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After years of experimenting with Super-8 "short" films as they grew up, the ambition to produce a marketable film drew the Renaissance team together for more serious efforts soon after they graduated from high school. Sam Raimi met Robert Tapert at Michigan State University, and before long they were producing short films together, often with the participation of Sam's brother, Ivan, and other friends from his high school years like Bruce Campbell and Scott Spiegel.
One of their most successful films in this time period was "The Happy Valley Kid: The Story of a Student Driven Mad." It was a big hit on campus, as Sam says, "because the kids really liked watching the professors get blown away." This short reportedly cost only seven hundred dollars to produce, but grossed around thirty-five hundred. According to Bruce Campbell, "In those days, that was a big, big, moneymaker. Sam and Scott followed it up with this big epic called 'It's Murder'. They wanted to do the same thing, but it was the 'Heaven's Gate' of Super-8 movies."
In an effort to increase the likelihood of success for a commercial film, and hopefully get their investors to at least break even, the team decided a horror movie was the way to go for their first project. The reasoning was that horror movies, even lacking big budgets and well-known celebrities, always had a market in drive-ins.
So, with $1,600, they made a short entitled "Within the Woods," sort of a condensed version of "The Book of the Dead," as "The Evil Dead" was originally titled.
Using this short to demonstrate their prowess as horror filmmakers to potential investors, they managed to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars (over the course of several years) to produce their first officially distributed film, "The Evil Dead."
"The Evil Dead" was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1982, and received good reviews. Horror writer Stephen King called it "The most ferociously original horror movie of 1982." Not bad for a first time effort, especially considering some members of the crew were still too young to get a drink in their home state. The film grossed approximately $1.2 million at the box office and even though it was not widely distributed, it has become a "cult classic" that can still be found in most video stores nearly 20 years later.
"The Evil Dead" was recently re-released on video by Anchor Bay Entertainment, and ranked as high as third on the best-selling list last October. It's also recently been transferred on to DVD and LD. The LD features two special audio commentary tracks -- featuring Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Rob Tapert. The transfer was supervised by Sam himself, and even has some behind the scenes footage. The DVD has yet to be released, but has been promised to feature the same extras. For more information you may want to search DVD review. [http://www.dvdreview.com]
The success of "The Evil Dead" led to a deal to work on another film, "Crimewave." Sam was heavily influenced by The Three Stooges, as were most of the "Fake Shemps", and "Crimewave" was intended to be in that spirit. Unfortunately, "Crimewave," which Sam later dubbed "Slimewave" was a lesson in what NOT to do in producing a film.
In an interview for Filmaking on the Fringe, Sam said, "That was so awful, it's hard for me to talk about it. The studio overpowered it, and I was a kid, twenty-two years old, and didn't understand what was happening. They bullied me out of the script I wanted; they bullied my actor out of the lead; they bullied my musician off the picture and put on a 'funny' score; they got rid of my editor and cut it themselves; they controlled the mix ... The whole thing was just awful. I should have walked away from it; I wasn't smart enough to take my name off it; I wasn't a member of the union so I didn't know what my rights were. I just had such a bad experience that I've got nothing good to say about it… I felt as though they were crushing one finger at a time, then my toes, and then asking me to perform the big tap-dance sequence."
Not surprisingly, "Crimewave" never drew much of an audience.
For the next Renaissance production, in 1985, it was not Sam in the writer/director's seat, but long-time Renaissance associate, Josh Becker. In this film, "Stryker's War," (later re-titled: "Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except") Sam Raimi co-starred as a crazed cult leader. Scott Spiegel co-wrote, produced, and was art director. Bruce Campbell co-wrote and worked as a sound editor; Ted Raimi also had a brief appearance as a chain-wielding psycho cult member. (Yes, you DO have to see this movie!) Though Rob Tapert is not credited, Josh Becker says Rob did some looping for the film and his voice can be heard several times. Joe LoDuca wrote the score.
"Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except" was re-released on video early in 1999. (You're in luck, now it's easy to find!) Visit Josh Becker's official website for an in depth look at the making of this film. Beckerfilms
In 1987, in order to make some profit for the investors of "The Evil Dead," the Renaissance gang made "Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn." Unfortunately, "ED2" was released unrated, due to the fact that there was no way to keep the picture intact and get an R rating, and that slowed up the distribution. Sam says, in Making Movies, "Without an MPAA rating, many theater chains won't show the film, and lots of newspapers won't carry the print advertising." So, while it was not a smash hit, they put a big rights fee into the package for the investors to finally break even and possibly make a small profit.
"Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn" was re-released to video earlier this year. It was re-released in both a collector's and a regular edition on VHS; on a special edition, blood-red, LD; and on DVD. The LD has a hilarious second audio track with Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, Scott Spiegel, and special effects man, Greg Nicotero providing production stories, memories, and goofball comments. The LD also has behind the scenes footage, showing Ted Raimi being made up as Henrietta, and "Bobby Joe" getting special make up effects "TREEtment," among other things.
After "ED2" came "Darkman," (1990) directed by Sam Raimi, and co-produced by Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi. For "Fake Shemp" spotters, note that Bruce Campbell and Ted Raimi both appear in this film. "Darkman" spawned the long-running relationship between Sam Raimi and Universal Pictures. Made with the biggest budget and crew Sam had ever worked with, "Darkman" was a much more character driven film than his previous efforts. Not to say it didn't have its fair share of brilliant visuals and special effects - it is, after all, a fantasy/comic book/action movie.
The success of this movie opened a lot of doors for Sam and other members of the Renaissance Pictures crew, leading to offers to make films outside of the horror genre stories with which they broke into the industry.
While Sam and Rob were developing "Darkman", Josh Becker had another story idea, and pitched it to them. They decided to produce his film, "Lunatics: A Love Story," which was filmed in 1989 and released in 1990. Ted Raimi and Deborah Foreman co-starred in this romantic comedy set in Los Angeles -- but filmed in Detriot.
Josh Becker says, "Sam was very involved in the development of DARKMAN and wasn't really paying much attention to my frequent drafts of LUNATICS. Rob was the one that dealt with the script development of LUNATICS. He really got into it, too, and spent a great deal of time at my place discussing it. (The skull emblem on Debbie Foreman's black leather jacket in the movie was something Rob and I saw a cute girl wearing at a movie theater). At this point I realized that Ted Raimi, who had previously been in every movie I had made, would be perfect for the lead, Hank. Both Sam and Rob enthusiastically agreed."
Continuing the now traditional "Fake Shemp" pattern, Bruce Campbell had a dual role in "Lunatics," while at the same time acting as both a producer and sound editor. Produced under the Renaissance Pictures Limited banner, in association with Columbia Tristar, "Lunatics" never got a real theatrical release but was sold to video and cable TV. It might still occasionally be found on cable stations, and is available in some video stores. For the best information on "Lunatics: A Love Story," see Josh Becker's official website. Beckerfilms
As part of a deal made with Dino DeLaurentiis, producer of "Evil Dead II," the Renaissance team had agreed to make a third installment in the "Evil Dead" series, called "Army of Darkness" (1993). Though Bruce Campbell reprised his role as the lead character, Ash, "Army of Darkness" was a departure from "Evil Dead II", just as "ED2" was something different from "The Evil Dead." This time around, horror took a back-seat to comedy and fantasy. Although there was less gore in this picture, the filmmakers discovered that the MPAA rating board seemed to hold the previous "ED" movies against them. They gave "AoD" an "R" rating, which does seem odd, considering it's mostly fantasy, with not a whole lot of gore.
That's not the only trouble "AOD" had. There were financing problems that put the picture on hold for eight months, which resulted in Sam and Rob putting a lot of their own money into it. While "Army of Darkness" didn't do all that badly, it wasn't an overwhelming success either, making the prospects for an "Evil Dead 4" seem unlikely.
In 1993 Rob and Sam also executive produced "Hard Target," starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. John Woo directed, but Sam was a fan of his filmmaking, and thought him a good choice. Both Ted Raimi and Arnold Vosloo (Darkman #2) make appearances in this action film.
Sam and Rob then went on to produce another action movie with Van Damme: "Timecop," in 1994. This was a very busy year, as they also executive produced the direct-to-video "Darkman II: The Return of Durant" and a made-for-television movie, "M.A.N.T.I.S.," which was released in January of 1994, followed by the television series "M.A.N.T.I.S." in August of 1994. As if that wasn't keeping them busy enough, they also began work on the Hercules television movies this same year.
The second story in the Darkman series, "Darkman II: The Return of Durant" was also released in 1994. Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert executive produced this direct-to-video sequel. It was written by Robert Eisele, Lawrence Hertzog, and Steven McKay, and directed by Bradford May.
An interesting note: Renee O'Connor, popular for her role as Gabrielle on "Xena: Warrior Princess" appeared in "Darkman II."
"Darkman III: Die, Darkman, Die," the third story in the "Darkman" series, was released for direct-to-video distribution in 1996. Rob and Sam also executive produced this final Darkman film.
By this time, Renaissance Pictures was heavily committed to the television industry with both Hercules and Xena in full swing.
Although Renaissance Pictures as a company has not produced a feature film since "Darkman III," Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, Josh Becker, Scott Spiegel, Ted Raimi and other "Shemps" have continued their work in the film industry, in association with other production companies. Most of the core people involved with the company's film history made the transition to television as well, and remain active with Renaissance Pictures projects to this day.