"My aspiration is to tell entertaining stories through the medium of film, stories that are as visually exciting as possible and that hopefully will create an experience that is uplifting for the audience."
If you are a horror movie freak, you might have known him from the classic Evil Dead series. If you are a superhero fanboy, you might have known him from the blockbuster Spider-Man trilogy. Being a little bit of both, I can't help but notice those brilliant creations of his. It is no wonder that his IMDb page labels him as "one of Hollywood's most creative, exciting and intelligent filmmakers".
A few reasons why we love him...
From his three Spider-Man movies, I recognize a man with strong vision of what he wants to do with his movies and with his characters. His Spider-Man trilogy has turned out to be one of its kind; movies that are easily enjoyed by kids, but at the same time contain very mature life lessons that any adult at anytime can relate to. Raimi always wants his protagonist to be ordinary individual, could be any one of us, who caught up in extraordinary circumstance (like having the responsibility to become a superhero). Raimi wants his villains to have a sense of humanity, that they are not just downright evil. He wants a heroic story that "shows us the way, reminds us of the good we are capable of". When Raimi launched his Spider-Man franchise, it was a defining moment for the fate of superhero movies in the new millennium. Some go further by claiming that the superhero genre wouldn't be where it is right now without Raimi's movies being so successful.
From his Evil Dead series, I see a craftsman who wants to set the trend, swim against the current. He wants to make movies that are original and different, and affect the audience in a new kind of way at a particular moment. The result is a brilliant blend of horror and comedy, forever one of the most influential collection of cult classics in film history. Sure his movies are known to be over the top cheesy at times, but mostly in Raimi's cases it works.
Getting to know his classics (and other works)
"The Evil Dead" (1981), has the honor to jump-start the emergence of numerous horror films that belong to cabin-in-the-woods subgenre in the following decades. But even today it still differentiates itself from most horror films. "The Evil Dead" is not your typical horror movie. It is not your typical zombie movie either. As a matter of fact, there is nothing remotely typical about it. It is low budget, but back in the day, its special effects and the wall-to-wall blood and guts were groundbreaking. Though the follow-ups, "Evil Dead II" gives way to more slapstick humor to offset the gory horror, while the 3rd installment, "Army of Darkness", turns away almost totally from horror in favor of fantasy and comedy elements. When horror-comedy was just taking shape as a subgenre, Raimi led the way.
Speaking of being versatile filmmaker, during the 90s Sam Raimi had tried out other various genres. He created his own superhero movie, "Darkman" (1990), his first major studio picture, which was only moderately successful. Other movies he directed are including the western "The Quick and the Dead" (1995) starring Sharon Stone and very young Leonardo DiCaprio, the critically acclaimed crime thriller "A Simple Plan" (1998), and the romantic drama "For Love of the Game" (1999). Being a comic book buff himself, Raimi finally achieved great critical and commercial success with "Spider-Man" (2002), which had produced two sequels. Only in 2009 he returned to his root, a mix of horror and dark humor, the love it or hate it "Drag Me to Hell".
Raimi's specialty: the kinetic, wild camera movement!
He has always been interested in the camera and the effects of it --that's what drew him to film in the first place, and his strong visual style is evident throughout his movies via inventive and startling camera work that caught the attention of numerous critics. Raimi's style is always distinguishable from other directors in Hollywood. In many of Raimi's movies, the camera itself is part of the action onscreen. He has the trademark of having a shot where the camera follows a moving object (such as an arrow or projectile weapon) at high speeds creating a first-person point of view from the object itself, and also a shot from the point of view of the monster (such as the unseen evil force in the Evil Dead movies, Doc Ock's mechanical arms in "Spider-Man 2", and the black symbiote from outer space in "Spider-Man 3").
Sam Raimi became fascinated with making films when his father brought a movie camera home one day and he began to make Super 8mm film movies with childhood friend Bruce Campbell (who stars in the three Evil Dead movies and plays cameo in three Spider-Man movies). Raimi never was a film student. He attended Michigan State University and majored in English, but leaving after three semesters to pursue his filmmaking career. Though he might not be as popular as his peers Eli Roth or Quentin Tarantino, Raimi sure has secured the loyalty of a number of devoted fans around the world who are willing to go see any movie he makes in the future. That's including me.
From various sources.
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