THE FILMING

Sam Raimi attended Michigan State University where he ran a film society with his friend Robert Tapert. They, along with a friend, Bruce Campbell made a number of Super-8 films inspired by the the Three Stooges. Robert Tapert was the one who came up with the idea of making a feature film and it wasn't long before Sam wrote a script entitled The Book Of The Dead. The three friends dropped out of school and formed a partnership which they called Renaissance Pictures.

Before filming could begin on The Book Of The Dead funding was needed. The three worked a number of jobs and finally raised enough money to film Within The Woods, a short 30 minutes splatter flick based on Raimi's script. They used this to promote the full feature length film. Sam would get his 8mm projector and pin a bedsheet to the wall and show potential investors the film they wanted to make. This task took a long time and the people that invested where mostly doctors, businessmen and lawyers but eventually they gathered enough money to begin shooting.

Now all that was needed was the crew. Sam Raimi would direct, Rob Tapert would produce and Bruce Campbell would play the part of Ash, the films hero. Two other school friends joined them. These were Ellen Sandweiss who played Cheryl (Ash's sister) and Tom Sullivan who would create the make up and special effects and who had also filmed many of his own Super 8 movies full of special effects and stop-motion animation. After these three Detroit actors (Hal Delrick, Betsy Baker and Sarah York) were hired to play the parts of Ash's friends.

Filming began on The Evil Dead in November of 1979. It was the start of a gruelling three-month shoot in freezing cold weather with an unprofessional crew and a lack of funds. During a lot of the shoot many of the cast had to sit around in their deadite make up in between shots and even came to the point where none of the other crew could sit with them during meals. Much of the camera work in the film was thought up by Raimi including the wind demon which was done by mounting a camera in the centre of a plank of wood which was then carried by one person at either end which gave the effect of the camera gliding through the woods. The whole crew were pushed to their limits and often when they weren't acting they were working on some other part of the production.

Even after all the filming in the cabin was complete there was still a lot of effects to be done by Tom Sullivan much of which was shot in Raimi's garage. It took a further 18 months to film and complete all the stop motion footage. After filming was complete the film was edited in New York with the help of one of Raimi's friends, Mr Joel Coen.