Perhaps my favourite podcast over the past few years is Blank Check with Griffin and David, which finds actor Griffin Newman and critic David Sims covering the entire filmography of a director (one film per episode) specifically those who were given a blank check at some point in their career to make whatever passion project they want. It's an entertaining, inviting, insightful, thoughtful and incredibly well researched podcast which goes into deep (and sometimes juvenile) conversations about the director and actors and productions of the films they cover, frequently to the point where the podcast episodes are longer than the films. They just wrapped a deep dive into the work of Sam Raimi.
I tried to follow along, but as often happens, some works are just not on streaming services, or at least services I haven't subscribed to. Of Raimi's 14 films, I did not watch The Gift or For Love of The Game due to this factor. I also did not watch the Spider-Mans 1-3 since I just did an unrecorded rewatch of them after watching Far From Home, nor did I rewatch Oz: The Great and Powerful, which I've already written about (twice) on this blog (and certainly seemed to like more than almost everyone while also recognizing it's a highly flawed film).
So that leaves:
The Evil Dead (1980 - dvd)
Crimewave (1984 - tubi)
The Evil Dead 2 (1986 - dvd)|
Darkman (1990 - rental)
Army of Darkness (The Renegade Cut, 1992 - dvd)
The Quick and the Dead - (1995, CTV)
A Simple Plan (1998, rental)
Drag Me To Hell (2010, dvd)
The first Raimi film I ever watched was A Simple Plan, which I saw in theatres originally and was quite impressed with. It's the story of Hank (Bill Paxton) an accountant at a feed supply store in a depressed community with a loving, pregnant wife, Sarah, (Bridgette Fonda) and an older brother, Jacob, (Billy Bob Thornton) who is clearly lower on the IQ scale than average (but not explicitly said to have any impairment or disorder). Jacob has a best friend in the unemployed, heavy-drinking Lou (Brent Briscoe) who Hank disapproves of. The three men one day have a minor accident while travelling on a winter road and wind up discovering in the woods a downed plane containing a bag full of cash, over 4 million dollars worth. Hank comes up with a plan to make sure nobody is looking for the cash before dividing it evenly between the three.
It's not long, though, before thinking and overthinking start to become an impediment to success. Jacob's seeming ineptitude at lying starts a cascade that includes accidental murder, more murder, mobsters and utter corruption of everything Hank believed himself to be. It's a slow burn suspense film that expertly ratchets up the tension with every scene. Each subsequent moment a new layer of complexity is revealed, requiring more and more lies to be delivered. While Hank is our protagonist, it's hard to see him as a good man, given the lengths he goes through, and even Sarah, who seems like a rocksteady moral compass for him, winds up being seduced by the green. Old Testament style, for his greed, he certainly does suffer in a one-two punch of a finale that feels straight out of film noir.
Raimi has bag of filmmaking tricks he employs in most of his films, but with A Simple Plan he puts them largely aside to let the story and performances dominate the attention...but it's a testament to how adept a storytelling craftsman he is that, without employing said bag of tricks, he produced one of the under-the-radar best movies of the 90's. It's as riveting 20+ years later as it was at the time.
But back in 1998 I didn't know about Raimi's bag of tricks. I thought A Simple Plan a wonderful film, but I had no clue, based on that, what made him stand out as a filmmaker. I would be over two years before I would discover that, thanks to another, non-Raimi production.
2000's High Fidelity was a landmark movie (and book) in my life, a romance story about the collector persona that seemed to be peering into my very soul (in retrospect, though, the film is largely an examination of the fragile male ego though, ironically, seemingly completely unaware of that fact). It's a film full of amazing dialogue exchanges about being a pop culture nerd, the standout one being where John Cusak, Jack Black and Todd Louiso are having a conversation about the meaning of the word "yet", as in "I haven't seen Evil Dead II yet". It devolves into a hilarious "who's on first?" misunderstanding of what the conversation is actually about, but it really trumpets the greatness of Evil Dead II as a film. I hadn't seen Evil Dead II, yet, but I knew I would have to.
Later that year (or perhaps early the following year) Anchor Bay, a company known for releasing cult films on DVD, released a new (or perhaps the first) edition of Evil Dead II on DVD in a fancy tin. At the time I was big into buying DVDs, especially of cult films I'd only heard about, and even more specifically ones in limited edition packaging, so I snapped it up. I watched it, but I'm not sure I got it. Oh, I'm quite sure I didn't get it. Was it a comedy? Was it a horror? Was I meant to be scared? Was I meant to laugh? Was I meant to be grossed out? Yes. Yes. Yes yes and yes. But I didn't get it. It didn't seem to be for me.
