The Theatrical Ending Of Army Of Darkness Is The Superior Conclusion

When you watch a treasured favorite enough times, it's easy to lose all sense of time. One moment you're watching Bruce Campbell fighting a Ray Harryhausen-esque skeleton puppet and the next, "Army of Darkness" is celebrating its 30th anniversary, which is wild to think about. In the three decades since its 1992 theatrical release, Sam Raimi's third chapter in the "Evil Dead" series has continued to get better with age. Some folks prefer "The Evil Dead" or "Evil Dead II," given that those films are bonafide horror films, but this one holds an extra special place in my heart.

In addition to being a rousing medieval adventure, "Army of Darkness" is simply one of the funniest comedies I've ever seen. It never fails to make me laugh, such as when Ash (Campbell) tosses the dirt on his evil doppelganger's burnt face. Raimi wholly embraces the kind of "Three Stooges" slapstick comedy that his best buddy was practically made for. It hardly gives you a chance to catch all of the jokes on a first-time watch, which has made revisiting it that much more enjoyable.

There exists at least four different cuts of "Army of Darkness," each with its own fair share of differences. Thanks to the folks at Scream Factory, you can watch your favorite version of the film in glorious 4K. But even with that option available, there's still some contention about whether Sam Raimi's original ending was a better idea than the one that ended up in the theatrical cut. From my perspective, it's not even a competition.

After saying mostly every tiny little syllable, our hero Ashley J. Williams has finally returned to his own time. He's back working at S-Mart, lamenting his medieval tale to an unimpressed Ted Raimi, who is always delightful to see. Although he knows it was the right decision, there's a part of Ash that wishes he could have stayed behind to rule as King. While price-tagging some toasters, a co-worker named Jenny (Angela Featherstone) compliments his wild story. The lights start flickering, which of course means that trouble is just around the corner.

Sure enough, a deadite goes on a screaming rampage, knocking Ash behind the firearms section. Jenny is about to be crushed by a cash register, but with an arsenal at his back, Ash knows exactly what he must do. In a moment that anyone who has ever worked retail will relate to, he tells the unfriendly customer "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave the store." Why? Because the name's Ash.

The Housewares worker unloads a number of rounds into the trampoline-bouncing deadite until its inevitable defeat. With the store coming to a standstill, Ash rips off his S-Mart uniform, grabs Jenny in his arms, and presents one of the smoothest reasons for someone to make out with a hero whose flawless chin could cut glass. Hail to the king, baby, and the rest is history. It's a perfect ending to a near-perfect movie. But it nearly went in a much different direction.

In the original cut of "Army of Darkness," the ending was incredibly bleak. This time, we see Ash preparing for his centuries-long sleep in the reliable Delta 88 that always makes an appearance in Rami's projects. He's told to only take six drops, but being the clutz that he is, Ash accidentally takes seven. When he wakes up, his clothes are tattered, his hair is grown out, and he's enveloped in cobwebs. He sees a light at the end of the tunnel, but when he walks out, he realizes that the world has succumbed to an apocalypse that he slept through.

I like the idea of what Raimi had in mind more than its execution in the final edit, though I'm happy that it's been made available to see. Test audiences hated Ash losing at the end, which made Universal request a more upbeat ending. Hence, the S-Mart confrontation was born. Given how much I adore Raimi's work, I hate to side with the folks that told him to change things, especially when something as strange as "Army of Darkness" couldn't have come from anyone else. But this is the rare case where Universal had the right idea.

Although "Army of Darkness" is the concluding chapter of the "Evil Dead" trilogy, it feels so tonally disconnected from its predecessors. Raimi wrote the kind of conclusion that would feel right at home in an "Evil Dead" movie, but for something as buoyantly exciting as "Army of Darkness," it feels so deflating. In "Evil Dead II," Ash never wins, so much as goes through various stages of losing. I understand the point is that Ash is an idiot, which I won't refute, but after the high of our reluctant hero triumphing over the deadite siege, waking up to the world having fallen to pieces strips him of that victory.

The theatrical ending to "Army of Darkness" carries the same idea as Raimi's original vision, but brings it to a much more natural conclusion. He flubs up the phrase, and in turn, the deadites return to haunt him. The difference is that, rather than cowering, Ash fully embraces the flawed hero he was always meant to be. The threat hasn't disappeared, yet he's ready for it. It shows his growth over the course of the three films. 

While "Evil Dead" has lived on in the decades since with the awesome reimagining and the upcoming "Evil Dead Rise," it was a great place to leave this character for a while. Ash went through hell to finally escape the dreaded cabin in the woods that took everything he loved away from him, yet he still lives on in spite of the deadite's existence. Even better, it set a path for the best kind of follow-up Campbell's lovable moron could have received.

Decades were spent on whether Raimi would return to do an "Evil Dead 4" or an "Army of Darkness 2," but development hell prevented either from ever making it to the big screen. In 2015, however, we got "Ash vs. Evil Dead," which picked up 30 years after the S-mart ending. Although for rights reasons, they couldn't directly mention anything from "Army of Darkness." Fans waited patiently to see if Bruce Campbell would return to the role and rather than getting a movie or two, they now have three seasons of gory, uncensored television to love and cherish.

In addition to seeing Campbell return, we were introduced to Ray Santiago and Dana DeLorenzo, both of whom are forever welcomed into the "Evil Dead" family. Sprinkle in the magnetic ferocity of the great Lucy Lawless and you have a pretty kickass show. "Ash vs. Evil Dead" even presents the best of both worlds of the original ending too.

In the series finale, Ash makes his most selfless sacrifice to date in order to save his loved ones. With his body taken by the Knights of Sumeria, Ash wakes up in an apocalyptic future. But rather than being punished for his stupidity, he's given a second chance to explore the "Mad Max" wasteland. Although the series sadly didn't receive a fourth season, largely due to low viewership, there's something comforting about an ending that lets us know that Ash is still out there fighting the good fight on his own terms. With the S-Mart ending, you get your deadite cake and eat it too. That sounds pretty groovy to me.

"Army of Darkness" is currently available for rental or purchase on most VOD streaming platforms.