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Hi all.
Back in 2004, my friends and I shot a Within The Woods remake during the summer and showed it in a church basement (The only place we could rent at the time...) for a good 50 people. We were 14 at the time and a bit dumb in the ways of copyrights and sold it on DVD online and to friends, which attracted the attention of Sam Raimi and his lawyers, which send us a cease and desist letter, which of course we did. That summer, I had corresponded with Tom Sullivan on some pointers for the effects in the film and he was more than helpful. I actually got to meet him at the Evil Dead musical representation in Montréal, which I managed to sneak into while being underage. (I was pretty tall for my age though...) Ellen Sandweiss, Ted Raimi and Josh Becker also gave us some pointers via e-mail, which of course got us real excited in the project. The original cut was 40 minutes and had more scenes in the beginning and more scenes in the end than the original, while the middle part was pretty shot for shot. We also tried as best we could to have the songs and incorporate other songs from the era. Then, in 2008, I recut it to a slimmer 20 mins version and now have color corrected as best as Hi-8 Camera footage can be and made new titles that are more complete.

Anyways, all this to say that this is one of my favorite projects past and have had the chance to get in touch with some of the ED people to make it, keep in mind we were kids when we made this and I'd love to have your feedback on it. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH72AEZL ... ature=plcp

Wow this looks great. I'll check it out. Glad you were allowed to show it...

Dude you live in Quebec? I live in Montreal! You story is awesome. I'm going to keep this video for later, I got to leave soon. Will report after I see it.

I'm actually living in Montréal right now. Anxious to hear your thoughts on it.

Well I watched it!

I loved it! It's very true the original. I even laughed out loud when I noticed "Bruce" had the exact same white and yellow shirt! I particularly like how the quality of the film in these times (sound/picture) in a way reflects the quality of the actual copies of Within the Woods that exists on bootlegs and are floating around the web. The use of the music was a good touch and I felt that everyone involved made a great effort. Of course I wouldn't complain about the quality of the acting. Bruce and Ellen are hard to match up to, but the spirit was really there and I feel that is what really counts. Nice makeup effects too!

I see that in this specific edit you added the deleted scene from ED II of Deadite Ash biting a squirrel's head off and you changed up the cellar scene as well as the end fight scene. I find that to be particularly interesting.

Of course, this does not go without some constructive criticism. I don't know if this was intentional, but there was two times where the audio wasn't perfect. When Ellen and Bruce are out for their picnic, there seemed to be a point where the music was just loud enough that I had difficulty figuring out what Ellen was saying. And I put the volume on max with head phones. There's one particular part as well when Shelley is talking to Ellen and I couldn't figure out what she was saying. I also felt that the editing during the final fight scene was a little too fast paced but that just might be me.

Otherwise, I think that it was really awesome. I missed out on Evil Dead: The Musical in Montreal (I was 16 and not living in Montreal, and my Dad disallowed me to go). It's awesome that you got that experience and all the help from the ED crew. It's also cool to see that this was filmed in Lennoxville and Sherbrooke! I don't know if you know of the town Knowlton, but it's my hometown. And I was born in Sherbrooke.

Vraiment bien mon ami!

Thanks for the review. I do agree some parts are less than stellar, but of course, it was a great learning experience. Bill Paxton was also in attendance of that particular showing of the musical, which Tom Sullivan pointed out to me during the evening, another fun little story of that project. I'm also glad you speak of the gusto of our actors, as I did my best to emulate without emulating Bruce for the movie. The look was also intentional, this originally being edited with Windows Movie Maker made is sort that our footage looked terrible, but as you said, I think it adds to the charm.

I am finishing up work on my first feature right now which should be available next summer. The film is called "The Devil's Music", was also shot in Sherbrooke and North Hatley and we're planning a premiere in June or July. I'll post the details if you're interested in coming.

More info for that here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Devil ... 0622020421