Sam Raimi: the best projects

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:42

Sam Raimi is the director, creator of the iconic Evil Dead franchise, the horror Drag Me to Hell, the Spider-Man trilogy and many other films. How did his career start? What other projects in Sam Raimi's filmography are worth the attention of an experienced cinephile? Let's find out.

Career start

Sam Raimi's first film was a black comedy with detective elements "It's Murder!", filmed by him in 1977. The budget was only 2 thousand dollars. The main roles in the film were played by Sam Raimi, Scott Spiegel and Bruce Campbell (friend of the director). Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell have been collaborating continuously since this project.

Sam Raimi's next project was the short "In the Woods", the first draft of the famous "Evil Dead". The main roles in the film were played by friends of Sam Raimi, and the budget was even less than the previous project. The horror, lasting only 30 minutes, aroused great interest among viewers and potential investors, which inspired the director to create The Evil Dead.

First confession

In 1979, work began onfeature-length horror film The Evil Dead. Starring Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Betsy Baker and Richard Demenicore. The budget was modest - 350 thousand dollars.

In his film, Sam Raimi used a lot of intimidation, it has many picturesque scenes of torture, murder, violence, for which the film received the most brutal rental rating of NC-17. The film was attacked by censors in many countries of the world, the most violent and explicit scenes were cut out for screening in cinemas.

Critics just fell in love with the creation of Sam Raimi. They noted that the young director managed to create something really scary. The film quickly gained cult status, with horror king Stephen King himself a fan.

The sequel to The Evil Dead came out six years later (in 1987), although the idea of creating a sequel was still in the making of the original film. Evil Dead 2 is a direct continuation of the previous part of the trilogy. Of the original cast, only Bruce Campbell played in the film.

This project was also liked by the critics. Compared to the previous film, the visuals are much better, making the sequel even scarier and more realistic than the original. The film was nominated for several Saturn Awards for Best Horror.

Career blossoming

In 1990, Sam Raimi and his brother Ivan began work on a new project - the action movie "Man of Darkness". They wrote the script together and startedto filming. The role of the protagonist, a scientist who is looking for those who destroyed his laboratory and mutilated his face, went to Liam Neeson. Ted Raimi, another brother of Sam Raimi, has a small role in the film.

This picture was also liked by both critics and viewers. With a budget of $16 million, the film grossed $48 million at the box office, which is quite good for a 1990.

A year later, Sam Raimi started the final part of the Evil Dead trilogy - the horror "Evil Dead: Army of Darkness". Both critics and horror fans alike rated the film positively, although it was no longer as scary and shocking as the previous two parts.

Pilot projects

In 1993, Sam Raimi began work on his first career Western, The Quick and the Dead. The main roles were played by Russell Crowe, Sharon Stone and Leonardo DiCaprio, then a little-known aspiring actor. The film received mixed reviews from critics and barely made its budget at the box office.

Raimi's next project was the dramatic thriller "A Simple Plan". Commercially, this project was not successful, but won two Oscar nominations.

In 2000, the director took on the production of the mystical thriller "The Gift" with Cate Blanchett, Katie Holmes and Keanu Reeves in the lead roles. The main character of the film is Annabelle, a single mother who has a supernatural gift for predicting the future. This gift does not seem like a blessing to her at all, because nightmarish visions often haunt her. But it soon turns out that Annabelle's visions are the only possibility.solve the recent murder of a young woman in the town.

Spider-Man

In 2002, Sam Raimi took on the film adaptation of the Marvel comics about Spider-Man and did not fail. "Spider-Man" received good reviews from the audience, was nominated for several prestigious awards, with a budget of 140 million, grossed 820 million at the box office. reflection". The franchise has become a superhero action classic, with spin-offs still in production today.

Modern period

In 2009, Raimi returned to his favorite genre - horror. Together with his brother Ivan, he worked on the mystical horror film Drag Me to Hell, which was released in the summer of that year. Many viewers, especially lovers of scary and mystical pictures, liked this project.