Sam Raimi
295 connections found
Filmography
Spider-Man 2002 
Darkman 1990 
Evil Dead II 1987 
Drag Me to Hell 2009 
The Evil Dead 1983 
Army of Darkness 1992 
The Gift 2000 
A Simple Plan 1998 
Spider-Man 3 2007 
Spider-Man 2 2004 
Oz the Great and Powerful 2013 
Within the Woods 1979 
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness 2022 
For Love of the Game 1999 
The Quick and the Dead 1995 
Send Help 2026 View:
Connections, in both directions
The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
Directed by Drew Goddard
influenced by The Evil Dead (1983), Evil Dead II (1987), Army of Darkness (1992), Drag Me to Hell (2009), Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)
Themes Plot
There are clear parallels (and homages) to The Evil Dead and, well, let's just say other '80s horror films.
Can you say "The Evil Dead" rip-off?
It references slasher classics such as “The Evil Dead” and “Hellraiser” and plays corny cliches like a fiddle.
The Cabin is, as you'd expect, crammed to the rafters with genre references, among them The Shining, The Evil Dead, Cube, Hellraiser, The Blair Witch Project, the 1950s EC horror comics, Japanese horror (there's a delirious running gag about weird happenings in Kyoto), H P Lovecraft, even Michael Haneke's high-minded chiller-as-treatise Funny Games.
“Cabin” consciously evokes “The Evil Dead” as five college students gather to drive in their RV to a remote (i.e., scary) cabin.
Fans of rip-roaring horror films like “The Evil Dead” will have a field day with this ingenious sendup, which Joss Whedon—the mastermind behind the TV cult classics “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Firefly”—produced and co-wrote with the director, Drew Goddard.
Mandy (2018)
Directed by Panos Cosmatos
influenced by The Evil Dead (1983)
Characters Themes Visuals
And Nic Cage is more than game for all the frenzied derangement; he’s indisputably channeling Bruce Campbell from The Evil Dead, zoned out in a state of grisly crimson mania, absolutely soaked with blood and body parts.
Feeling like that awesome cosmic-horror VHS that you’ve just stumbled across on one of the lower shelves in the horror section, Mandy is akin to legendary fantasy artist Frank Frazetta drinking a litre of LSD, watching The Evil Dead and Hellraiser while listening to Obscured by Clouds by Pink Floyd, then painting an epic cosmic triptych.
Having expertly lured people in during this first half, Cosmatos then puts the pedal to the metal in the second half with a blood-soaked exercise in unhinged nuttiness that compares favorably to such giddy gore classics as “The Evil Dead” and “Re-Animator.”
Admittedly, Mandy is a bare-bones narrative essentially boiling down to revenge against a group of evangelical cultists and their summoned demonic biker gang associates, but writer and director Panos Cosmatos (alongside co-writer Aaron Stewart Ahn) imbues standard practices with heavy stylistic choices ranging from art-house horror sensibilities conjuring up the vibe of the set of an ’80s heavy metal music video, death sequences involving gallons upon gallons of fake blood and most certainly enough to make anyone that ever worked on The Evil Dead series smile with approval, scenery-chewing performances from everyone, especially the villains, comprised of lines that feel ripped out of the dark fantasy novels the titular Mandy reads or perhaps heavy metal reminiscent lyrics, and hypnotic visual trickery, specifically speaking a back-and-forth transformative image that had me questioning if I was going crazy and seeing things.
There are tinges of Dungeons and Dragons , The Evil Dead , Conan the Barbarian , and many more.
…a scenario that's a blend of Misery, Horrible Bosses, and Triangle of Sadness…
…before eventually evoking Misery (1990) once Linda’s psychology is explored…
‘Survivor’ Meets ‘Misery’…
On the surface, Send Help can look like Misery meets Lord of the Flies.
“Send Help” goes down like a cocktail of ”Horrible Bosses”, “Castaway”, and “Misery” but seasoned with Raimi’s own special sauce.
…some have referenced Kathy Bates’ kneecap-hammering obsessive Annie Wilkes in Rob Reiner’s famed Stephen King adaptation, Misery.
