This week on Bad Dads Film Review, we complete our accidental trilogy of “third things.” After covering Close Encounters of the Third Kind on the midweek show, we turn to Army of Darkness, Sam Raimi’s third Evil Dead film, and use that as an excuse to dig into the noble, messy and often suspicious art of the threequel. There is no formal intro this week — time has apparently been attacked by Deadites — so we open with a catch-up on what everyone has been watching. Reegs has been busy with Backrooms, Obsession, Disclosure Day and Apple TV’s Cape Fear, which gets a recommendation so long as you know going in that it is extremely ridiculous. Sidey has finally finished The Pit, finding the second season weaker than the first but still worth the time, and has also watched Backrooms and started The Mandalorian. Dan has finished series five of Slow Horses, which he continues to push as an absolute treat, and has also seen The Odyssey at the cinema, where three hours apparently went by surprisingly quickly. That leads us into the usual wandering preamble: 4DX screenings with shaking seats, water and wind; panoramic side-screen cinema formats; the Sphere in Vegas; Sidey somehow still not having made it to IMAX; Spider-Man: Brand New Day and big cinema opening weekends; Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal on Hot Ones; and the general horror of people getting overconfident with hot sauce before reality arrives in liquid form. The Top 5 this week is third films in a franchise, which gives us one of those lists where genuinely great films sit shoulder to shoulder with absolute nonsense. Dan opens strongly with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, a film that swept the Oscars so hard it practically brought its own broom. Sidey goes for Toy Story 3, remembering Lotso, Spanish Buzz, the daycare escape, the furnace sequence and the emotional finality of Andy giving up his toys. Reegs makes a spirited defence of The Matrix Revolutions, arguing that its uneasy truce ending and refusal to give everyone a simple victory has aged better than its reputation suggests. From there, we move through Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, with Sean Connery, River Phoenix and the Holy Grail; The Bourne Ultimatum, which Sidey remembers as peak Jason Bourne closure and kinetic shaky-cam action; Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, praised by Reegs for Rocket’s unexpectedly emotional backstory; The Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult, because Frank Drebin remains Frank Drebin; and Die Hard with a Vengeance, which gives Sidey an excuse to talk about Zeus, Simon Says, Jeremy Irons and New York puzzle chaos. There are plenty of other third-film detours too, including RoboCop 3, Austin Powers in Goldmember, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Alien 3, John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum, Back to the Future Part III, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the Cornetto trilogy, Avengers: Infinity War, Blade: Trinity, Karate Kid Part III and Ocean’s 13. Sidey bends the rules by choosing the third episode of Twin Peaks, “Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer,” while Dan lands on Before Midnight, the third film in Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy. Eventually, we arrive in 1300 AD for Army of Darkness itself. Dan has not seen it, but has correctly gathered that this is not really the same kind of horror film as The Evil Dead. Reegs, who has seen it many times, explains the tonal journey of the series: the first film as bleak, grimy horror; Evil Dead II as a genuine horror-comedy masterpiece; and Army of Darkness as the point where Ash becomes the full cartoon version of himself — part action hero, part idiot, part Bruce Campbell chin-delivery system. We talk about Sam Raimi’s direction, Bill Pope’s cinematography before The Matrix, Danny Elfman’s contribution to the score, and the way Raimi’s visual energy clearly echoes forward into later filmmakers such as Edgar Wright. The plot is gloriously simple and gloriously stupid: Ash is dragged through time after Evil Dead II, lands in the middle of a medieval conflict between Lord Arthur and Henry the Red, gets thrown into a pit, fights Deadites, reclaims his chainsaw hand, introduces everyone to the boomstick, and immediately becomes insufferable once the locals start treating him as their prophesied saviour. The film then sends Ash off to retrieve the Necronomicon, with one very clear instruction: say the words “Klaatu barada nikto” before taking the book. Naturally, Ash being Ash, he half-remembers, fudges it and unleashes the titular army of darkness. Along the way we get the windmill sequence, tiny mirror Ashes, Three Stooges slapstick, bad Ash splitting out of good Ash, Sheila falling for exactly the worst man available, and a castle siege finale full of skeletons, homemade weapons, a modified car and Ray Harryhausen-style chaos. We also get into the two endings: the darker UK/director’s cut version, where Ash takes too many drops and wakes up in a ruined future, and the more crowd-pleasing US S-Mart ending, where he returns to work, tells the story and gets one last heroic Deadite showdown. Reegs prefers the bleaker ending because it feels funnier and more in keeping with Ash’s ability to mess up almost everything. The verdict is affectionate, even if slightly qualified. Reegs still thinks Evil Dead II is the one to watch if you only watch one Evil Dead film, and he does not think Army of Darkness is great in quite the same way. But it is funny, quotable, inventive and packed with cult moments: the boomstick, S-Mart, “primitive screwheads,” bad magic words, skeleton armies and Bruce Campbell at maximum Ash. Sidey thinks Dan would probably enjoy it, describing it as something like The Princess Bride with Ray Harryhausen effects and comedy horror nonsense thrown in. So the final recommendation is simple: if you only watch one, Reegs says watch Evil Dead II. If you ask Sidey, just watch them all. You can now text us anonymously to leave feedback, suggest future content or simply hurl abuse at us. We'll read out any texts we receive on the show. Click here to try it out! We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. 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