Movies & Games: The Evil Dead

When "The Evil Dead" was released in 1983, the low-budget horror film was mostly overlooked. But it quickly became a favorite among horror fans for its gritty, gory visuals, and as the months and years passed, "The Evil Dead" became an established cult classic that would spawn two sequels as well as several comic book and video game spin-offs.

When making little movies as a kid, Sam Raimi enlisted his friends and family to help out. Once Raimi was finally making the first "Evil Dead" film, it was a step up from making movies in his backyard, but it still kept the fun, low-budget feel. And having to do everything themselves would serve Raimi and friends well once they moved up to the major movie studios and TV networks to make blockbusters like "Spider-Man."

Robert Tapert joined Raimi's gang in college during their time at Michigan State University and would go on to work with Raimi on the "Evil Dead" trilogy as well as other films such as "The Gift," "The Grudge" and "30 Days of Night." Tapert would also branch out into other projects such as John Woo's first Hollywood film "Hard Target" as well as the hit TV show "Xena: Warrior Princess" (Tapert would go on to marry "Xena" star Lucy Lawless). Tapert talks with Tom's Games about making low-budget horror films, the influence of Asia cinema and the world of video game adaptations.

DAVID KONOW: Right before you made "Evil Dead," "Halloween" was the indie phenomenon that many horror films tried to be. Was it at all an inspiration for "Evil Dead"?

ROBERT TAPERT: "Halloween" was something to aspire to, but we never thought we could make anything that would have the same mass appeal. We had just decided to get out of school and go make a movie. I said, "Do you think we can make something that's that good?" Sam wasn't certain. We had seen it, like five of us, in downtown Lansing, and then Sam saw it in a hack theatre at midnight on a college campus. He called me and said, "You can't believe this, they were screaming through the whole thing. I don't think we can make something that'll do that to 'em."

DAVID KONOW: But you wanted to try?

ROBERT TAPERT: Yeah, we accepted the challenge.

DAVID KONOW: Were you trying to reinvent the horror genre when you were making "Evil Dead"?

ROBERT TAPERT: We didn't even think about that. We were making movies for the drive-in audience, and we wanted to entertain them and not have the long boring sections of movies that we were seeing in the drive-ins. We felt that was the ultimate crime, to bore the audience. We wanted to punish the audience. We wanted to make the ultimate experience as grueling as possible, so we wanted it to be the most punishing movie it could be. That was our simple goal. But we never thought in terms of where the genre was, or where anything else was. On that particular movie, we had no macro-vision as to the horror genre. We had seen a bunch of movies in the drive-ins, and we thought we could make something scarier.

Bruce Campbell in "The Evil Dead."

DAVID KONOW: What were the important lessons you learned in making "Evil Dead," and what did you take with you to bigger projects?

ROBERT TAPERT: Before you called, I was sitting here talking with an associate saying that it's very hard within the normal system that we work within to make something really unique and original, because everything goes through a development process. The financial commitments to getting something made are so large that it will get watered down from the original intent of just punishing the audience. Probably now in hindsight, looking back on "Evil Dead," the best thing I can say is we made exactly what we wanted to, pretty much the same on "Evil Dead 2," but probably less so on other films. Money comes with other people's opinions, so that's the tradeoff.

DAVID KONOW: On the first "Evil Dead," did you feel more accomplished considering you pulled it off without the technology and effects you can buy with millions of dollars?

ROBERT TAPERT: When we were doing it, every single shot was a problem-solving puzzle. Like "okay, we want to do this. Sam has this great idea, there's no question that would be cool, how do we do it with a quarter and a piece of wire?" That problem solving, then seeing it onscreen and ultimately seeing it work and get a reaction from the audience; once upon a time that was a great accomplishment. That you were able to solve a problem, realize something and have it all come to a satisfactory conclusion was a great experience. It satisfied your ego, certainly. And the truth is, you seldom get that feeling again because you've never been so involved, meaning we were doing everything.

DAVID KONOW: Were the famous shaky-cam shots something you were able to use to your advantage, or was that the effect you were going for?

ROBERT TAPERT: We did a lot of tests with it and were actually very pleased with how it turned out. We never considered the shakiness a problem. We thought it showed the energy, or the force behind it.

DAVID KONOW: How did you feel when the movie was finished? Did you feel it would work with audiences?

ROBERT TAPERT: We had a screening of the finished print for our investors and a bunch of fans, people in Detroit, and the crowd went nuts. We knew at that time that if we could get enough kids in the audience they'd love it. We knew that horror fans, for the most part, were going to be pleased.

DAVID KONOW: What was it like to get a rave review from Stephen King for the film?

ROBERT TAPERT: One of the top-five highlights of our professional careers, because it validated all of the work we had done on that project. We totally tied up and invested our lives in that movie at that time, and no one would handle it or distribute it. We had overseas sales agents who believed in us at that time and who got Stephen King to see it, so that was the ultimate validation. We were huge Stephen King fans, so that was one of those once in a lifetime type of thrills. It legitimized the movie, it opened the doors, it gave us something that differentiated the movie. Evil Dead came out very late in the horror cycle back then. There had been a four-or-five-year big boom in horror, we came out at the very tail end and it was a way of calling attention to overseas buyers, cause that's where it really caught on actually. The movie was successful overseas and then came here.

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