If the original Evil Dead was a rapid-fire, genuinely atmospheric gore-fest that threw up just enough rough characterisation and subtly for rollercoaster exorcism on a grand scale, then its sequel at least had the demonic nerve for self-parody at a breathless pace and an endearing sense of black humour. In comparison, this much delayed third instalment is little more than impressively run-of-the-mill.

At the end of the second, supermarket worker Ash (Bruce Campbell) was catapulted back in time to England, circa 1300, replete with his Oldsmobile and chainsaw. (The first two movies are reprised at the opening here with little point and a blink-and-its-gone cameo from Bridget Fonda as the dispensable girlfriend). Desperate to return home, he finds himself embroiled in a quest to recover the means of escape but inadvertently awakens the armies of darkness, cueing the ultimate show-down of man against undead.

Plot and characterisation are thin on the ground in this overlong episode - only Campbell passes muster, and then merely because he also gets all the best lines - possibly to make way for the plethora of special effects and in-jokiness that rush to fill the vacuum. Worse still, there is more than a little evidence of studio tampering, a lack of coherence and structure, so that as a whole any lucidity looks more like coincidence than the result of real directorial imprint. Clever, technically well-executed ideas, like a mirror subdividing the hero into villainous Lilliputian replicas, are thrown away in a minute, as is the idea of Ash's evil alter-ego to lead the final assault. Worst of all, however, is the way in which the film crumbles in the latter half into little more than an extended battle to show-case the sword-fighting skeletons clearly animated in tribute to Ray Harryhausen's already rather cheesy miniature work, here no less tedious than it ever was.

The icing on the cake as far as Army Of Darkness (still called Evil Dead III in some countries) is concerned though comes at the very end where Raimi's original and much bleaker coda (that quotes liberally from the end of Planet of the Apes) is passed over in favour of a standard, sequel-summoning job, which it can only be hoped has just the opposite effect. While not all the blame for this travesty can be laid at Raimi's feet, a substantial amount has to be, and with the evidence of both this and the scrappy but much more enjoyable Darkman behind him, it would be hard not to wonder if his promising talent has largely been bleached out with age. If The Evil Dead has genuine scares, and Evil Dead II genuine laughs, then this can just about summon up a genuine yawn in its favour. Not as much evil as slightly cross.