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The Evil Dead (1984)

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The Evil Dead is a 1981 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi and executive produced by Raimi and Bruce Campbell, who also starred alongside Ellen Sandweiss and Betsy Baker.

The film focuses on five college students vacationing in an isolated cabin in a remote wooded area.

After they find an audio tape that, when played, releases a legion of demons and spirits, members of the group suffer from demonic possession, leading to increasingly gory mayhem.

Raimi and the cast produced the short film Within the Woods as a "prototype" to build the interest of potential investors, which secured US$90,000 to produce The Evil Dead.

The film was shot on location in a remote cabin located in Morristown, Tennessee, in a difficult filming process that proved extremely uncomfortable for the cast and crew.

The low-budget horror film attracted the interest of producer Irvin Shapiro, who helped screen the film at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. Horror author Stephen King gave a rave review of the film, which helped convince New Line Cinema to serve as its distributor.

Though a modest commercial success in the United States, grossing just $2.4 million, it was a bigger success internationally, grossing more than $27 million for a worldwide gross of $29.4 million.

Both early and later critical reception were universally positive and in the years since its release, The Evil Dead has developed a reputation as one of the most significant cult films, cited among the greatest horror films of all time and one of the most successful independent films.

The Evil Dead launched the careers of Campbell and Raimi, who collaborated on several films together, including Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy.

The film spawned a media franchise, beginning with two sequels written and directed by Raimi, Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992), as well as video games, comic books, and a television series.

The film's protagonist Ash Williams (Campbell) is regarded as a cult icon. The fourth film, serving as reboot, remake and sequel, was titled Evil Dead and was released in 2013.

Raimi co-produced the film alongside Campbell and the franchise producer, Robert Tapert.

As with the films, the follow-up television series Ash vs Evil Dead was created and produced by Sam and Ivan Raimi, with Campbell also executive producing.

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