User:Bruce Campbell/Sandbox2
| Within the Woods | |
|---|---|
| [[File:Withinthewoods.jpg director = Sam Raimi|frameless|upright=1]] | |
| Written by | Sam Raimi |
| Produced by | Sam Raimi |
| Starring | Bruce Campbell |
| Distributed by | Sam Raimi |
Release date | 1978 |
| Language | English |
Within the Woods is a 1978 experiential short film directed by Sam Raimi. Raimi drew inspiration from his earlier short film Clockwork, deciding to produce a "prototype" horror film to help build the interest of potential investors. Raimi cast his friends Bruce Campbell and Scott Spiegel as the two protagonists and produced the film for $1600. Shot on location in a remote cabin in the woods, production was a difficult process ebcause of the low budget.
The film centers around demonic possession and mysterious forces originating from the woods. Initially a meager success, the film screened well to test audiences and inspired a larger budget remake, called The Evil Dead (1981). The film was the first in the Evil Dead franchise, and launched the careers of bth Campbell and Raimi.
Plot
[edit]Two romantic couples, consisting of four teenagers, decide to spend a weekend together located in a remote cabin found in the middle of the woods. An unseen force stalks and watches the group without their knowledge. Ellen (Ellen Sandweiss) and her boyfriend Scotty (Scott Spiegel) have a conversation where he announced that that they're camping on a Indian Burial Ground. Ellen is concerned, but Scotty assures her that they will be fine aslong as they don't disturb the graves of the dead. Bruce (Bruce Campbell) tells Scotty to go look for some fire wood, and he marches into the woods. While looking around for suitable wood to use, he discovers an ancient dagger belonging to the Indians.
Making nothing of it, the teenagers then play Monopoly in the cabin to pass time. Bruce's girlfriend Shelly (Mary Valenti) awakes from her nap and wonders into the woods looking for Bruce. She is started by the presence of an demonic entity hiding within the woods, and quickly runs back to the cabin. While fleeing, she is attacked by unseen forces. She runs back to the cabin and screams to be let in immediately, being let in just as the entity is approaching her. Shelly tells her friends that the force that attacked her is Bruce, who has been possessed and is bleeding all over.
Shelly and Ellen are concerned when Scotty doesn't return right away. The possessed Bruce assaults and strangles Ellen, eventually stabbing her in the neck with the dagger that Scotty found. Ellen is murdered while Bruce moans "join us." Shelly encounters her possessed friend and flees into another room, grabbing knifes to protect her. Something attempts to enter the room where Shelly is hiding, and she mistakenly stabs Scotty in retaliation. While horrified, Shelly is then attacked by the possessed Bruce. Shelly manages to trap Bruce outside, stabbing Bruce's hand several times in the process.
The bleeding Scotty tells Shelly to look into the cellar for the gun they brought along. While walking down the stairs to the cellar, she trips on a broken step and injures herself. After finding the gun, she goes back up stairs and discovers that Scotty had been stabbed to death while she was downstairs. The demonic Bruce then attacks her, who gets his hand cut off by Shelly. Horrified, Shelly attempts to flee but is severely beaten by the possessed Bruce, who throws her around the cabin. While being strangled, Shelly picks up the mutilated hand of Bruce which is still holding the dagger found from before, and she uses it to stab Bruce. A large amount of blood is expended by Bruce, who lies motionless for a moment, only to continue his assault on Shelly.
Shelly mutilates Bruce's body even further with an axe, chopping off nearly every limb from the writhing body. Severely disturbed by the things she has witnessed, Shelly rocks back and further muttering to herself. The corpse of Bruce springs up once again, staring at the oblivious Shelly. It is implied that the corpse then proceeds to attack and kill her.
