The filmmakers took a train at $40 each, as they knew none of their cars could make an entire round trip road trip. The company was Levitt-Pickman Films, who most recently was famous for Groove Tube, starring a very young Chevy Chase. Most importantly, Grainger provided the name of a distributor in New York City whom they could approach for possible distribution. Grainger stated, "Fellas, no matter what, just keep the blood running." As a tribute to him specifically there's a scene in the finished film where an old film projector whirs to life and "projects" blood running down the screen.
Since they had little experience in the film industry, the three felt they should buy business suits and briefcases as a means to convince investors that they "had all the answers." A man named Andy Grainger who was a friend of Tapert and owner of a series of movie theatres was the first primary investor. However due to technical difficulties, it was decided to move it up to 16 mm format, as they wanted to film the project in the style of the many low-budget films at the time that had come out in the 1970s. The budget was originally centered on $150,000 while shooting with a Super 8 camera. In order to organize the budget, Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell bought a few "how to make an independent film" guide publications. Financingįilming was first commissioned for the summer of 1979 in Michigan. For a marketing strategy a screening was arranged at their former high school, with a positive response. Within the Woods, as well as serving as a prototype, had impressed the filmmakers. In the spring of 1979 filming of Within the Woods started over a three day weekend on a budget of $1,600. From these rough concepts, he concocted a short story where a group of four friends unwittingly dig up an ancient Indian burial ground and unleash horrific spirits and demons. Lovecraft and was most impressed with Necronomicon, or simply The Book of the Dead. The same year, at Michigan State, Raimi had been studying H.
The idea to do a "prototype" was commissioned, to prove not only to themselves, but also to potential investors that they were capable of doing a full length horror film. 'The gorier the merrier' became our prime directive." Films that were witnessed amongst them included Massacre at Central High and Revenge of the Cheerleaders. Campbell quoted, "the message was very clear: Keep the pace fast and furious, and once the horror starts, never let up. The many films that they watched were the "two films for two dollars," allowing them the chance to document the behavior of what would become their target audience. This would later lead to research of low-budget horror films at the local drive-in theater. The three felt the end result was very effective and represented a new direction that their films could take, that of a semi-successful horror film. This moved Raimi to write the short film Clockwork. The three were highly valued fans of the comedy genre, though they decided not to do such a film as they felt "a feature-length yuck fest just didn't compute." To do the film as a horror was put forth after they were inspired by a well noted scene from It's Murder. These were the practical reasons that convinced the three to put forth a feature length film. Campbell didn't mind stating that "I could always move back home." Tapert was fearing that he would become an expert in fisheries/wildlife while Raimi was afraid that he would go back to work at his dad's home furnishing store.
Raimi felt it to be impossible citing that they could never pull off the funding. While putting the finishing touches in It's Murder! Tapert suggested doing a feature length film to Raimi. Sam Raimi was studying literature at Michigan State University with Robert Tapert finishing his economics degree. In January 1979 Bruce Campbell was a college dropout who had just quit his job as a taxicab driver.