A Tribute to Director Sam Raimi

Confessions of a Film Junkie: A tribute to Director Sam Raimi

By: Brian Cotnoir

     I have always been a fan of Horror movies ever since I was a young boy, and since the earliest days of film we have been introduced to many great horror movie franchises and horror movie characters.  The “Nightmare on Elm Street”, “Saw”, and “Friday the 13^th” movies have given us some of our most beloved horror movie characters and these films today still have a loyal cult following, but before them there was another film franchise that brought horror movies back to their roots and introduced us to a new way to make and enjoy horror films.  I of course am talking about director Sam Raimi’s “Evil Dead” trilogy.          

   Sam Raimi is one of the key figures in bringing back the gore and shock to horror films that had been lost in the years prior to the release of “Evil Dead”.  I like to refer to the time period from the late 1960’s to the early 1980’s” as the “Dark Age of Cinema”.  During this time period very few movies were released that were actually well made—especially in the genre of horror.  True, during this time a few great horror films were made such as “The Exorcist” (1973), “Jaws” (1975), and “Halloween” (1978), but most of the horror films made during this time tended to focus more on showing sex and nudity rather than actually scaring people; I believe that horror films reached an all-time low when the film “Blood Sucking Freaks” was released.               

   That all changed in 1981, when Sam Raimi made the movie “Evil Dead”.  “Evil Dead” brought the fear, mysticism, and gratuitous amounts of blood and violence back to horror.  “Evil Dead” also gave us—to my knowledge—the first ever scene of “arboretum-penetration”.                                            

   Sam Raimi also introduced as to actor Bruce Campbell, who has been featured in many more of Raimi’s films, and has gone on to become a cult-movie start icon.  Since the release of “Evil Dead” Raimi has gone on to write and direct many other great films such as “Evil Dead II”, “Army of Darkness”, the “Spider Man” movies, and “Drag Me to Hell”.                             

   Today, Raimi’s style and influence on horror genre can still be seen in many films today, which is why we are paying homage to Sam Raimi for helping return horror movies return to their former glory and for being an icon that all those who are interested in filmmaking and writing can aspire to be like.