Within the Woods (1978)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Sam Raimi

Writer:

Sam Raimi (writer)

Release Date:

12 October 2003 (Argentina)

Genre:

Horror | Short

Plot:

A group of friends spend a weekend at a remote cabin, and one of them accidentally desecrates an Indian burial ground...

Plot Keywords:

Zombie | Three Word Title | Knife | Death | Dismemberment

Cast

Bruce Campbell	...	Bruce
Ellen Sandweiss	...	Ellen
Scott Spiegel	...	Scotty
Mary Valenti	...	Shelly

Runtime:

32 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Filming Locations:

Marshall, Michigan, USA

Trivia:

Was slated to be released in April of 2002 as a special feature on Anchor Bay's "Book of the Dead" DVD release of The Evil Dead (1981), but it was withheld at the last minute due to problems with royalties for the music used in the short. This problem has prevented it from being given a release in any format.

Quotes:

Bruce: You're only cursed by the evil spirits if you violate the graves of the dead. We're just gonna be eating hotdogs.

Movie Connections:

Version of The Evil Dead (1981)

Great little horror film by a pre-Evil Dead Sam Raimi.

Bruce Campbell and Ellen Sandweiss go out for a picnic while Scott Spiegel and Mary Valenti play Monopoly. Ellen is told by Bruce about the whole place being an indian burial ground, before falling asleep. She wakes up to find Bruce missing, and then there's a whole lot of running, stabbing, and POV shots. Sam Raimi made this film for $1,600 on Super-8 over one weekend. This film is a real treat for Evil Dead fans, because, despite lacking Campbell's Ashness (where he was a wimp in Evil Dead, and progressed into an asshole in Army of Darkness), it contains many scenes that would later be seen in Evil Deads 1 and 2, and Sam Raimi's Evil POV shots. It is also atmospheric and quite scary, something that seems almost impossible given the budget. Evil Dead fans will love this, and it is worth searching the net for bootleg copies of the film (as Anchor bay were unable to provide the film on the new Limited Edition Evil Dead DVD), for anyone else, this film would only appeal to aspiring filmakers.

6/10 Anyone with a casual interest in film

8/10 Evil Dead fans like myself