When I started dating my now wife, I found she came with all manner of Evil Dead paraphernalia. DVDs of the trilogy, she had a painting a friend of hers had gifted her of the Army of Darkness poster hanging in her kitchen, and she had action figures of Ash and Deadite Ash on her bookshelf. She took me through the trilogy, and, I have to say, I still didn't get it.
It's been over 15 years since and it's only now, having been indoctrinated into the church of Bruce Campbell, that I can appreciate the Evil Dead trilogies I don't know what it says about the films themselves that I need to tie myself into the cult of personality, and/or steep myself into the behind-the-scenes rigours of making these movies to appreciate them, but having been through a Campbell autobiography or two, having spent a little time studying Raimi and his flavour of filmmaking, and reading many retrospectives on one or all of the films has led to a deep, deep appreciation of them.
That said, watching The Evil Dead is mostly made tolerable, nay enjoyable, knowing the partnership that Campbell and Raimi will develop over decades to come. As we see throughout the series (and in Doctor Strangemom) it never gets tiresome the heaps of abuse and gore that Raimi inflicts upon Campbell in the role of Ash.
The Evil Dead is a rough prototype of a movie, but still a signal flare announcing the director's arrival. The opening shot is what will eventually be affectionately dubbed "Raimi cam" and there are dozens of clever and inventive shots throughout that will major parts of of Raimi's signature bag of tricks throughout his career.
Despite being a horror movie, and more poker faced than Evil Dead II, Raimi can't hide his goofier instincts, so the film has a comedic energy simmering underneath. Mostly a fun time throughout, the movie feels overlong by at least 15 minutes, despite being only an 85 minute movie.
Evil Dead II meanwhile is every bit the romp Jack Black said it was in High Fidelity. Decades later its still very much its own distinct thing that doesn't have an equal. It's a magical mixture of director, star, and effects team coming together to make something that shouldn't exist, yet has for over 35 years. It's a film that mixes genres with abandon, is unsparingly gross, and manages to make its star both an utter buffoon and yet pretty cool and sexy.
Due to copyright issues or somesuch over the original film, the first 15 minutes of Evil Dead II act as an accelerated/truncated "Previously On" recap of the prior movie, but the discrepancies in my mind make it its own Ash-led multiverse. Frankly, I think there's the Ash from The Evil Dead, another Ash from Evil Dead II, a different Ash for each of the different cuts/endings for Army of Darkness, a different Ash from the Ash vs The Evil Dead TV show, and then multiple Ashes from the various Army of Darkness comics (and I guess now the video game). And the Book of the Dead crops up in gory, po-faced The Evil Dead remake so it's clearly part of the multiverse as well.
While The Evil Dead is pretty much pure concept, with little regard for characters, relationships, or story, Evil Dead II corrects this with establishing mythos, bringing a second group into the fold, including an adventuring young woman with some actual knowledge of the history of the book of the dead to act as the brains against Ash's dimwitted brawn.
Evil Dead II ends with Ash getting sucked into a wormhole, back into a medieval age which is where Army of Darkness picks up. Raimi pretty much abandons the horror trope in favour of grand scale action and adventure, but most of all, just rampant silliness. AoD should put Ash at a distinct cultural advantage over the people he's meeting hundreds of years in the past, and yet he's the same jackass dimwit he proved himself to be in Evil Dead II, only he continues to exemplify it.
AoD seems to be Raimi's purest expression of his ambition. On a fairly modest budget he delivered an agreeably ridiculous comedy-fantasy-adventure that tries for a Battle of Helm's Deep-style siege on 1/50th the budget, and with a deep reverence for Ray Harryhousen's stop motion animation. The greatest feat of AoD is the sequence where Ash battles a group of mouse-sized evil versions of himself in an old windmill. It's a tremendous sequence that builds a ridiculous amount of tension (which should be somewhat unearned, but isn't) through sound design and then descends quickly into wild slapstick and just delightful camera trickery. It's clear Campbell is having a blast while also putting his body on the line in a way few other stars (excepting the likes of Jackie Chan or Tom Cruise) do.
Army of Darkness has been cut and recut and delivered on DVD in more iterations than almost any other film (perhaps Blade Runner and Highlander II its biggest competition in this regard). The tone of the films change based on the edit, and the endings starkly different. The Renegade Cut features the a twist ending where Ash, sent back to the future, is sent too far forward into a seemingly post-apocalyptic Earth, which feels like a clear homage to Planet of the Apes. I find it preferable to the "official" S-Mart ending where Ash is back at his old department store job and intones the deadites are still after him for some reason (and it fits more in continuity with the 2018 TV show if one cares about such things as continuity).
