# Army Of Darkness...WTF? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 23, 2006, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531 "2006-10-23T04:31:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/1 "2006-10-23T04:31:25Z")
I can’t believe I’m actually posting this. Where the hell did Ash get all the science books? He’s in the friggen middle ages. He had a gun, a chainsaw, and a car. AFAIK, he’s not a student. Were they in the car? Why the hell am I even annoyed by this? I asked my boyfriend and he just told me that this movie is once step above Rocky Horror and to not think about it too much. I wanna know dammit!!! ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/2 "2006-10-23T04:33:18Z")
:smack: Damn, damn, damn. Forgot I just changed Forums. Someone remind me how to report this stupid mistake so I can get it fixed - please? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/3 "2006-10-23T04:34:06Z")
It’s because in Evil Dead, they’re a bunch of college students going out to camp. These were presumably their college textbooks. ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/4 "2006-10-23T04:35:43Z")
Wait… You’re more upset by Ash having a college chemistry book than by a medieval blacksmith creating a mechanical hand more advanced than state-of-the-art prosthetic hands today? ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/5 "2006-10-23T04:37:50Z")
Ok, obviously I missed something not really important by missing the second movie. The first was on last night and the third tonight. I had assumed that there was actually some time passage between the movies. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/6 "2006-10-23T04:42:17Z")
[QUOTE=brianjedi] Wait… You’re more upset by Ash having a college chemistry book than by a medieval blacksmith creating a mechanical hand more advanced than state-of-the-art prosthetic hands today? [/QUOTE] Um, yeah - aren’t you? 😃 This is my problem. I overlook the totally idiotic and am only annoyed by the slightly stupid. I usually only obsess like this when watching Red Dwarf. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/7 "2006-10-23T05:44:12Z")
At the end of the second movie, Evil Dead 2, Ash and his car and everything in it are sucked through the portal and end up in the pseudo-Middle Ages world of Army of Darkness. The movie ends with a real cliffhanger: Ash surrounded by knights, presumably about to be enslaved, executed, or both. AoD picks up precisely where Evil Dead 2 leaves off, with a little bit of rewinding the events at the very end. ---
**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/8 "2006-10-23T05:54:43Z")
Second the boyfriend’s opinion. This is what Bruce Campbell does. For more proof, watch [Bubba Ho-tep](http://imdb.com/title/tt0281686/) ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/9 "2006-10-23T06:33:22Z")
[QUOTE=Big Bad Voodoo Lou] At the end of the second movie, [/QUOTE] Well, that explains a lot. Thanks for that. I have seen AoD a couple of times and ED once (last night). One of these days, I’ll have to see the second. I laughed my ass off the first time I saw AoD but I somehow never noticed the books until tonight. For some reason, despite the complete lunacy of the whole movie, that one scene really annoyed the crap outta me. The timeline explanation actually makes more sense than the whole movie and knowing there’s a plausible reason for the stupid books makes me like the movie even more. This thread just reinforces the knowledge that I seriously need to get a life. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/10 "2006-10-23T06:41:37Z")
Just wait until you start collecting information after the thread moves to **Cafe Society**! ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/11 "2006-10-23T07:16:25Z")
[QUOTE=tomndebb] Just wait until you start collecting information after the thread moves to **Cafe Society**! [/QUOTE] Thanks for moving this. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/12 "2006-10-23T10:58:10Z")
[QUOTE=Big Bad Voodoo Lou] AoD picks up precisely where Evil Dead 2 leaves off, with a little bit of rewinding the events at the very end. [/QUOTE] Not quite, ED2 ends with Ash surrounded by knights, cheering him having just dispatched a flying beastie with his shotgun. When we see him next, the knights have shackled him and are about to feed him to something in a big pit. ---
**Author:** ![brewha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@brewha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brewha)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/13 "2006-10-23T16:04:29Z")
[QUOTE=brianjedi] Wait… You’re more upset by Ash having a college chemistry book than by a medieval blacksmith creating a mechanical hand more advanced than state-of-the-art prosthetic hands today? [/QUOTE] Or the ability to build a perfect a steam engine(in just a few days) 300 yrs before it was invented. ---
**Author:** ![brewha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@brewha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brewha)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/14 "2006-10-23T16:06:01Z")
…to build **and** perfect… it doesn’t make much sense the way I wrote it. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/15 "2006-10-23T17:38:34Z")
[QUOTE=congodwarf] One of these days, I’ll have to see the second. [/QUOTE] You really should. It’s easily the best of the three. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/16 "2006-10-23T17:58:33Z")
We just played this in the video store I work in, the other night. Customer gathered around the monitors and hung out for the entire movie. I love this movie. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/17 "2006-10-23T22:23:05Z")
Once I got past medieval England looking so much like the Mojave Desert, I could appreciate that this goofy, low-budget movie actually has better-looking 14th century armor than many an expensive Hollywood spectacle. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/18 "2006-10-23T23:30:33Z")
And did you catch their use of “Klaatu barada nikto” from _The Day the Earth Stood Still_? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/19 "2006-10-23T23:33:05Z")
I love this movie, what else is there to say? Another recommendation to watch the middle one. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531/20 "2006-10-23T23:39:42Z")
[QUOTE=Ignatz] And did you catch their use of “Klaatu barada nikto” from _The Day the Earth Stood Still_? [/QUOTE] Well, technically Ash’s version was “Klaatu Barada Nik (cough-cough)”. I remember taking the Universal Studios tour in 1997 and going through a pavilion where they described basic greenscreen effects as used on shows like _Xena_ and whatnot. Hanging in the corner was the winged creature that kidnapped Sheila. The presenter pointed it out: “And over there is the winged creature from _Army of Darkness_. Did anyone see that?” Me and one other person applauded, of a crowd of 300+. Anyway, I gave friends of mine the _Army of Darkness_ board game as a wedding present. I don’t think they’ve ever actually played it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-of-darkness-wtf/377531.md?page=2)