Sam Raimi: Dragged Back To Horror - page 2
30 May 2009
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The gamble paid off, and the film quickly gained cult status, enjoying strong reviews and - more importantly - high ticket sales.
Before long, Raimi found himself back in the US, eagerly distributed and successful.
But the filmmaker's next project, 'Crimewave' - a film written by the Coen Brothers which saw a comic book come to life - was a flop.
Raimi was back where he started and his next film, 'Evil Dead II', was almost a remake of his first movie, but better in every way - bigger budget, more confidently made, scarier, much funnier and with much more Bruce Campbell.
Campbell and Raimi met when they were children and remain close to this day. He starred in the original 'Evil Dead', but feel he and Raimi really hit their stride in the sequel.
The film became a big hit and Raimi started to make big money for the first time in his career.
Campbell recalls: "'Evil Dead II' finally broke our investors even and got them into a little bit of profit after six or seven years. We wanted to be able to go into our local multiplex where we had seen 'The Poseidon Adventure' and actually be able to see our own movie there. And that was great. We did that!"
When the film was released, the world was Raimi's oyster. As the 1990s beckoned, he decided to branch out.
First, he dove straight into one of his great loves, superheroes, creating his own in 1990 with 'Darkman'.
Liam Neeson played a scientist who sought revenge on a group of thugs who leave him disfigured after breaking into his lab. It was a big gamble especially and it didn't pay off, taking little money at the box office.
The third part of the 'Evil Dead' trilogy followed in 1993 with 'Army Of Darkness'. Turning its back on horror, the film - which starred Campbell again - was set in medieval times and featured an epic battle against an army of undead skeletons. The film was heavily edited by the studio and received mixed reviews.
Raimi then turned his attention to big budget 1995 western 'The Quick and the Dead', which starred Gene Hackman, Sharon Stone, a young Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.
Raimi's fast paced, original camerawork made an excellent satire on the spaghetti western, but did not perform will at the box office.
Raimi carried on changing subjects frequently over his next films and in 1998 won the highest critical acclaim of his career so far with 'A Simple Plan', a film about two brothers who find millions of dollars, starring Billy Bob Thornton.
However, Raimi suffered setbacks with his next film, 'For Love of the Game', a Kevin Costner project, which flopped. It was only in 2000 with the supernaturally tinged 'The Gift' that Raimi started to win back audiences.
The present decade has, however, seen Raimi gain the box office recognition he always deserved, and it's all been due to a geeky press photographer called Pete Parker.
A lifelong comic book fan and a devotee of the superhero in question - Spider-Man - Raimi was picked over bigger directors to helm the film adaptation in 2002.
This placed him back behind the camera playing to his strengths of fast paced action, comic books and subtle humour.
With a great young cast in Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, balanced with a veteran in Willem DaFoe, and an incredible special effects team Raimi stuck absolute gold. Technological advances allowed him to create the sort of scenes he could never conceivably have put together in 1993, let alone fifteen years when he was just stating out.
'Spider-Man' proved a massive hit worldwide, with it's shy, reluctant hero (who, it must be said, bore a slight resemblance to Raimi himself) and mind blowing visuals, which pleased mainstream audiences and, importantly, kept comic book fans happy.
The series has since become one of the most popular superhero franchises of all time, renewed for another three parts, with a fourth installment presently in production - all with Raimi at the helm, an almost unprecedented move for a big budget film series.
There were however, rumours of clashes on set between the director and his studio, and he has publicly stated that he had lost creative control of the third film in 2007.
As a result of this conflict, Raimi was thrilled to be back in control with 'Drag Me to Hell'.
"I feel like the last two years have been a vacation with working on a horror film," Raimi added. "What I love about these movies is the fact that the audiences are the greatest to entertain for. They have so much appreciation for these projects that it makes my job as a director that much more worthwhile."
What's more, 'Drag Me to Hell' is a taster of another project which is sure to keep horror fans more than happy - in April the director announced he is warming up for another 'Evil Dead' project, which he is hoping to get off the ground next year.
By Andy Tillett
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