Production
[edit]Background
[edit]
Before the development stages of Within the Woods, Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell were long time friends who had grew up with each other.[1] The duo had produced several low-budget films with super 8 mm film during their youth.[1][2] During the early parts of Raimi's career, he directed films that were mostly classified as comedies, such as Booby Bartenders, Shemp Eats the Moon and The Great Bogus Monkey Pignut Swindle.[2] 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.[2]
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.[2] The film featured a woman being stalked by a demented man, and launched an interest in Raimi to pursue working on more horror films.[3] 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.[3] Raimi gained an appeal in B movie cinema, which lead him to want to pursue the production of a more ambitious film for his next project.[3] In order to gain the interest of producers, Raimi and Campbell set out to produce a "prototype" film that would serve as a showcase of their talents.[3][4] The film would work as a trailer to help promote further cinematic productions.[3][5]
The prototype film was called Within the Woods. 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 "book of the dead" to Raimi.[3] Raimi studied the concept of magical books, in particular the Necronomicon, which formed the basis of the film. Campbell described the film as a combination of "creative writing and ancient history".[3] In order to flesh out of the idea, Raimi came up with a concept where a group of teenagers went into the woods and were attacked by demonic spitis, summoned by the disturbance of an Indian Burial Ground.[6] The book of the dead concept was added create a more dramatic tone.[3]
Filming
[edit]
Raimi was able to secure $1600 to produce the film.[7] 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 filmed at a farm house belonging to one of Raimi's friends located in Marshall, Michigan.[8] One of the regular actors involved with Raimi's early short films, Ellen Sandweiss was cast as the film's protagonists. This decision stemmed from the notion that most horror films at the time involved female leads, who were more enjoyable to watch terrorized.[8] 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 wasn't 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.[9] Another Raimi regular, Scott Spiegel, was also cast as a protagonist based on his prior collaborations with the group.[7]
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.[7] 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.[7] 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.[7]
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.[10] 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.[10] This serves as one one of several moments where the film-makers had to be creative to make the film considering the low budget.[10] Other examples include blacking out the windows to make scenes darker and shooting all night long to make the filming schedule.[10] Raimi had to get increasing inventive during production, often coming up with "bizarre" ideas while shooting scenes.[10]
Post-production
[edit]Though production was difficult for many of the actors involved, especially Campbell, the film was eventually completed within acceptable budget limits.[10][11] Raimi had completed the filming of his "prototype" and sought out to develop and edit the film as cheaply as possible.[5][12] 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.[12] 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.[12] Though the request was "obscure" in nature, a company in San Francisco managed to accommodate the task with little difficulty.[12] Upon testing how the footage looked at a local movie theater, it came out mostly acceptable, until further tests lead to the footage appearing grainy and difficult to make out.[12]
Reception
[edit]The Detroit News critic Michael McWilliams watched the premiere of the film, writing that "it will probably never be advertised alonside the glossy, big-budget horror movies of our time, but you won't easily forget a locally produced little film called Within the Woods.[13] He compared the low budget film to the blockbuster The Amityville Horror, writing that it provided more scares.[13] 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.[11]
Distribution and aftermath
[edit]
After production, Raimi virtually had no idea how the film was going to be distributed and what would come of it.[13] 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.[5][13] 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.[13] The premiere of the film received a positive reception by the audience, and the cast and crew was payed just over $10 dollars, all of which was donated to the American Cancer Society.[13]
In order to produce a follow-up picture, Raimi needed nearly $150,000.[14] Raimi approached Phil Gillis, a lawyer to one of his friends, asking if he wanted to invest money into the production of a remake.[14] 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, he had acquired nearly $90,000 of the funds needed and set out to make the movie anyway.[14]
The film would became The Evil Dead, (1981) which was a remake of Within the Woods with vastly higher production values and a full-length running time.[5] The Evil Dead later became a film franchise spawning two sequels, Evil Dead II (1987), and Army of Darkness (1992), both of which were diercted by Raimi and featured Campbell as Ash Williams.[15] An additional remake, with no involvement from Raimi or Campbell, is set for release in 2013.[16]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Winston Dixon (2010), p. 161
- ^ a b c d Campbell (2002), p. 65
- ^ a b c d e f g h Campbell (2002), p. 66
- ^ Lamberson (2008), p. 84
- ^ a b c d Becker (2002), p. 64
- ^ Campbell (2002), p. 67
- ^ a b c d e Campbell (2002), p. 70
- ^ a b Campbell (2002), p. 69
- ^ Campbell (2002), p. 264
- ^ a b c d e f Campbell (2002), pp. 71-72
- ^ a b Kenneth Muir (2004), pp. 23-24
- ^ a b c d e Campbell (2002), p. 74
- ^ a b c d e f Campbell (2002), p. 81
- ^ a b c Campbell (2002), pp. 86-88
- ^ Campbell (2002), pp. 171
- ^ Fleming, Mike (2012-02-03). "Jane Levy Is New Star Of 'Evil Dead' Remake". Deadline.com. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
Bibliography
[edit]- Campbell, Bruce (2002). If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor. L.A. Weekly Books. ISBN 978-0-312-29145-7.
- Lamberson, Gregory (2008). Cheap Scares!: Low Budget Horror Filmmakers Share Their Secrets. McFarland. ISBN 978-0786437061.
- Winston Dixon, Wheeler (2010). A History of Horror. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0813547961.
- Becker, Josh (2006). The Complete Guide to Low-Budget Feature Filmmaking. Point Blank. ISBN 978-0809556908.
- Kenneth Muir, John (2004). The Unseen Force: the Films of Sam Raimi. Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. ISBN 978-1-55783-607-6.
External links
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