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
Directed by Patty Jenkins
influenced by Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 3 (2007), Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Plot Visuals Themes
Wonder Woman 1984 doesn’t deserve comparisons to The Dark Knight; it deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as Spider-Man 3.
The plot is goofy as hell, but the movie knows that and never takes itself so seriously that it enters Spider-Man 3 territory.
The number one lesson from “Spiderman 3” is never have more than two villains in your movie.
Barbara’s slow transformation to a more confident and unexpectedly powerful woman will get compared to Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns — and certainly Wiig’s endearingly insecure performance owes itself to that performance — but it’s actually closer to a traditional superhero transformation sequence, akin to something out of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man .
If Jenkins’ touchstone has always been Richard Donner’s Superman, an immensely entertaining mall robbery conjures an unashamedly comic-booky kinetic flair akin to Raimi’s Spider-Man films, while a later clash rivals X2 for super-powered, White House-based showdowns.
Wonder Woman 1984 recalls the kind of warm but welcomingly hokey nature of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films when they were at their best.
…watches episodes of Survivor (oooh foreshadowing)…
Linda also happens to be obsessed with the reality TV perennial, Survivor, and is able to hold her own and then some in these forbidding climes.
It quickly transpires that Linda’s obsession with the TV show Survivor (something Bradley and his colleagues had mocked her for) has given her a set of valuable skills when it comes to living on a desert island.
This season on Survivor.
…works on research for her real dream gig: competing on Survivor…
…she sees him, Donovan and the other guys chortling over her audition tape for “Survivor,” which they’ve found on the web.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Directed by Bob Persichetti
influenced by Spider-Man 3 (2007), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man (2002)
Themes
The story makes fun of all the comic book tropes, of the line 'with great power...' and hell, they also take a jibe at Tobey Maguire's dancing item in 2007's Spider-Man 3.
Like any great "Spider-Man" movie, "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" works because of its complex and relatable protagonists and memorable villains.
The Peter Parker version of the character (initially voiced by Chris Pine) sets us off with a narration, deftly spinning the long history of the character into one package (there’s even a loving dig at Sam Raimi’s controversial “Spider-Man 3”).
It starts off with a hilarious callback to the forgettable Spider-Man 3 (2007), acknowledging it with fondness even when it pokes fun at it.
Reaching peaks with Spider-Man 2 and Spiderman: Homecoming , only to crash down with Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and this year’s spin-off/unintentional romantic-comedy Venom.
Like any great "Spider-Man" movie, "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" works because of its complex and relatable protagonists and memorable villains.
Baily-Bond sets the speed to slowburn and, along with her cowriter Anthony Fletcher, peppers the script with digs at the era’s paranoia about a VHS copy of The Evil Dead turning the nation’s youth into serial killers.
Obviously, CENSOR is meant as a love letter to the horror films of the 1980s, many referenced in the film clips of the movies that the censors are watching and judging – like The Evil Dead , Nightmares In A Damaged Brain , and, first in line, The Driller Killer .
It’s only much later, when Enid’s sense of reality has become as warped as the picture on a fifth-gen pirate copy of The Evil Dead that surreal colour seeps in like the misty halogen glow of a Winding Refn or a Cosmatos.
When Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead and Abel Ferrerra’s The Driller Killer are your high-end examples you know deep seediness is afoot.
(Side Note: It’s a real bummer that for decades the only Britainers lucky enough to see the uncut versions of The Evil Dead or Tenebre were people who absolutely despised the films) Anyone looking for an excuse to vilify horror further can easily point to Enid and say “ Look!
These films, which included THE EVIL DEAD, DRILLER KILLER, and I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, were subjected to extensive censorship dictated by an arbitrary group of censors.
The movie then follows the plot of “Cast Away” and “Six Days and Seven Nights.”
