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Within the Woods

Within the Woods

Within the Woods (1979)

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Source: JustWatch

Two years before The Evil Dead (1981), Sam Raimi shot a 32-minute horror film over one weekend for $1,600. The plan: make something scary enough to convince Detroit doctors and dentists to fund a full-length movie.

WITHIN THE WOODS (1979) premiered before a midnight Rocky Horror Picture Show crowd in Detroit, impressed a local critic, and helped raise the money for what became The Evil Dead.

In 2002, a restored version of the film sat finished on a DVD master. The soundtrack had been re-recorded to clear the music rights. The menus were built. The disc was days from manufacturing when Raimi personally ordered it removed. If you look inside the files of the DVD that shipped, the ghost of its menu screens is still there.

Raimi - who of course went on to direct Spider-Man, A Simple Plan, and most recently, Send Help - has kept it locked away ever since. The only copies in circulation are bootlegs several generations deep.

Notably, Bruce Campbell isn't the hero in this Evil Dead prototype. He's the monster. Bruce gets possessed, and Ellen Sandweiss spends the film fighting him off.

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About the Film

Before "The Evil Dead", came…

Directed By
Sam Raimi
Runtime
32 minutes
Released
May 31, 1979
Country
United States of America
Starring
Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Scott Spiegel, Mary Valenti
More Credits
Genres
Horror
Language
English
Origin
US
Studios
Renaissance Pictures
Written By
Sam Raimi
Produced By
Bruce Campbell, Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert
Cinematography
Tim Philo
Budget
$1,600

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    3. According to Michael Felsher, Sam Raimi found out Anchor Bay were doing it at the last minute and said no since he wasn’t asked about it to begin with

      I believe him since he worked there at the time

      1. John Bisco Taft That would be logical if they were replacing the soundtrack and such without his permission. Still really sucks because I can’t bring myself to watch that awful bootleg quality.

  11. One has to put in perspective what it was like to be a indie filmmaker around 1979 who wanted to do anything but what was standard horror at the time. And if the 32 minute film was meant just to fundraise far more money for a feature then it’s totally Sam Raimi’s choice whether or not to release in the foreseeable future.

    1. Colin Baxter yes but why commit to it being released, money being spent on it, advertising it as part of an official release *then* changing his mind at the last minute? Thats the issue being discussed, not whether he has the choice or right to do so.

      1. Graeme Talbot The 32 minute movie served its purpose in getting far more money for a feature with even bigger and higher quality special effects. There was no social media platforms or streaming services back in 1979 and the goal was to give potential investors an glimpse of what Sam Raimi was already capable of so he they would invest thousands of more dollars.

  12. to be fair, I wouldn’t like it if I became a famous director and people demanded to see my student films. they are practice, not something I would be proud to show. Give Sam a break.

    3. Andrew Weidenhammer on the other hand, this is a piece of genre history, and a lot of film students might find it highly insightful to watch the earliest forays into the horror genre of a director who would eventually become a defining figure in the genre.

    3. Nicholas Everett Faith speaking of Blair Witch, how wild would it be to do a found footage movie about Evil Dead.

      Maybe a film student doing a horror movie based on the local lore of good ol Ashy Slashy. Weird things keep on happening while he’s filming and editing.

      Movie ends with the kid reading the only words in English “Klatu, Verada, Nechtu.” A portal opens and swallows him. The camera found by a local thrift shop owner on their drive into work.

      They examine the found belongings, missing any form of i.d. they place said items on shelf for sale and it ends with someone walking in weeks later and asking how much for the camera.

  20. I haven’t seen “Within the Woods”, but Sam Raimi was in my class at Birmingham Groves in suburban Detroit and he used to show his early three stooges inspired films at lunch time. Our civics teacher (Mr. Finney I think) let him show movies during class once. I was also at Michigan State University when he was there and saw another of his early movies called “The Happy Valley Kid”. If I remember correctly the protagonist after facing much rejection returns and shoots up the school! I think he and Ivan were taking tickets.

      3. Check out the late 80’s, UK Channel 4, Jonathan Ross hosted “Incredibly strange film show” episode with Sam Raimi – the proper transmitted version had a few clips of his early Super 8 comedys. Use to be on Youtube.

  23. I remember when this happened; I bought the Anchor Bay edition and searched the menus specifically for the short and was completely confused. I went to Suncoast and asked about if they knew anything about the short, they explained it was left off the DVD for some unknown reason. And it was one of those things that was advertised with the special edition, I was really heartbroken over it.

  28. If you are into theatre see . The Evil Dead 1 and 2 the musical. When I heard they made a musical of this I shott it down. But they had a showing at The Walking Dead convention. It was funny. Campy . I loved it.

  32. I just got the steel book 4K edition of The Evil Dead and it really looks magnificent. The monsters are low budget but there are so many Raimi flourishes in the blocking and camera work that belie the films meagre budget.

  44. I have a copy of it somewhere on a hard drive. Its barely watchable as the quality is very poor. More of charm attached to Evil Dead. I can understand not releasing it as an official viewable media under license. Best left as adornments for the passionate fan of his work. License would ultimately allow others to form companies to profit from it even if he has no desire himself. Leaving for fans and also restricting large scale worldwide profit driven duplication and exploitation seems like a good middle ground.

    2. Brad Hill that, and they were mostly friends of his parents/family. In the 70’s and 80’s, low budget horror movies were usually pretty profitable, safe investments. They would play in drive-in theaters for months, sometimes years. Iirc, ED was playing in Michigan drive-ins for a couple of years before it got noticed and picked up for distribution. Before that, they just had to do the leg work and go theater to theater, selling the movie.

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