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. Aftermath 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/sequel, 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 comedy horror series Ash vs Evil Dead, which featured 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. Campbell made cameo appearances in all three of Raimi's Spider-Man films, as well as several other films for Raimi. Academy Award winning film-making duo the Coen brothers were inspired by Raimi's decision to produce a short film as a trailer, utilizing the concept to produce funding for their debut Blood Simple (1984). The Coen brothers served as editors for The Evil Dead, and developed a friendship with Raimi. The duo has cast Campbell in some of their films such as The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) and Fargo (1996), the former of which was co-written by Raimi. References Bibliography External links The Evil Dead (franchise)