Was the original Evil Dead meant to be funny?

Was the original Evil Dead meant to be funny? - Close-up Photo of Skull

In The Evil Dead series of Sam Raimi movies, the two sequels are meant to be funny. But was that the intent of the original movie?



Best Answer

Yes and no.

Raimi and co wanted to make a film, but felt that going for a comedy wasn't a great idea - and after doing their research at the local drive-in, knew that horror was the way to go. They made a short horror promo, Within the Woods, and the positive reaction they got from this propelled the development and shooting of Evil Dead.

Even though they were going for a full-on gross out movie, Raimi's camera techniques and love of The Stooges tinged the film - and created a horror hybrid that has influenced generations of filmmakers since.




Pictures about "Was the original Evil Dead meant to be funny?"

Was the original Evil Dead meant to be funny? - Surviving a Zombie Attack
Was the original Evil Dead meant to be funny? - Zombies at the Door
Was the original Evil Dead meant to be funny? - Spooky skeleton and witches on wooden sticks near entrance of brick house on Halloween



Is the original Evil Dead better than the remake?

With bigger budgets, better CGI and a massive reputation to live up to, the remake can receive rather lacklustre feedback. Whereas Evil Dead is a companion piece to the original that captures the true horror without the comic relief.

Why are The Evil Dead movies so different?

Different distributors had come in to release Evil Dead in both theatrical and home video formats and Raimi simply didn't have the rights to any footage of the first feature. Therefore, they had to reshoot it.

Why did they make Evil Dead 2 a comedy?

Raimi contacted his old friend Scott Spiegel, who had collaborated with Campbell and others on the Super 8 mm films they had produced during their childhood in Michigan. Most of these films had been comedies, and Spiegel felt that Evil Dead II should be less straight horror than the first.



Tarantino talks about Sam Raimi's Evil Dead films




More answers regarding was the original Evil Dead meant to be funny?

Answer 2

Sam and Ted Raimi already made lots of comedies, I have a rare disc of some old short films he did before Evil Dead. It also has the Original Evil Dead on it, before it was Evil Dead, which is just twenty minutes long, I believe it was called "Within The Woods" or something like that I'm not going to check right now, but I believe that's what it's called. I have also read "If Chins Could Kill" And know Bruce Campbell's side of the story...

So, it was totally meant to be a horror movie. What happened was a local critic reviewed some of their comedy films and said that it was so ridiculous and stupid that the writers could never do anything serious, like a horror film. Sam and Ted Raimi thought they'd prove them wrong by doing the short film Within The Woods. It was meant to be scary, and when they got a lot of good reception from it, they decided to make it a full length movie and started raising money, but they tried to keep it true to the short film, which meant still scary. They WERE NOT trying to make it comedic. They were trying to stray from comedy for this one, and then they brought in the comedy for Evil Dead II.

Answer 3

NO, well I am not surprised by your question, it sure looks like a comedy when you watch it today but it was supposed to be a horror movie and it really was at the time. Horror movies were not as realistic in 1981 as they are now. Today horror movies do not show ghost's face directly they just create an ambiance where you would get sucked into the movie and get scared. Coming back to your question, Evil Dead 1981 was a horror movie it was the first horror movie I watched as a kid in mid 90's when I was like 5-6 (had trouble sleeping for months). The IMDB mentions only one genere for this movie and that is "Horror".

Answer 4

No. Evil Dead (1981) not a comedy. Evil Dead 2, definitely a comedy. And the third one, man, I don't know what that was.

Of course, if you look the first one's "special effects", they look very funny, but that's just because of low budget. They were clearly not ment to be funny.

Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Images: Mitja Juraja, cottonbro, cottonbro, Charles Parker