…the way it blends Cast Away with Fatal Attraction makes for something effortlessly watchable…
So Send Help is The Collector meets Hell in the Pacific meets either film titled Castaway…
The material plays like Cast Away (2000) if Tom Hanks had been stranded with a bitchier Meg Ryan…
…the story is a delicious combination of elements from Cast Away (Linda also celebrates making fire)…
Borrowing familiar survival and psychological-thriller elements from “Cast Away” and “Misery,”…
Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)
Directed by Andy Serkis
influenced by Spider-Man (2002), Evil Dead II (1987), Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Characters Themes
Hardy reprises his role from 2018’s comic book adaptation (a Marvel Cinematic Universe-adjacent offering from Sony Pictures which unfolds in the same realm as Tom Holland’s Spider-Man movies) as Eddie Brock, an ambitious San Francisco investigative reporter.
The movie began as serious Marvel business, supposedly — an extended-universe nod to the comic books, and an establishing cameo in 2007's Spider-Man 3 — though where it landed felt a lot closer to chaotic buddy comedy: a platonic love story between a man and the extraterrestrial insult comic living inside him.
Although a character born on the pages of Spider-Man, Venom is a stand-alone character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Like "Evil Dead II," this is an off-the-wall, over-the-top, "Three Stooges" inspired freak show.
The Verdict: Much like Evil Dead II , Venom 2 takes what works about its shaggy predecessor, turns it up to 11 and gives it almost exclusive focus, and exponentially increases the silliness.
The character first popped up as a villain in 2007’s Spider-Man 3 with Topher Grace as Eddie Brock/Venom, but made little impact because of the quality of the film and Grace’s performance.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton
influenced by Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Visuals Themes
His visual style combines the greatest elements of the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield Spider-Man films…
Unlike the buoyant and quirky humor of Spidey’s teenage years in Watts’ trilogy, this film leans more towards the tone of the Sam Raimi era, reminiscent of Tobey Maguire’s heartbroken, down-on-his-luck Peter. The DNA mutation, Peter figuring out how to use organic web-shooters, and even the iconic upside-down kiss all bring back memories of Raimi’s films.
…most especially Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire, and their own era’s sense of longing and sacrifice. It’s those soapy melodramatic stakes that come with adolescence and thwarted dreams that makes that 2000s trilogy so special.
More than two decades after Spider-Man first swung onto cinema screens…
That is what I appreciate about Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. Yes, those movies tell an ongoing story and are packed with plenty of characters, but they never feel like they exist solely to set up the next chapter. When I watch Spider-Man, I am completely immersed in Spider-Man.
…taking the best qualities of the Raimi films in its cerebral approach…
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Directed by Jon Watts
influenced by Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 3 (2007), Army of Darkness (1992)
Characters Themes Visuals
Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 is the consensus pick for the best Spider-Man movie of the first five, which includes the two Amazing Spider-Man movies released earlier this decade.
But in the end, it’s these characters we love, that we take to our heart, and Spider-Man: Homecoming gets Spider-Man in a way that we haven’t seen since Sam Raimi-s Spider-Man 2. But while that film gets a lot right, Spider-Man: Homecoming is better.
While many will trip over themselves to declare in futility that “Spider-Man: Homecoming is the best Spider-Man since Spider-Man 2,” this third iteration of the superhero is still missing the emotion and all-around spark that Sam Raimi brought.
If the original Sam Raimi trilogy (2002's " Spider-Man ," 2004's " Spider-Man 2 ," and 2007's " Spider-Man 3 ") starring Tobey Maguire was just about perfect as far as comic book adaptations go, blending fun, grandeur and an emotionally weighty throughline, then 2012's " The Amazing Spider-Man " and 2014's " The Amazing Spider-Man 2 " took time to escape feeling like unnecessary repeats but ultimately proved winning and involving as far as romantically tinged action-adventures go.
Nobody speaks his famously humane credo — that with great power must come great responsibility — in Jon Watts’s brash Spider-Man: Homecoming, the first Spidey flick as ebullient as the comics you read when you were a kid.
And, ditching the angst and sludgy plotting of the last few films, Homecoming is easily the best Spider-Man film since Sam Raimi’s operatic Spider-Man 2.
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Directed by Tim Burton
influenced Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)
Visuals
It will remind you of Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland,” but it’s much better than that.
