Alright you primitive screwheads, listen up! I’m Slick Dungeon and this is my BOOM STICK! Otherwise known as my review of the third film in the Evil Dead film series. There may be spoilers ahead so fair warning before you read on.

While the first two films in this series could arguably be called horror or horror/comedy, this one turns into a comedic action film with some bits of horror. We pick up where the second film left off, sort of, with Ash having been dropped in the past by supernatural forces he has not yet defeated.

He is immediately surrounded by an army of knights who take him captive. They try to throw him into a pit with a demonic creature but thanks to Ash’s modern weaponry he defeats the evil there. Then he demonstrates how his shotgun works and says the immortal words, “This is my BOOM STICK!” which to this day is still one of the greatest lines in film.

The rest of the movie is this sort of odd mash up of Monty Python and body horror. There’s a scene where Ash is attacked by tiny versions of himself and a scene where a whole full sized Ash grows out of his shoulder.

This separated Ash soon becomes king of the army of deadites who will unleash Hell on earth if not stopped. Ash just wants to go home but in the end of course he helps to stop this army. Why is he able to do so? He works in the home wares section of a big box store and has several books in the trunk of his car (the car came with him through the time portal) so he’s able to construct elaborate explosive devices. It’s as ridiculous as it sounds but there is no denying the fun factor when watching this movie. That’s not to mention how his shotgun appears and disappears all through the movie and that we never really see him re-load it but he blows away tons of monsters with it.

The action plays out as you might expect with big battles, bits of romance, and Ash getting to return to his own time in the end. None of it’s particularly believable but it’s downright enjoyable.

With almost any other movie or movie franchise this silliness would bother me but Sam Raimi leans so hard into the ridiculous and Bruce Campbell is so good at hamming it up that I can’t really say there was anything here I didn’t like. It’s goofy and weird and still has parts that can gross you out but it’s 100% worth watching.

I’m really curious how the 2013 version of Evil Dead compares so I’ll be reviewing that next.

Horrifically yours,

Slick Dungeon