Mesa, in residence, I didn’t even have to worry about the technical aspects of Introvision,” said Raimi. “They took care of it and allowed me to just direct, either the back­ground plates or the fore­ground action, which was very refreshing.”
Fortunately, the increased budget allowed Rai­mi to confer more with his actor, rather than devoting himself solely to the mechanics of getting the shot. “There was more time, although it was so ambitious that sometimes I felt just as rushed as on a low­-budget movie,” said Campbell. “Sam exercised quality con­trol. If I happened to be out of it that day, he let me know, whereas on a low‑budget movie, the director might be out of it, too, because he’s so overwhelmed with guys hassling him about getting more setups. We did fewer setups per day, but they were more com­plex, so we’d still run out of time. And if we fell behind, we had to make it up the next day, because there was no deep pocket on this film.”
One sequence pushed so far back that it didn’t get made up, at least not during principal photog­raphy, was the “Temple Ruins” scene, wherein Ash was sup­posed to learn a crucial piece of information from a sorceress, who then mutated into an Evil Dead witch. The scene was to climax with the temple pillars toppling like dominoes, which had been filmed in miniature during pre‑production.
“It was a crucial scene,” said production designer Tony Tremblay. “It was a transition from when Ash wasn’t inter­ested in helping these people to when he knows he’s got to help them, whether he’s interested or not.”
With no hope of filming live‑action pillars top­pling on guards, Tremblay designed a new set, to be rebuilt and redressed from a standing set, in which the expository portion of the scene could be shot during post‑production. The sequence was reconceived as a scene set in a chamber where Ash is sitting on some furs and being fed grapes. There is a battle with a witch but no massive destruction: “We can get away with that,” said Campbell, “because it’s not the climax of the movie, which is where we put all the dough.”
Renaissance Pictures’ origi­nal plan had been to finish at Introvision and then wrap principal photography with two more weeks on location, shooting prologue and epi­logue scenes unrelated to the rest of filming. Instead, the filmmakers opted for a short breather in mid‑September, so that they could put together a rough cut and then regroup in November. “We were going to shoot those final two weeks at the end of our original sched­ule, but people were a little fried,” recalled Campbell. “We were running on about 70% efficiency by that point. It’s funny — you don’t even know it until you stop. Then you say, ‘Ouch, I can’t even think!’”
The delay had the additional bene­fit of allowing Raimi to pick up any missing inserts and transi­tional shots revealed by the rough cut. “The scenes needed a smaller crew, and they were completely unrelated to the rest of filming,” said Raimi. “So it made sense to take a break, cut a little bit, and then shoot those scenes. That way, we could make sure we didn’t need to pick up any other sequence as well.”
The final two weeks included the film’s conclusion, in which Ash, having adopted a Rip Van Winkle approach for returning to his own time, awakens after seal­ing himself in a cave for several centuries. Also filmed was a new prologue of Ash’s trip to the fateful cabin, this time with Bridget Fonda as his girlfriend, Linda.
Said Campbell, “Now, including this, we’ve shot three different versions of Ash going to the cabin. In EVIL DEAD 2, a lot of people thought Ash was stupid enough to go back to the cabin, because he had so much fun the first time, with his new girlfriend, who happened to be named Linda, again. Now, we’ve done it again, with Bridget Fonda. That was a thrill. Apparently, she had liked the other movies and wanted to be the third and best Linda. We went even further back to show Ash as a mild­-mannered S‑Mart employee, our version of K‑Mart. Story­-wise, we’re trying to make that leap from being a guy working in the house wares department to being a gun‑slinging, chain­saw‑wielding Deadite slayer. Now that we’re involved with studios, that’s the kind of request we get‑to make Ash a real guy. Ash is still on the cartoon side. I’m not sure he’ll ever be a real charac­ter.”
During the two‑week pick­up shoot, Raimi did manage to add some transitional shots of Ash riding through the forest from one scene to the next, but many scenes remained un­filmed. Raimi went back into the editing room throughout the end of 1991, with the hope of shooting an additional two or three weeks in January.
Explained Campbell, “While shooting, we dropped several sequences for budget that we would re‑evaluate later, but in those sequences was a lot of story information. In that last two weeks, we shot the beginning and ending, but there were still several chunks missing in the middle that had to be reworked into more man­ageable scenes. Fortunately, it’s not because we cut it together and couldn’t make sense of it — the script was always very linear — but when you look at the storyboards that were skipped over, that’s quite a chunk of work. We couldn’t have certain sequences because it was more important to put money in other areas. We had to go back and get the same informa­tion out another way.”
“That was our intention, but we didn’t actually do that,” said Sam Raimi when the addi­tional shooting in January failed to materialize. “We had to cut a lot of things out and…eliminate certain scenes from the picture.”
“Unfortunately, going back and filming becomes more and more difficult during the edit­ing process,” lamented Tapert. “When you’re in production, the producer and the director wield a lot of power, because everybody’s got to trust them. When you get into post, every­one can see the film and say, ‘Oh no, you don’t need that­ — the audience will understand anyway.’ It’s much harder to get things approved that might on the surface seem extrava­gant — but the audience loves the big extravagances.”