And it’s all punctuated by a Danny Elfman score that serves as a reminder of how similar this effects-laden extravaganza is to the latter-day (and mediocre) work of Elfman’s frequent collaborator, Tim Burton – specifically, 2010’s “Alice in Wonderland,” also from Disney.
A not-so-subtle attempt by the Mouse House to cash in on the success of “Alice in Wonderland,” “Oz the Great and Powerful” feels like more of a sequel to that film than anything resembling Victor Fleming’s seminal classic “The Wizard of Oz,” no matter how many cheeky references are crammed into the story.
The end result is something akin to Tim Burtons “Alice in Wonderland,” which had a similar problem with hyper-detailed, brightly colored backgrounds becoming a messy smudge whenever theres any 3D action.
Unlike such financial bombs as John Carter, Battleship and the recent Jack the Giant Slayer, this Oz prequel will likely be a box office champion — parent company Disney is obviously hoping for grosses to match those of its 2010 offering Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton's occasionally magical but more often misguided reworking of a beloved fantasy franchise.
“Oz the Great and Powerful” is headed to the dust bin of misguided attempts to replicate the recent billion-dollar success of Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland.”
Talk to Me (2023)
Directed by Danny Philippou
influenced by The Evil Dead (1983), Drag Me to Hell (2009)
Visuals Themes Plot
The Philippou’s go all out here, with some genuinely hideous make-up effects, bringing to mind The Evil Dead , while scenes of the purgatory the possessed people wind up in bring to mind Event Horizon .
From the ghastly demon practical effects to its sharp-edge cinematography, Talk to Me evokes the visuals of Raimi’s The Evil Dead (1981) and Drag Me to Hell .
It instantly brings Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead to mind, but it also introduces James Wan’s Insidious into the mix.
Michael and Danny Philippou’s “Talk to Me” contains splendid nasty scares, often feeling like Australia’s answer to Sam Raimi’s “The Evil Dead” (or Joel Schumacher’s “Flatliners”) for the modern generation, where teens summon ghostly spirits as a party trick or newly found drug.
From the ghastly demon practical effects to its sharp-edge cinematography, Talk to Me evokes the visuals of Raimi’s The Evil Dead (1981) and Drag Me to Hell .
Some music left on the cutting room floor when they were finishing The Exorcist , a mad old gypsy from the Universal monster movies, flesh-rotting ghosts straight out of J-horror, and maybe best of all, violent and assaultive sound design that recalls 1963's magnificent The Haunting.
Sometimes he takes the indirect approach (akin to Robert Wise's "The Haunting"), creating anxiety from the mundane: A handkerchief delicately wafting toward Christine's windshield is filled with foreboding.
Power Rangers (2017)
Directed by Dean Israelite
influenced by Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Plot Visuals
Like a version of “Spider-Man” in which Peter Parker doesn’t start slinging webs until Act 3, the movie doesn’t let the Power Rangers don their armor until they learn to bond as a family unit and understand why they, and they alone, were chosen for the extraordinary task of protecting Earth.
Throughout the course of this overlong 124-minute sci-fi action-adventure/coming-of-age superhero dramedy, “Power Rangers” pays homage to, attempts to replicate, or simply steals from “The Breakfast Club,” “Thor,” “Chronicle,” “Transformers,” “Pacific Rim,” “Children Of Men,” “Iron Man,” “Spider-Man,” 2009’s “Star Trek” and maybe “Gods Of Egypt.”
The Amazing Spider-Man had a short run on TV, played by Nicholas Hammond, best-known as one of the Von Trapp kids in The Sound of Music .
As Billy wonders aloud whether they will get cool superhero costumes like those worn by Iron Man or Spider-Man, he and his friends are seen testing the boundaries of their newfound abilities not unlike Peter Parker on the rooftops of New York, before eventually learning to morph into their Rangers’ metallic body suits that looks like a day-glo range from Stark Industries.
En cuanto a los efecto especiales usados estos cumplen los estándares que requiere una cinta de este calibre, las transformación cambiaron esta ocasión dejando atrás las pijamas que usan los Rangers en la serie y las armaduras de las películas, por un traje digital, muy parecido al que usa Venom en Spiderman 3, este cambio puede no ser del agrado total de los puristas pero sí de las nuevas audiencias quien verán como algo cool esta actualización.
