How "Within the Woods" ignited the "Evil Dead" series

ASH, HOW FAR YOU HAVE COME!!

We all know the lovable, hap-hazard adventures of Ash Williams, S-Marts finest. From the big screen to the small screen, Ash has become an icon of horror, a monument to the clueless hero, and what I like to view as an Indiana Jones type of the demonically possessed. But I truly wonder how many know or even seen the prequel, the prototype short that spawned the amazing series that put Ash directly in front of horror fans in the first place. Today for those unaware of "Within the Woods" or even the history behind this pre-Evil Dead prototype, I will do my best to get you up to date on the efforts Sam Raimi and crew put into this little Evil Dead masterpiece.

As a treat to those that have never seen Within the Woods, I will directly host the short film below directly on this article so you can view it in its entirety. A word of warning, there is no decent copy available right now online, maybe one day we will get a remastered edition from Sam Raimi for fans. Currently all we have is a very chewed up VHS copy, still worth a watch though seeing this is the original beginnings for Evil Dead and its fanatics.

"the gore the merrier" ~Sam Raimi

In 1978 three friends set out to make a short horror film with high hopes to gain some attention and later secure their dream to make a full length feature. Joining forces on this task was Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Ellen Sandweiss who had all grown up together, true friends in life who all had aspirations to get into cinema as their craft. To do this, after a few shorts in the bag already, Sam Raimi secured $1600 to produce his next horror short venture "Within the Woods" and hopefully spawn a full length version down the road.

Before the development stages of Within the Woods, Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell were long time friends. The pair had produced several low-budget films with super 8 mm film during their very early days. During the early parts of Raimi's career, he directed films that were pretty much classified as comedies and spoofs, such as Booby Bartenders, Shemp Eats the Moon and The Great Bogus Monkey Pignut Swindle. While those films were described as "goofy" and primitive by members of the cast and crew, Raimi eventually produced the short film It's Murder!, which featured mostly comedic moments. One of the sequences of the film involved a suspenseful moment where a criminal jumped on an unsuspecting individual. Raimi later dismissed the short film, but complimented that scene, stating that it was "the only part of It's Murder! that really worked well."

While working on the film, it inspired Raimi to approach the horror genre with more enthusiasm, leading to the conception of his next short film Clockwork. The film featured a woman being stalked by a demented man, and launched an interest in Raimi to pursue working on more horror films. While both Raimi and Campbell expressed a positive opinion on the genre, they admitted they had little experience with the genre and went to drive-in theaters to research various science fiction and horror films. Raimi developed the motto "the gore the merrier" during these sessions at the drive-in, and quickly developed an interest in films featuring high levels of blood which later became a trademark of Raimi's.

In addition to Raimi's interest in various horror films, one of the main inspirations came in the writing of H. P. Lovecraft, who introduced the concept of the "book of the dead" to Raimi. Raimi studied the concept of magical books, in particular the Necronomicon, which formed the basis of the "Within the Woods". Campbell described the film as a combination of "creative writing and ancient history". In order to flesh out the idea, Raimi came up with a concept where a group of teenagers went into the woods and were attacked by demonic spirits, summoned by the disturbance of an Indian burial ground. The book of the dead concept was not present in the finished film, but appeared extensively in later films by Raimi.

Raimi was able to secure $1600 to produce the film. Raimi and Campbell collected a group of their friends and family who were interested in participating in the production of the film. The film was primarily shot at a farm house belonging to one of Raimi's friends located in Marshall, Michigan. One of the regular actors involved with Raimi's early short films, Ellen Sandweiss, was cast as the film's protagonist. This decision stemmed from the notion that most horror films at the time involved female leads, who were more enjoyable to watch terrorized. The current boyfriend of Sandweiss was cast as the film's antagonist, a demon who threatens the cast. Campbell was cast as one of the protagonists, though he initially was not familiar with horror cinema and instead identified as a fan of comedies. One of the films that inspired Campbell's interest in the genre was John Carpenter's film Halloween. Another Raimi regular, Scott Spiegel, was also cast as a protagonist based on his prior collaborations with the group.

The effects of the film were entirely low-budget. Nearly every effect in the film was done via things picked up at a make-up and Halloween store located close to where the film was shot. The effects in the film were notably more intricate than the simple ones featured in Raimi's prior projects, and contained mutilated bodies, stabbed body parts and demonic possession skin-attachments. Tom Sullivan was one of the primary make-up supervisors on set, and he found it difficult working presentable effects out of such low budgets. One notable example involved a chest stabbing rig that had to be attached to Spiegel's chest by straps and duct tape.

