How the Underrated Evil Dead Sequel Created Its Undead Army, Explained by VFX Supervisor

Summary

• The Army of Darkness
  He used a combination of stop-motion in the foreground and motion control in the background to bring his undead army to life.
• It took the visual effects artists up to 36 hours to complete some scenes of the film.
• After the two most recent ones
  evil Dead
  film, a future film in the franchise should return to the whimsical tone and setting of
  The Army of Darkness
  .

The Army of Darkness Visual effects supervisor William Mesa explains how evil Dead sequel has created its own army of the undead. Marking the third chapter in Raimi’s cult horror saga, The Army of Darkness was released in 1992, following Bruce Campbell’s Ash as he is transported back to 1300 AD where he must once again battle the forces of evil to recover the Necronomicon and return home. The film, even more than its predecessors, features a large number of visual effects-driven sequences, especially since an army of skeletal monsters plays a major role in the story.

During a recent appearance on Corridor staffIn the series “VFX Artists React”, Mesa recalls his experience working on The Army of Darknessin particular how difficult it was to bring the film’s skeleton soldiers to life.

Mesa reveals that many of the skeletons in the foreground were filmed using stop-motion techniques, but the motion control and “mechanical plants” were often used for background skeletons. The visual effects supervisor agrees with co-host Niko Puerginger’s assessment that many of the background skeletons were essentially “little robots” that were designed to move their arms, swing a sword, set a tombstone, and other movements. See a comment by Mesa below regarding how long some The Army of Darkness shots taken:

“We did some of these shoots that took 36 hours straight. They would do them in marathons. They would take breaks and stuff like that, but they knew it was a lot of pressure and work.”

Will there be another Army of Darkness-style movie in the Evil Dead series?

This unique tone of Sam Raimi should return

While each of the evil Dead the film is unique, The Army of Darkness It is truly an exception for its setting and tone. The film’s medieval setting is a drastic change from the cabin in the woods of previous installments, and the action is generally less restrained. After Raimi’s entry in 1992, the franchise remained dormant until 2013. evil Dead remake, which returned to the cabin in the woods setting. 2023 The house is back instead moved the action to an apartment building, but the film was just as sober.

The Army of Darkness
It received generally positive reviews from critics and currently has a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes. The audience score is a much more impressive 87%.

After The house is back, There are currently two projects in development in the franchiseone by director Sébastien Vaniček and another by director Francis Galluppi. While Vaniček’s film has been described as a evil Dead spinoff, Galluppi’s is said to be an original idea. Plot details for both films are under wraps, but Raimi will apparently be producing both.

So far the strategy with the two recent evil Dead film is to keep things essentially contained in one location, and both films lean more toward horror than comedy. To keep things fresh for the franchise while also harking back to Raimi’s original work, It would be interesting to see one of the two new ones evil Dead the movies try something a little more outlandish and a little more daringIt remains to be seen whether a The Army of Darknesswill never return to the franchise, but it would certainly be exciting to see an army of skeletons and the undead.

Source: Corridor staff