Evil Dead is an American horror film franchise created by Sam Raimi consisting of four feature films. The films revolve around the Necronomicon ExMortis, an ancient Sumerian text which wreaks havoc upon a group of cabin inhabitants in a wooded area in Michigan. The protagonist, Ashley J. Ash Williams Bruce Campbell is the only character to appear in every installment of the original trilogy Linda, Ashs girlfriend makes an appearance in allfilms, but her only appearance in Army of Darkness is during the prologue. The original trilogy includes The Evil Dead 1981, Evil Dead II 1987, and Army of Darkness 1992, all written and directed by Raimi, produced by Robert G. Tapert, and starring Campbell. The franchise has since expanded into other formats, including video games, comic books, a musical, and a television series.
In January 1978 Bruce Campbell was a college dropout who had just quit his job as a taxicab driver. Sam Raimi was studying literature at Michigan State University with Robert Tapert, who was finishing his economics degree. While putting the finishing touches on Its Murder, Tapert suggested doing a featurelength film to Raimi. Raimi felt it impossible, stating that they could never acquire the funding. Campbell declared I could always move back home. Tapert feared a career in fisherieswildlife while Raimi was afraid that he would have to go back to work at his dads home furnishing store. These were the practical reasons that convinced the three to put forth a featurelength film. The three were big fans of the comedy genre, but they decided not to produce a comedy as they felt a featurelength yuck fest just didnt compute. A wellnoted scene from Its Murder moved Raimi to write the short film Clockwork. The three felt the end result was very effective and represented a new direction that their films could take, that of a semisuccessful horror film.This would later lead to research of lowbudget horror films at the local drivein theater. The many films that they watched were the two films for two dollars, allowing them the chance to document the behavior of what would become their target audience. Campbell quoted, The message was very clear Keep the pace fast and furious, and once the horror starts, never let up. The gorier the merrier became our prime directive. Films that were witnessed amongst them included Massacre at Central High and Revenge of the Cheerleaders. The idea to do a prototype was commissioned, to prove not only to themselves, but also to potential investors that they were capable of doing a full length horror film. The same year, at Michigan State, Raimi had been studying H. P. Lovecraft and was most impressed with Necronomicon, or simply The Book of the Dead. From these rough concepts, he concocted a short story where a group of four friends unwi
Source: Wikipedia