Instead, Raimi planned spent January trimming his two‑hour rough cut down to an hour and a half – about ten minutes longer than EVIL DEAD 2. As of February, the plan was to deliver the finished film, with a score by EVIL DEAD 2’s Joe LoDuca, by May, with the hope of getting a big early summer roll-out if the film could secure a PG-13 rating without any re-editing or a late summer release (a la DARKMAN) if it was rated R. Unfortunately, neither release date materialized. Instead, the film fell into distribution limbo when Dino DeLaurentiis initiated a lawsuit against Universal Pictures.
POST-PRODUCTION BLUES
In 1986, Dino DeLaurentiis had produced Manhunter, which was based on the novel Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. Although an excellent film, it was not a success, and when Harris wrote a sequel called Silence of the Lambs, DeLaurentiis licensed the rights to Orion Pictures. The result was a film that earned over $272-million worldwide after it was released in 1991, and went on to win five Oscars, including one for Best Picture of the Year, at the Academy of Motion Pictures 1992 awards ceremony.
Despite this success of this picture, Orion Pictures was on the way to bankruptcy, leaving the door open for DeLaurentiis to set up any sequel with another company. The essence of his lawsuit against Universal was that, in exchange for additional money he was seeking for reshoots on ARMY OF DARKNESS, the studio was trying to strong-arm him into a deal to make a sequel to Silence of the Lambs. In an interview with a Hollywood trade paper, Universal executives gave a different version of events, suggesting that an invitation to make a sequel had been offered and accepted before Silence of the Lambs had even come out. (This seems unlikely: it’s hard to believe Universal was eager to acquire sequel rights to an unreleased film that was itself a sequel to a box office flop; rights to a Silence sequel would have become a hot property only after the film became a blockbuster success.)
Whatever the facts of the case, the bottom line for ARMY OF DARKNESS was that its release was delayed while the legal wrangling was sorted out. Ultimately, Universal prevailed, earning the rights to produce the sequel to Silence of the Lambs – a right they were unable to exercise for nearly a decade, because it took author Thomas Harris so long to write his next novel, Hannibal, which was filmed and released in 2001. In the meantime, ARMY OF DARKNESS sat on the shelf for nearly another year.
During that time, several things happened. In an effort to generate interest in the languishing project, the 96-minute director’s cut was screened at the DeLaurentiis building in Hollywood. Unfortunately, this version is too slowly paced to hold interest for its entire running time. The silly jokes wear thin; the action during the final battle goes on too long; and the ending features an arbitrary twist that serves little purpose besides setting up a hoped-for sequel (which never materialized).
With input from Sam Raimi, Universal Pictures cut the film down to an 81-minute running time, which included a brand new (and much improved) ending, wherein Ash is seen back at his old S-Mart job, telling his tale to a skeptical co-worker (played by Raimi himself). Unfortunately, it turns out that Ash has once again forgotten to speak the correct magical words, allowing a Deadite to launch an attack in the store – leading to a brief but exhilarating fight scene that captures much of the exuberance missing from the rest of the film.
Despite the changes, the film was not a big success when it opened in February of 1993. ARMY OF DARKNESS earned $11.5-million in North American theatres. In other territories, the 96-minute cut did not fare any better, earning approximately another $9-million.
Not surprisingly, the idea of making ARMY OF DARKNESS 2 (or EVIL DEAD IV) was set aside. Renaissance Pictures shifted its attention to television series like Hercules and Xena, while also producing two direct-to-video sequels to Darkman. Sam Raimi became a director-for-hire on several Hollywood Films (e.g., The Quick and the Dead, For the Love of the Game, A Simple Plan, and The Gift). Even when the films were good, they evinced an anonymous professionalism, as if he were keeping his own stylistic instincts in check. Only with Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 did he show a return to form, welding his virtuoso visual style to comic book subject matter that was perfectly suited to him. Eventually, Raimi even returned to the horror genre, not as a director but as a producer, purchasing the rights to Takashi Shimizu’s excellent Japanese ghost story Ju-On, which was remade as The Grudge, with Sarah Michelle Gellar in the lead.
The latest word is that Raimi and Campbell are considering the possibility of a fourth EVIL DEAD film, although when or if it will actually be made remains an open question as long as Raimi is busy directing big-budget Hollywood blockbusters. The proposed EVIL DEAD follow-up would not be a sequel, nor a remake, but a “reinvention,” according to Bruce Campbell.
In an interview with Penny Blood magazine, Campbell revealed, “It’ll be a whole new story. It won’t be Ash. It’ll be the evil book [the Necronomicon], and it’ll affect a whole new group of people in a different situation. […] The trick is to take that premise – and we think it’s a scary premise – and use some cool, modern-day effects… so we won’ have green garden hoses in the shots. We want to make a flat-out, scary-ass, un-rated horror film.”