Raimi delivered a film between each of the Deadite Trilogy. His first studio picture was Crimwave, which he wrote with the Coen Brothers. Yes, that's right, there's a Sam Raimi directed film that he co-wrote with the Coen Brothers... and it's something nobody ever talks about because it's borderline unwatchable.
With Crimewave Raimi set out to make a live action Tex Avery cartoon, only to discover that for all the elaborate prop setups, pratfalls and comedic mugging, none of it really translates to live action. It just looks awkward. I made it about 40 minutes into the film before I turned it off, and by that point I still had no sense of what the plot was nor what direction it was taking, and I didn't particularly care to follow through on it. I don't shut films off very often but somehow Raimi, the Coens, and Campbell in a supporting role just couldn't make it work. The characters were universally unappealing, and the aesthetic seemed more of what could be in hindsight called a Tim Burton vibe but without the gothic sensibility to the storytelling.
Between Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness however, Raimi made a monster hit out of bringing a Universal Monsters sensibility to the nascent form of superhero movies. Darkman rode the wave of post-Burton Batman features to success not on name recognition or star power, but on a shrew advertising campaign that asked "Who Is Darkman?" The poster of a figure in a trenchcoat and bandaged face, standing on a rooftop, while not all that heroic-looking, did inspire people to want to know that very answer.
I saw Darkman once in the theatre, and probably once at home. I was still a teenaged comic book nerd and was pretty pissy about the fact that studios spent money making a "superhero" movie based on an original property rather that using one of thousands of established heroes from decades of comics publishing. I even watched the first of the two direct-to-video sequels, but I could already see the diminishing returns on a property I didn't even really care about, and certainly didn't appreciate.
Decades later, revisiting Darkman with all new eyes (remembering next to nothing of the picture), I can see clearly what Raimi was going for - the mash of pulp masked crimefighter serial with 30's monsters blended into an original creation that feels out of time even with 1991. It's of a piece with contemporaries Dick Tracy, The Shadow, The Phantom and The Rocketeer, but with more filmmaking ambition, and the same lack of permeability.
It's exciting because of the filmmaking, Raimi hitting especially hard on those notes recalling Frankenstein and other creature features. The lens goes on a canted angle so often, but it's not for the superhero camp of 60's Batman, but instead to signify the character's madness. I didn't necessarily love the story being told: the villains are pretty weak and unmemorable, Frances McDormand is a unfortunately written as a lame duck love interest (one never thinks of McDormand as a damsel in distress), and the hero is never truly all that heroic. It's more of a revenge thing than a hero thing. I like that Darkman has a power set, and a weakness in mental instability, as well as technology to make false skin and appear as anyone he'd like (excepting the fact that Liam Neeson is a big man) for a limited time...it's rife for more explanation... but Raimi really wanted a pulpy 30's feel and in that limited scope it kinda drag this down. Yet the visuals, the style, a Danny Elfman (with Shirley Walker) sweeping, of-the-era heroic score elevate it quite a bit higher than some of the other 90's also-ran superhero/pulp hero movies. (Newman, on the Blank Check podcast suggested that the aborted "Dark Universe" at Universal, intending to create a shared universe of action movies out of it's 30's monsters, would have been far better had Darkman been its lynchpin character, with Neeson serving as the binding elder statesman, and I can't help but think of the missed opportunities in that).
I recall, somehow, quite vividly the TV commercials for The Quick and the Dead from back in 1995. I was graduating high school but still very much deeply rooted into geeky things, but slowly expanding my horizons. I still didn't know Raimi from Adam, so my only impression was, well, a silly looking Western. Westerns were, in my mind back then, for old men. Like, for my grandpa. And I had dismissed Sharon Stone based on her post-Basic Instinct roles which all seemed to be retreads of the sex-thriller. I also had already dismissed Leonardo DiCaprio as a talentless Teen Beat heartthrob (something I think I've only recently gotten past with him as a performer). And Gene Hackman... a performer so good at playing unlikeable characters that, in my inability to disassociate, I generally disliked Hackman as a performer. So, no, The Quick and the Dead wasn't something I was going to see.
But man I wish I had. The film is an absolute delight, with an immediately intriguing premise and a wonderfully stacked cast of both top tier and character actors. I hesitate to say it, but I think it might be true...my favourite Raimi movie maybe? It may just be the shine of newness.
