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THE STORY BEHIND THE EVIL DEAD After making several short films, Raimi and buddies Bruce Campbell and Robert Tapert dropped out of college and decided to fund their own feature film. In order to raise the cash, the three of them got jobs as a busboy, a janitor and a cab driver respectively. They raised a reasonable amount, but not enough to fund a feature, so they made a short film called Within the Woods, which was a condensed version of a script Raimi had written called Book of the Dead.   Using this, they gathered cash from reliable sources such as lawyers and bankers( Raimi had had to refuse an offer from a bookmaker who threatened to break both his legs if he didn't see a return on his investment). They raised in total between $48000 and $54000.     After securing the capital and the location, the decision about the cast had to be made. Campbell, who was co-producer and had starred in Within the Woods, was to play the role of Ash, and Ellen Sandwiess, another of the trio's college friends and co-star in Within the Woods was also persuaded to return, as was special effects man Tom Sullivan. But there were still three other roles to fill. Eventually, Raimi manged to convince three unemployed actors in the Detroit area to star in his low budget splatter flick.   It was a gruelling two month shoot, up in the woods and in winter weather, but the cast and crew remained determined and eventually all that was left to shoot was the stop-motion finale.   During post-production, Raimi hired old pal Joel Coen as an editing assistant, the Joel Coen who, along with brother Ethan, would go on to make, amongst others, Raising Arizona (1986), Fargo (1996) and The Big Lebowski (1998).     Soon, test screenings were held and the film was picked up by veteran producer Irvin Shapiro for distribution, and the film was taken to the Cannes film festival in 1982.     Stephen King, who was in Cannes promoting his film Creepshow with George A. Romero (another master), saw the film and rave reviewed it, saying it was "The most ferociously original horror film of 1982". A while after that, the film was released in American theatres, where it was a modest hit but generated a large cult following on video. In the UK, the film was released with several cuts and then released on video. Following serial mad bitch Mary Whitehouse's ravings, the film was withdrawn under the Video Recordings Act, along with the likes of I Spit on Your Grave, The Exorcist and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Eventually, the film was again released on video, albeit with several more cuts, reducing the running time by a total 1 minute and 6 seconds, including several seconds from the infamous tree rape sequence, Shelly's dismemberment, and from a scene in which Cheryl, who has become a Deadite (a term not used until the end of part two), stabs Linda in the ankle with a pencil and then wiggles it. The BBFC cut the scene from three wiggles to one, because, according to the BBFC, three wiggles is totally unacceptable and wrong and able to corrupt fragile little minds, but one wiggle is a-okay. Even Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn has two seconds cut from it, despite the fact that the gore is so over the top you'd have to be disturbed to find it disturbing. Go to the exellent Evil Dead site Within the Woods, which has a list of the offending cuts and how long each of them is.