DVD DETAILS

Both the 96-minute director’s cut and the 81-minute Universal cut of ARMY OF DARKNESS are available on DVD; in fact, they can be purchased together on the so-called two-disc “Boomstick Edition.” The title is also available on various other editions, most of them including the samebasic set of bonus features (give or take one or two) with different packaging. Perhaps the most distinctive of these is the “Bruce Campbell Vs. Army of Darkness: The Director’s Cut – Official Bootleg Edition,” which –true to its name — simulates the look of a cheap brown paper wrapping, suggesting a booglet copy.
This version includes the 96-minute director’s cut, plus several bonus features: an audio commentary; four deleted scenes; a gallery of production artwork; and a feature that allows you to view the film’s extensive storyboards in the lower right-hand corner of the frame while watching the film.
The deleted scenes (which feature optional audio commentary) are:

  • An Alternate Opening Prologue: This features Ash, photographed in closeup against a nebulous black background, suggesting an unidentified limbo. This was meant to tie in with the original ending, which had Ash winding up stranded in the future. The sequence has a bit more of the feel of the previous EVIL DEAD films, but it goes on too long. In the audio commentary, the filmmakers admit they were never sure how much recapping from the previous films was necessary, so they ultimately chose to trim this down.
  • Ash Confronts Arthur: This snippet was to take place in the middle of the longer sequence in which Arthur’s men find Ash at the beginning of the film and put him in chains. Ash thinks he has come to an understand with Arthur, who has him arrested anyway. “We probably didn’t need it,” according to the audio commentary.
  • The Original Windmill Sequence: This is a much longer version than seen in either the theatrical cut or the director’s cut. There is lots of waitingwhile light shifts, shadows loom, and gears grind, but the pay off is not worth the build up. After a nifty tracking shot, Ash goes outside (we see some unfinished blue screen shots), finds his horse, and runs back into the mill when he sees an intruder – actually his own refelction in a full-length mirror. Campbell regrets the truncating of this sequence, because it sacrifices logic to speed up the pace: “The shorter a movie gets, the less sense it makes.”
  • Ash Recruits Henry the Red: Ash talks Henry into joiningforces with Arthur against their common enemies, the Deadites. This would have provided a stronger sense of continuity, so that the last-reel appearance of Henry and his men would not come out of nowhere.