The set-up has "The Lady" (Stone) arriving in the town of Redemption just in time for the annual quick-draw tournament. It's a competition the town's corrupt, strong-arm ruler, Harrod (Hackman) puts on every year, mainly because he knows he's the fastest gun in the west and he can put anyone down. The Lady is out for revenge against Harrod because of what he did to her as a child, that history getting teased out throughout the movie (and each return to this in flashback gets more an more brutal, although at the end of the second act it sort of stops the movie dead in order to fully play out).
The Lady enters the competition, looking for a valid shot at Harrod. It's a head-to-head, single elimination bracketed system which allows the film to have a host of eccentric characters filling in the rest of the gaps. The two other major players are The Kid (who is Harrod's boastful bastard son, played by DiCaprio) and Cort, a preacher who used to run in Harrod's gang but has since found the lord and given up the gun. He's basically been imprisoned by Harrod and is forced to compete.
Other players include Lance Henrikson as the flashy showman Ace, Keith David as the steely bounty hunter Clay Cantrell, Mark Boone Jr. as the slimy Scars, and Jonathan Gill as the seemingly unkillable Spotted Horse. If anything is disappointing about this film its that it doesn't give use more larger than life characters for the tournament (out of the 16 players only about half have any real personality to speak of) and we don't spend enough time with the more named characters. Perhaps it's just that I was enjoying the premise so much I wanted to see every duel and tease out the personlities of the combatants more. This tournament could easily be remade into a sports mocumentary via an 8-episode TV minis-series.
Raimi gets to have his visual flights of fancy as well as tell a really fun, modern western tale. It wasn't at all a hit at the time, but it's aged incredibly well, feeling more and more relevant in the age of the reality competition show. This will be one I come back to over and over.
Skipping ahead nearly 15 years to Drag Me To Hell, a move I had intended to see upon release but just never got around to seeing until this podcast provide a pretense. This was very much touted as Raimi's return to horror, and on the fan blogs and news websites that popped up in the 2000s, this was a very big deal.
Now having seen it, I'm so torn about how I feel. While I really appreciate the craft within the production and structuring of the film, as well it's Raimi's distict tone nearing its purest form, I also found it kind of tedious at times. There's a seeming inevitability to the entire production that it doesn't ever escape.
What I think was missing was the Bruce Campbell factor, a likeable performer whom Raimi heaps all manner of abuse upon, and is completely invested in receiving it. Alison Lohman is... fine, but she didn't seem like the right Raimi punching bag (one of my disappointments about the Evil Dead remake was that it was done as straightforward horror, but I thought Jane Levy would have been the perfect Campbell substitute). I think this role needed someone who could present themselves as sort of insecure and docent but have a real tough farmgirl with a mouth underneath, an while Lohman delivers on the first, I don't really buy her delivery of the latter. I'm also torn about whether her responses to terror are overly-cartoony, or appropriately so, or perhaps even not big enough (Raimi's drive to create live action Looney Tunes by way of horror has been evident from the beginning of his career).
This also has some (at least 3) highly questionable at best, outright offensive at worst cultural representations that the agnostic blonde white girl needs to navigate in order to learn about and survive the horrors that have been set upon her. Its use of Romani stereotypes the most egregious of these.
In hindsight I like Raimi's navigation of the character, whether Christine deserves what's happening and whether she is a good person. But in the moment it felt like such an uneven performance. I think I will need a rewatch to really see whether the performance holds up to the intent.
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---Ranking Raimi---
- The Quick and the Dead - surprising
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - blasphemy, I know but I genuinely love it
- A Simple Plan - probably his best movie
- Army of Darkness - my favourite of the Deadite trilogy
- Spider-Man 2 - I have a mixed relationship with Spider-man (both in comics and film) but I can't deny how good this is
- Evil Dead II - it's earned its rep
- Spider-Man - sometimes I watch it and it's great, sometimes I watch it and I think it's so clunky
- Darkman - there's something to this, but I wish there were more of that something
- Drag Me To Hell - going to need another viewing
- Oz: The Great and Powerful - don't hat it as much as everyone else
- The Evil Dead - it's not bad, but it doesn't do much for me
- Spider-Man 3 - it's pretty bad and actively makes me angry to watch it
- Crimewave - unwatchable?
did not see:
The Gift - will see immediately whenever it comes available on streaming
For Love of the Game - it's a baseball movie so likely will never see it
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