The Evil Dead (1981)
Cost $350,000 – B.O. - $2,400,000
College Drop-Out Sam Raimi was only 20 when he began shooting this cult classic. Essentially going door-to-door with his leading man/best friend Bruce Campbell and brief 8mm demo real, the two were able to secure funding through wealthy neighbors (disproportionally dentists). Combining “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s” remote location with a cosmology derived from the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Raimi created a claustrophobic horror masterpiece, whose ending was so over-the-top it would almost veer towards comedy (a direction the series would explore with great effect in its sequels). In addition to kick starting Raimi’s career, his young editorial assistant, Joel Coen, would use Raimi’s self-financing through charity model to gain funding for a film he would co-direct with his brother Ethan…That’s a lot of Oscar’s for one low budget horror movie.