Campbell had to sleep wearing his make-up. Because of several scenes that required to be shot in both the day and the night, it was considered easiest to have Campbell sleep all night wearing his make-up, since removing it was too complicated. When Campbell eventually had the effect removed, he was alarmed to notice that his face had actually "changed shape" because of how long the make-up had been applied, though it returned to normal after an extended amount of time. This serves as one of several moments where the film-makers had to be creative to make the film considering the low budget. Other examples include blacking out the windows to make scenes darker and shooting all night long to make the filming schedule. Raimi had to get increasingly inventive during production, often coming up with "bizarre" ideas while shooting scenes. This led to him experimenting with camera moves and camera speeds, "taking it a little further than we had gone before, recording synch-sound at a third slower for a more monstrous effect.

WITH FILMING COMPLETED, IT'S NOW TIME FOR THE SHOW

Though production was difficult for many of the actors involved, especially Campbell, the film was eventually completed within acceptable budget limits. Raimi had completed the filming of his "prototype" and sought out to develop and edit the film as cheaply as possible. Though at the time it was unknown how the film was going to be distributed. Raimi had shot the film in the same style as many of his earlier films, with 8mm film. He intended to blow the footage up after filming to the industry standard of 35mm in order to save money, though Campbell noted that the idea was without precedent. Though the request was "obscure" in nature, a company in San Francisco managed to accommodate the task with little difficulty. Upon testing how the footage looked at a local movie theater, it came out mostly acceptable, until further tests led to the footage appearing grainy and difficult to make out.

After production, Raimi virtually had no idea how the film was going to be distributed and what would come of it. The main idea behind shooting the film was to make a trailer to show to future investors, but even that was proving to be difficult. Eventually, Raimi got in contact with a manager at a movie theater in Detroit who was "open and flexible". The same theater played The Rocky Horror Picture Show every single week and was open to more unusual cinema. To Raimi's shock, the manager agreed to screen Within the Woods right before a midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The premiere of the film received a positive reception by the audience, and the cast and crew was paid just over $10, all of which was donated to the American Cancer Society. The film, however, was never commercially released.

While critics mostly ignored the locally distributed, low-budget horror film, local The Detroit News critic Michael McWilliams watched the premiere of the film, writing that "it will probably never be advertised alongside the glossy, big-budget horror movies of our time, but you won't easily forget a locally produced little film called Within the Woods. He compared the low-budget film to the blockbuster The Amityville Horror, writing that it provided more scares. Tom Sulivan, the make-up supervisor of the film, stated that the film "really packs a punch", and expressed a positive opinion of working on the project.

AND THEN THERE CAME "THE EVIL DEAD"

In order to produce a follow-up picture, Raimi needed nearly $150,000. Raimi approached Phil Gillis, a lawyer to one of his friends, asking if he wanted to invest money into the production of a remake. Gillis was unimpressed with Within the Woods, but offered Raimi legal advice on how to approach further productions. Raimi approached several investors, "begging" for money, and eventually acquired nearly $90,000 of the funds needed and set out to make the movie anyway.

Within the Woods was later retooled by Raimi with a vastly higher production value and a full-length running time as the 1981 film The Evil Dead. The Evil Dead would go on to be the first installment of a film franchise spawning two sequels, Evil Dead II (1987), and Army of Darkness (1992), both of which were directed by Raimi and featured Campbell as Ash Williams. A remake, known as Evil Dead, was released in 2013 with Raimi and Campbell as producers and creative consultants. In 2015, the Starz television network began airing the ongoing comedy horror series Ash vs Evil Dead, which features Bruce Campbell returning as an older Ash Williams.

Several aspects of Within the Woods were later presented in future Raimi films, including the use of the "Raimi-cam", a camera rig that creates a fluent flow of camera movement. Other elements, such as graphic imagery, bleak endings, and mutilations, defined many of Raimi's other films. Raimi has put Campbell in cameo roles in all three of Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, as well as several other films.

A FINAL THOUGHT

With such an amazing history and tons of Evil Dead fans worldwide now, its important to note that the efforts by this young and ambitious crew on this short film really has gone a long way in movie making history, especially for the horror genre itself. It goes to show us that sometimes if you put your mind to it, involve a few friends and share a dream, we can sometimes ignite so much with such humble beginnings as long as we put the time and effort into our goals. Sadly there isn't a very great quality copy of "Within the Woods" to really do justice to the people who worked hard on this but I still suggest you give it a watch here just for the respect of what they gave to us horror fans.

WITHIN THE WOODS (1978) FULL SHORT HORROR FILM

~Where Horrors Dwell
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