Forty-five years ago, Sam Raimi crossed the line from being a young director essentially making an above-board home movie to a known director and setting himself in time on the course to become a renowned figure in Hollywood blockbusters—and it all started with a trap to some boggy backwoods with some friends of his. Here’s my take on how inspirational the story behind Evil Dead is.
The film itself is pretty simple in plot—some pals decide to hole up in a log cabin, and stumble across a cursed Necronomicon book. As this is a horror film, they have to read from it, and horrible things ensue, leading them to be besieged by horrors and possessive spirits, until one—Bruce Campbell, accompanied by his eternal co-star that is Bruce Campbell’s awesome chin—as the last survivor.
I strongly recommend Campbell’s biography, even If you aren’t necessarily interested in this type of film. This takes you back to an era before iPhones or anything digital, when if you really wanted something done, you had to go out and do it yourself. Raimi and friends had to come up with creative ways for the demented camera angles and sweeps that became the former’s trademark—jury-rigging their own setups, or even just sliding the camera along greased tables.
If anything, the shoot itself became a horror film—there was some tension with the family they had to rent the cabin from, with constant assurances that perhaps they’d put one of them in the film—you’d almost expect banjos and sawn-off shotguns to get involved at some point. Yet, through all the torture, bad weather, and uncertainty if anyone would even watch this, they went all the way—and in perseverance, in having to adapt, they made something with its own distinct style. That enough made the film into a remarkable box office hit for what it was—and in the process, gives inspiration to indie filmmakers. No matter the tools we have since, there’s always the incentive to do something unique with those.
The first one thus has that DIY, gritty sensibility —despite some eyebrow-raising scene and slightly flaky masks—but many people lean to the more slickly produced sequels, which had actual budgets. Each one got goofier than the one before, and for this reason I admit I wasn’t sold fully on Evil Dead 2 on first watch—but after seeing it on the big screen, with all the visual gags, I appreciate it more. Perhaps many people’s favorite is Army of Darkness, involving time travel and skeleton armies in medieval England, where Campbell unleashed his full overacting in all the best ways.
There was of course a reboot in 2013, which wasn’t anything too special but had some nice effects, and a streaming show bringing back Campbell—and some newer films going back to the full horror roots of the series. Either way, for me it’s important not to forget the roots here, and with low-budget horror and creators still breaking into success all these years later, I say the story of Evil Dead applies just as much today…
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