TSPDT

Key Production Country: USA
Key Genres: Horror, Action, Superhero Film, Horror Comedy, Supernatural Horror, Fantasy, Sci-Fi Action, Comedy, Drama
Key Collaborators: Bruce Campbell (Character Actor), Bob Murawski (Editor), Robert Tapert (Producer), Danny Elfman (Composer), Neil Spisak (Production Designer), J.K. Simmons (Character Actor), James Franco (Leading Actor), Ivan Raimi (Screenwriter), Bill Pope (Cinematographer), Arthur Coburn (Editor), Rosemary Harris (Character Actress), Tobey Maguire (Leading Actor)

"As one of today's most refreshing, invigorating directors, Raimi boasts a distinctive visual style characterized by acrobatic camerawork, rapid steadicam shots, and a violent physicality whose only analogues are found in slam-bang comic books and Three Stooges shorts. Raimi began shooting films at the tender age of eight with an 8mm film camera, and in his late teens financed his first feature, The Evil Dead (1983)." - Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia, 1995

"Like contemporaries such as Peter Jackson, Sam Raimi has moved on from a movie background in slapstick cult horror to directing big-budget blockbusters… Raimi's work has arguably been at its most potent when seamlessly fusing humor with horror. Despite that, his versatility in working across lighter horror and comedy probably prepared him well to step up to a blockbuster franchise such as Spider-Man, with its moments of darkness but its overall lighter tone." - Matt Hills (501 Movie Directors, 2007)

"Cult horror director best known for his The Evil Dead series (1983-2006 and counting) and the rather more sophisticated Darkman (1990), which starred an unlikely Liam Neeson, Raimi is a film buff with a finger in a lot of pies as occasional actor, screenwriter, producer and director." - Mario Reading (The Movie Companion, 2006)

"From his youthful beginnings making low-budget super 8mm films in his native Michigan, Sam Raimi graduated from controversial cult horror figure to a blockbuster director whose films spearheaded the 21st-century rise of the superhero movie. That he’s proven influential in both fields is significant, a mark of his talent for orchestrating a good time at the movies. Whether it’s a feast of gore in the woods or a trip to the merry old land of Oz, what sets a Raimi picture apart is a kinetic visual style, with trademark moves that you come to recognise from one film to the next. Roving camera movements, Dutch tilts, snap zoom montages and exaggerated sound design are elements you’ll find time and again in his work. Scenes can pivot quickly from nail-biting suspense to thrilling action to comedic gags." - Martyn Conterio (BFI, 2022)

"This movie-mad maker of two over-the-top modern horror film favourites - The Evil Dead (filmed in 1979; released in 1983) and Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987) - subsequently diversified into TV where he quietly became a major auteur of fantastic entertainment, executive producing the syndicated phenomena Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess (both debuted in 1995)." - Kent Greene (The Hollywood.com Guide to Film Directors, 2004)

“Can all this mainstream work - TV adventure series, vehicles for DiCaprio and Costner - come from the man responsible for The Evil Dead? What happened? Does Sam Raimi really enjoy churning out fodder for the studios? In films such as The Evil Dead II and Darkman, Raimi used an array of flashy camera tricks and special effects to shock and thrill audiences. Now, it's all become rather pointless.” - Steven Paul Davies (A-Z of Cult Films and Film-Makers, 2001)

"More than fifteen years before The Blair Witch Project, the very young Sam Raimi had promoted the idea of a cabin in the woods where evil forces made killers of ordinary people. And The Evil Dead was a low-budget picture that played at Cannes. There was far more style than funds, and this all led to Darkman, a full-scale studio horror movie. But Raimi was not content to be labeled a horror kid. The Quick and the Dead was a bizarre, camp Western that attracted a lot of name actors. Then all of a sudden A Simple Plan was a real picture about rural folks, paranoia, and what the snow can cover." - David Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2010)

"Many directors of horror films have tried to make a name for themselves by sensational excesses of violence and special effects. For some, it has merely brought oblivion, For others, such as Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven and Raimi, it has provided the foundation for a career in mainstream horror. Raimi's technical wizardry in the editing and effects departments has ensured that his films are often more scary than many of his competitors, while moving at a heart-pounding rate." - David Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999)

"Long before Wes Craven mixed the slasher flick with deconstructive comedy in the Scream franchise, Sam Raimi was both practising and parodying horror-film conventions with his Evil Dead movies." - Jessica Winter (The Rough Guide to Film, 2007)