Sam Raimi's 1981 horror classic The Evil Dead came from independent roots and kicked off an entire franchise, but what many don't know is that, prior to the first film, Raimi made a 32-minute short film titled Within the Woods that served as a proof-of-concept for the series. The Super-8 movie was shot with the intent to help raise the funds that would go on to finance the eventual first Evil Dead film. For fans of the franchise, this film is a rougher and grittier version of everything you already know and love. You've got Raimi behind the lens, Campbell hamming it up as usual, an evil force floating around the woods, and boatloads of blood and gore flowing as always. By showcasing many of the hallmarks in Raimi's filmography and his soon-to-be directorial debut, you couldn't ask for a better prototype for the ultimate experience in grueling terror.

The Road to 'Within the Woods'

Sam Raimi on the set of Within the Woods.

Raimi was born on October 23rd, 1959 in Royal Oak, Michigan. Here, he grew up with a taste for the theatrical. As a kid, Raimi had a love for performing magic tricks. This evolved into a fascination with -- and, eventually, a passion -- for making movies, as he would use magic tricks in many of his initial works. Going into high school, Raimi made friends with the likes of Bruce Campbell and Scott Spiegel, two individuals that would be integral to the Evil Dead movies and that he would go on to collaborate with for the remainder of his career. In their teens, the trio, along with other miscellaneous friends, would make slapstick comedies on Super 8 film, shorts primarily inspired by The Three Stooges. These include The Great Bogus Monkey Pignuts Swindle, Six Months to Live, Attack of the Helping Hand, and eventually their first attempt at a feature, It's Murder!

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It's Murder! came along at the beginning of the troupe's college years and serves as a bit of a send-off to their days of making Super-8 comedies. They all grew tired of college quickly and decided it was time to make their big jump into the movie business. After studying what films regularly came out on top of the box-office, those that could be made cheaply, and the genres that directors regularly started their careers in, all signs kept pointing towards horror. The crew then decided it would be of their best interest to not only make their first feature a horror movie, but the most exhilarating horror movie possible. This group of Michigan-based filmmakers would regularly go catch low-budget horror and exploitation films at drive-in theaters, many of which they were convinced they could do better than. Despite their quality, these films would still garner the attention and cash of paying crowds, a sign that their own film could perform well. The group began experimenting with making horror films on Super-8 with shorts like Clockwork, but once they had a good enough idea of what their first feature would be, Raimi and company set out to make a short prototype to show those who might invest in their eventual film.

Designing a Prototype 'Evil Dead' Film

Bruce Campbell in The Evil Dead
Image via New Line Cinema

Raimi, Campbell, and college friend Rob Tapert banded together and began brainstorming ideas for their eventual horror feature. It was decided that the film would involve supernatural forces, ridiculous amounts of blood and gore, and a cabin in the woods -- elements that their short would have to reflect. The cabin for their prototype had an easy solution -- the team would just film at Tapert's family farm in Marshall, Michigan. Their short would be shot on Super-8, just like their previous efforts, all to conserve whatever cash they could. The majority of the budget for Within the Woods went towards its special effects, something that the crew knew The Evil Dead would expand upon tenfold. Despite a limited budget of $1,600, Woods was going to have to show just how gruesome of a picture that this gang could put on.

Within the Woods proved to have almost all the trademarks of the series that it would go on to inspire. It's the story of two couples staying at a cabin for a weekend, and after disturbing an ancient Native American burial ground, an evil entity is unleashed. The film stars Campbell, the face of the Evil Dead franchise, as well as two other Evil Dead alumni, Ellen Sandweiss (playing Ellen in Woods, Cheryl in The Evil Dead) and Spiegel (playing Scotty in Woods, co-writer of Evil Dead II). While this prototype short does not include a Book of the Dead (or Necronomicon, if you're fancy) like the eventual films that it inspired, Within the Woods was inspired by the Necronomicon found in the short stories of H.P. Lovecraft, carrying over themes of the supernatural and other worldly evils. These forces float through the woods, barge through the teenagers' cabin, and terrorize Ellen, the first female leading character in the franchise. Even though Campbell did not play the lead role in this film, he did get to test the waters of being covered in blood and put through the ringer physically by Raimi, something that would become a staple for the remainder of his career. His role in this film is much closer to that of Evil Ash from the second half of Evil Dead II, being the main physical threat to those defending themselves, as opposed to the hero he primarily plays in these films.

While not being a picture-perfect image of what The Evil Dead would eventually be, Within the Woods acted more as a promise for the type of picture that investors could expect. The strategy of making Within the Woods as a test short for The Evil Dead proved to be an ingenious move. Raimi showed the film around Michigan in every alleyway, household, and grocery store possible. This team was determined to get anyone and everyone behind their efforts. Eventually, Raimi convinced the owner of a local theater to play Within the Woods before a midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The short was met with positive reactions by that night's audience, regarded as a film that you "won't easily forget" by Michael McWilliams, a writer for The Detroit News that was in attendance that night. After screening their finished 32-minute, Super-8 horror extravaganza for various investors around Michigan, the film helped Raimi and company raise $90,000. While not quite the $100,000 that the team set out for, they did have a bigger budget than ever, so the film was a lock. Despite being shown around heavily at the time, Within the Woods still has never been officially commercially released.

Nobody involved with Within the Woods could ever have predicted what was to come. Their little Super-8 short would go on to fund a successful indie-horror hit, launch the filmmaking careers of almost everybody involved, and create one of horror's most acclaimed franchises in Evil Dead. It's a great object of fascination for fans of the series and horror in general. Clearly, this short film made it obvious to investors that the team's talents could not go overlooked. Every bit of the 32 minutes is jam packed with the budding genius of some of the most entertaining filmmakers in the last 50 years. If anything, Within the Woods is a super-fun short film that showcases everything that independent filmmakers' minds can get up to if they lean into their resources, get creative, go out there, and make a movie.