First, is Sam's vision. This vision plays not only partly upon atmosphere, but also on the point-of-view (POV) of action. His use of POV has definitely become a trademark of his features. Whether it is through the eyes of evil deadite or from the nose of bullet, the use of POV adds to the overall effectiveness of a scene. No movie watcher will ever forget the evil spirits as they swirled through the woods towards their unsuspecting victims (this was supposedly done by mounting a camera on the front of a motorcycle) or the flight of bullets in the gunfights in The Quick and the Dead . Argento is another example of a director who has mastered the techniques of POV.

Second, living in the eye of the storm of his filmmaking is both fear and laughter. Raimi has build a career on his dark sense of humor. His has excellently melded both the comic and the horrific in mystical blend of entertaining imagery. Sometimes he has (IMHO) taken the comedy a bit far in his horror features, such as Army of Darkness, where at other time he has masterfully woven comedy into the horrific atmosphere such as in Evil Dead 2. There are very few directors that have succeeded in such attempts ( one other being Peter Jackson) . His zombie classic Dead Alive hits on all cylinders in the same way.

Third, is the man. Sam is a very private person, but also very genuine. Many people have told me that when they met Sam, he truly seemed sincerely interested in them and their views. A great example of this can be seen in the making of  The Dead Next Door. It was only after buying and watching "The Dead Next Door" and speaking with "J.R. Bookwalter" that I really saw this side of Sam. I saw how Sam took a chance on a young, unproven filmmaker and funded DND with the salary he was making off of Evil Dead 2. That is true dedication to the genre. He could have easily bought the idea from J.R. and it probably would have never gotten made, but instead he gave J.R. a chance to see his dream come true.

Sam Raimi is one of us. An average Joe, and not some stuck up Hollywood director. He does his job because he loves doing it. Recently, Raimi has gotten away from the filmmaking and his last several ventures have been in the arena of television. I particularly liked "American Gothic". The show was definitely made for the horror fan, and too bad CBS didn't give it time to build an audience, the way that Fox gave time for the "X-Files". And who can mention Sam's name without bringing up the mega-popular "Hercules" and "Xena" TV shows. His Evil Dead roots of campiness and creativity are evident in these shows, and their production value is outstanding for a weekly series.

Well, that is it for this page. It was a lot less painless than I thought. Hopefully, someday I can add an online interview with Sam. So continue to enjoy the world according to Sam Raimi and pray to the gods that he makes another horror film. One that is as dark and frightful as "Evil Dead".

Looking to purchase some of Sam Raimi's films, go here

Go to Sam Raimi's Biography              Go to Sam Raimi's Filmography

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