Girls of Geek Blu Ray Review: "Army of Darkness"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

When it comes to our favorite films, we would be lying if we said that we didn't obsess over every single detail about them. When a movie truly captivates you and sucks you in, you have to know more about the world and the story and everything in between and the advent of DVD allowed for us to achieve that goal of total knowledge.  

But as the years have progressed, commentaries and special features are simply common place anymore so it's rare to find a company that realizes that the extras are important...but they have to be special as well and one company that understands this and executes incredible releases every single chance they get is Shout Factory. I've yet to buy a blu ray from them that wasn't filled to the brim with incredible extras and recently, they managed to release the definitive edition of Sam Raimi's horror/comedy masterpiece, Army of Darkness.


What makes this particular Collector's Edition stand out above the rest begins with the basics, the film itself. Once again Shout Factory has outdone themselves with an incredible high definition transfer of the film giving Army of Darkness a look and feel I've never experienced before with how crisp and beautiful it looks now. There are details to be found in this film I've never seen before and it doesn't end there. Not only did they remaster the theatrical cut of the film, but this three disc set includes the Director's Cut, with the original ending remastered as well and seeing that in high def for the first time ever is a true treat and you'll also find the International Version and Television Version in this set as well.

But the extras that I made mention of, the ones that bring back that sense of wonder are the true highlight of this entire release. A fascinating new 96 minute documentary on the making of the film entitled Medieval Times: The Making of Army of Darkness takes you deep into the process of how the film was made with interviews from Bruce Campbell and the like and this documentary is just the beginning since you'll find deleted scenes, behind the scenes footage from KNB Effects, vintage behind the scenes footage and interviews from back in the day and the list simply goes on and on. 

I personally have owned this Collector's Edition for about a week now and I'm still pouring over the incredible library of special features, it's that vast. But what matters most when it comes to picking this particular Edition up, is the fact that this is the one that finally pays Army of Darkness the respect it is due. I've never seen it look or sound better and this is the finest set of extras I've ever seen when it comes to this film. If you're an Evil Dead then this is a must own to say the least and my thanks go out to Shout Factory once again for putting together such an incredible release and I really cannot wait to see what this company has in store for us in 2016.

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