October 8, 2025

Note: spoilers for The Evil Dead throughout and some images and thumbnails that some may find disturbing.

In my younger years, I was a frequent watcher of movie reviews and spoofs. Though I got into movies and other media at the time, I was still pretty afraid to jump into horror content. Movies, shows, and books still really haunted me – to the point where even a trailer or a poster could make me afraid. I’m not sure what caused this acute fear in general scary stuff for the majority of my adolescence, but in the early 2010s, one trailer got to me more than others: the first trailer for Fede Álvarez’s Evil Dead remake.

Well, fast-forward today, and The Evil Dead franchise is one of my favorites and I’ve frequently rewatched the 2013 Evil Dead. As much as I love all these movies and the fun to not-so-fun spinoff content, Sam Raimi’s 1981 classic The Evil Dead will always hold a special place in my heart.

For all its faults and problems, The Evil Dead is one of the most inspiring movies I’ve ever seen. Conceived as a student passion project by Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and some of their other buddies, the film started out as a short film called Within the Woods which was made for less than $2000 in total. From there, the cast and crew, led by Raimi, showed off the short film to family friends, local professionals, and acquaintances to ask for money. Most famously, Raimi begged a local dentist for funds, which he eventually received through a contract that gives the dentist royalties from the film for the rest of his life.

And so, for a few hundred-thousand dollars (still very low for a movie at the time), The Evil Dead was produced and distributed before Raimi and Campbell hit their mid-twenties. And the thing is, even in today’s world of a near-infinite amount of student and indie horror projects available, The Evil Dead still stands out as one of the most defining films in the horror genre.

There are many reasons for its legendary status. For me, scenes like the defeat of the deadites where stop-motion animation is used to show their decay obviously stand out, but I think even the smaller moments shine through as displaying a strong vision from Raimi and a lot of grit from the cast and crew members.

A moment that isn’t discussed as widely that demonstrates this quite a bit is the mirror shot. Near the end of the film, as Ash is questioning reality and taking a moment to calm before the deadites attack again, he approaches a mirror in the cabin to examine his reflection. As he reaches out to grab it, though, the mirror turns out to be a mysterious pool of water that shocks him back into the horrors he’s experiencing.

I could list hundreds of shots or moments just like this that make this film so special. This movie is really special and means a lot to me. As an early-twenties aspiring filmmaker, I am really inspired by the story behind this movie and the vision, skill, and creativity at play by everyone who worked on it. Though we live in a very, very different time today than when this film was made, it still fuels my passions and gives me determination. If these filmmakers could make their dreams come true in a little cabin in the woods, maybe there’s hope for us, too.