Recorded around the time that Raimi was directing the Kevin Costner baseball film For the Love of the Game, the audio commentary by Bruce Campbell and Sam Raim (Sam’s brother Ivan joins midway through) is amusing and informative, although – typically – some touchy subjects are avoided (there is no reference to the DeLaurentiis lawsuit that delayed the film’s distribution for a year). A fair amount of time is devoted to discussing footage that was deleted from the shorter, theatrical cut, but Raimi resists criticizing Universal Pictures, admititng that he had input into the revisions. Considerng that he and his partners took on the project in order to regain the creative control they had lost on Darkman, they could have at least noted the irony that they ended up going through a similar post-production process on ARMY OF DARKNESS.
The major cuts and alterations discussed are:

  • The bloody death of the first ghoul is trimmed down to avoid an X-rating.
  • The backlit love scene in front of the romantic, roaring fire was removed entirely: “It’s a little too heavy,” says Raimi. “I didn’t mind losing this. It’s too serious for the picture.”
  • In the director’s cut, Evil Ash’s taunting Ash for beinga “Goody Two Shoes” goes on much longer. Aftera fed-up Ash blasts his evil twin in the face with a shotgun, he says: “I’m not so good.” In the theatrical print, an alternate take was used: “Good, bad – I’m the guy with the gun,” which Raimi admits he prefers.
  • The director’s cut contains more shots of Ash riding from place to place, giving a sense of geography.
    Ash’s speech to rally the troops for battle was cut from the theatrical version, and the montage that followed was trimmed.
  • The scene of Evil Ash kissing Shielagoes on longer in the director’s cut, and there is more interplay between the two after Sheila turns evil.
  • According to Bruce Campbell, “About ten minutes of battle was removed to get the 81-minute version.” Raimiadmits that it was hard to argue that nine shots of exploding skeletons were necessary in this sequence, as opposed to four.

Other interesting points made in the commentary:

  • The scene of Ash severinghis hand with a chainsaw was reshot for the prologue of ARMY OF DARKNESS, because the shot in EVIL DEAD 2 was too slowly paced for a rapid-fire montage.
    Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi suggest that all three EVIL DEAD movies would cut together as a single, longer work if the reshot recaps at the beginning of EVIL DEAD 2 and ARMY OF DARKNESS were cut out. This ignores the considerable continuity gaps between the lattertwo films: at the end of EVIL DEAD 2, Ash is immeidatelyhailed as a hero; in ARMY OF DARKNESS, he is put in chains as a prisoner and earns the respect of Arthur and his men only after defeating a monster kept in a pit int the courtyard of Arthur’s castle.
  • Of the director’s cut, Universal “said it’s too long and the ending’s a downer,” according to Raimi. “So we reshot an ending, and they pretty much cut out fifteen minutes – although I did have input on that. I can’t just claim it was them.”
  • Sam Raimi on the credibility of the supporting cast: “It was not the greates script. We really needed that crediblity, because we were taking our low-budget antics and trying to drop them into a real world, as much as possible.”
  • As the film moves into its final act, Sam Raimilaments, “Ivan and I have talked about where we went wrong withthepicture. […] We agreed that afterthis point, we lost a lot of the characterof Ash beinga coward. That’s why for us it didn’t work as well. Just battle scenes are empty. What Ivan and I loved was the characterof Ash beinga coward, a blowhard, a braggart, a liar… His character disapperas, and it becomes about cool skeleton battles, like a Ray Harryhausen movie, which we’ve seen Harryhausen do, so it’s not that interesting. We should have put in more pieces of Bruce interacting.”
  • Bruce Campbells defends the original ending, in which Ash winds up in a devastated future: “It’s appropriate…. It gave a very good lead in to what would or would not become Part 4.”

SEEN TODAY

Although the most lavish of the EVIL DEAD trilogy, ARMY OF DARKNESS is probably the least effective, thanks to its compromised nature. Nevertheless, it does have enough redeeming features to make it an amusing cult film for fants of the series, and its fantasy elements make it appealing to viewers who might find the excessive gore of the earlie films unpalatable. Although the director’s cut preserves the artists’ original ision, the theatrical cut is actually more worthwhile viewing: the faster pace holds viewer attention better, and the shorter length deletes at least some of the silliness that can elicit groans rather than laughs. Though it is no match for EVIL DEAD 2 (by far the best of the three films), ARMY OF DARKNESS is a worthy follow-up that expands upon the earlier films in interesting ways and has the nerve to go in a new direction – a direction worth applauding, even if the film stumbles sometimes on its way..
Army of Darkness (1993). Directed by Sam Riami. Written by Sam & Ivan Raimi. Cast: Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert, Ian Abercrombie, Richard Grove, Timothy Patrick Quill, Michael Earl Reid, Bridget Fonda, Patricia Tallman.