Editorials
Double Feature 1992: ‘Army Of Darkness’ vs ‘Amityville: It’s About Time’
Author: Matt Pass
What’s your favorite horror movie? Why is it your favorite? Is it because of the scares? The mood? The cast? Or is it because it’s better than the hundred of shitty movies you saw before hand?
The only reason we can have good horror movies is because we have bad horror movies. You can’t truly appreciate a movie’s achievements without being aware of other movies’ failures. A better understanding of failure–and how to avoid it–is the purpose of this column. Obviously it doesn’t make sense to compare The Babadook to Plan 9 from Outer Space, so I will be examining two movies both released in the same year. Today I’ve chosen to visit 1992. Why 1992? Because… I dunno, cuz that’s when the Cold War ended?
I watched Amityville: It’s About Time and Army of Darkness. Not only are both movies sequels (the sixth and third movies in their respective franchises), but both refrain from including a number in the title. Let’s face it, nobody is going to watch something called “The Amityville Horror Part 6” if they haven’t seen the previous five. Fittingly, they both act as standalone films, able to be understood without the context of their predecessors. Coincidentally, they both involve time travel.
Given the aforementioned similarities, the difference in execution is vast. Both get a bit silly at times, but the important difference is that one movie knows when it’s being silly, but the other is stubbornly claiming to be serious anyway. Army of Darkness focuses on a quest with a concrete goal: Ash is sent back in time and has to retrieve the Necronomicon…and battle with an army of, well, y’know, darkness (darkness, in this case, refers to stop-motion skeletons). It’s About Time, on the other hand, is more of a mystery, i.e. “Hey, what’s up with these clocks that are ruining our lives?” Interestingly, the filmmaking processes seem to reflect the aforementioned themes: the Army of Darkness crew was on a quest to make the movie they envisioned, while the Amityville crew was trying to solve the mystery of what the hell they wanted their movie to be about.
As a standalone story within a franchise, Army of Darkness allows for further development of Ash’s character in a completely different setting, and oh man does he flourish. It is here that Bruce Campbell perfected the attitude and wit that would later make him the only redeeming quality in “Burn Notice”. Army of Darkness said “Hey, let’s expand ‘Evil Dead’ into a whole new story” and It’s About Time says “Hey, let’s take a story and then spray paint ‘Amityville’ on it.” It’s about a clock that can manipulate time (yes… it’s literally about time). It can slow the progression of time. It can take us to the past, or the future. It possesses other clocks. It possesses a wristwatch–meaning it is no longer limited to the house containing the clock. It possesses a microwave clock! That’s insane. You thought adjusting your microwave for Daylight Saving time was hard already? Try doing it when it’s haunted. Did it possess the whole microwave or just its clock? Is it still safe to cook food in it? Those questions are never answered, because during the third act the writers suddenly realized that they were obligated to have a man try to kill his family. The main thing hindering this movie is the fact that it’s “The Amityville Horror Part 6” instead of “Freakin’ Scary Clock Part 1”.
Army of Darkness works because it is a pretty believable story of the Necronomicon in a different time period. The fact that it’s called Army of Darkness instead of “Evil Dead 3” is fitting, because it isn’t quite the ‘Evil Dead’. It has ‘Evil Dead’ characters and elements, but it’s just a little bit different, containing more action and humor. It’s like a spinoff. And it’s a good spinoff! It’s what a spinoff should be. It’s like “Better Call Saul”, whereas Amityville 6 is more like when Joey spun off of “Friends”–it’s got like one thing from the original, but we’re already pretty bored of that thing.
Amityville: It’s About Time doesn’t work because it can’t decide what it wants to be. A more apt title would have been “Amityville: It’s About Time (But Also a Bunch of Other Things)”. In the beginning it’s about the cool haunted clock, then it shifts focus to some black ooze that can do pretty much whatever it wants, before finally trying to be The Amityville Horror. This film seems like an anthology that doesn’t even bother to have its actors change costume between stories. This movie would be good to catch on TV, because if you accidentally watched only a random 20 minutes of it, you’d probably enjoy those 20 minutes (not that you’d ever need to watch it on TV–it’s available in full on Youtube, which is not a good sign. If it’s creators don’t care about the copyright infringement, why should I give a shit about their movie?). This movie is the Amityville movie that seems like it should have Ryan Reynolds in it. It’s About Time has a great soundtrack, which is the same as telling an ugly person that they have a great personality.
When Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell were making the original Evil Dead, I’m sure they weren’t thinking “In a few years, this character will be sword fighting,” yet by the time it happens it makes sense. I’m not too fond of medieval themed films (the only other one I’ve seen is Martin Lawrence’s Black Knight) but it works, because this movie isn’t about medieval times, it’s about a bad ass named Ash, who you can tell is wearing Old Spice.
You know what else makes this movie for me? Skeletons. I love getting to see a walking talking skeleton. But you never get to see them in a serious context–it’s pretty much just here and Scary Movie 2. If anybody knows a movie with actual scary walking skeletons, PLEASE tell me about it.
Bookended by scenes taking place in the present day, Army of Darkness reminds us that while Ash may have won the war in the past, there’s still evil afoot in the present (which we will see in Ash vs Evil Dead).
Ironically, It’s About Time has a mostly satisfying ending. I’ve seen so many horror movies fall apart during the final act, yet this movie’s final scene it one of its best. After time is shifted to the past, we are again shown (a slightly different version of) the movie’s first scene, some of which makes more sense after having seen the events that transpired.
In fairness, I will admit that Army of Darkness is not perfect: the scene with the mini-Ashes was greatly enhanced by my decision to fast forward through it. The terrible green screen effects are the least infuriating thing about it. It adds nothing to the movie but frustration.
But hey–it’s still better than the other crap they were putting out in 1992. Remember when I said Amityville had a mostly satisfying ending? Well, the lead female’s final line is “It’s about time,” which you may recognize as the title of the film. This is only slightly less insulting than if she had looked directly into the camera and said “fuck you” to the audience.
Matt Pass is a columnist at Paste Magazine and can be found on Twitter @mattpasscomedy. Give him some sugar, baby.
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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