Batman (1989)
Directed by Tim Burton
influenced Spider-Man (2002), Darkman (1990), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Visuals Themes
There’s nothing in “Spider-Man” to match the delirious Wagnerian grandeur of Tim Burton’s “Batman,” or the hard, gleaming surfaces and combination of melancholic undertow and propulsive motion that suited “X-Men” so well.
And with its alienated teenage hero, there are times when “Spider-Man” seems to aspire to the profound darkness of the Frank Miller graphic novels that formed the basis of Tim Burton’s “Batman.”
Screenwriter David Koepp, adapting the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko comic books to the screen, finds a comfortable middle ground between the campiness of the old "Batman" TV series and the moodiness of director Tim Burton's "Batman" movies, and Raimi tosses in a few of his own unexpected detours along the way.
A familiar hero lives or dies by good casting (think of the string of actors woefully trying to pass themselves off as Bruce Wayne throughout the Batman franchise).
Director Sam Raimi, a long-time "Spider-Man" fan, was once known for mainlining the kind of murky midnight sensibility that Tim Burton brought to the "Batman" films.
But that summary hardly hints at what is in store as we are talking about a film that draws its inspirations from all over the place — The Shadow , Tim Burton’s Batman, The Phantom of the Opera , comic books, pulp novels, and horror films and who knows what else.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Directed by Tobe Hooper
influenced The Evil Dead (1983)
Visuals Themes
The filmmakers admit to deriving a large degree of inspiration from Tobe Hooper's 1974 ripsnorter, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre .
Indeed, much like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre from 1974, one of the few American horror movies that is genuinely greater in its artistry and bleaker in its brutality, the most important point about The Evil Dead is that its superficially dubious screenplay matters nothing at all, compared to the extraordinary filmmaking prowess on display: even if we allow that The Evil Dead is poorly-written (and I'm not so sure that's the case), it works because of Raimi's incredibly bright directing, which still doesn't feel stale after three decades of copycats have sucked all the freshness out of cinematic tricks that were, in 1981, hugely radical.
It ranks more closely with the 1970s classics The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween than it does with the sillier strain of more modern horror films.
"The Evil Dead", is a first film that easily surpasses other notorious horror debuts such " The Last House on the Left " or "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre".
Avatar (2009)
Directed by James Cameron
influenced Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), Spider-Man (2002)
Visuals
Instead, we get a CGI'd, green-screened and Disneyfied horse of a different color that combines an "Alice in Wonderland" plot and an "Avatar" landscape with the witches of "Charmed" and Disney's anthropomorphism and theme-park tendencies.
“Oz the Great and Powerful,” on the other hand, looks like someone combined the looks of Victor Fleming’s 1939 classic, the aforementioned “Alice,” “Lord of the Rings” and “Avatar” and pressed “pulverize.”
And though a vista that suggests Monument Valley with snow has startling splendor, other landscapes seem borrowed from Avatar, and a waterfall plunge suggests only the prototype for a Disney World thrill ride, without the thrills.
More impressively, Oz the Great and Powerful may well be the first movie since Avatar to fully exploit 3D’s potential as a “wonder delivery device” for the entire length of the movie.
Much like in “Avatar,” it’s almost too much to take in at first.
It’s difficult to rouse an audience with something new and different these days, but Raimi and company have pulled it off, and much of the credit goes to production designer Robert Stromberg, who won Oscars for his work on Avatar and the 2010 Alice in Wonderland.
I get the feeling that Raimi sat in the theatre watching "Fargo" by his old cohorts and housemates, the Coen Brothers, and said to himself, "I could do that."
This movie is both funnier and more serious, and manages to make its points about bad behavior without debasing the humanity of its characters (cf Very Bad Things) or pointing at them and laughing (cf Fargo).
The desolate, wintry setting and random bursts of mayhem lend the movie a superficial resemblance to Fargo, but Raimi works without the Coen brothers' jokey plastic detachment.
Sam Raimi, creator of such frenetic cult films as The Evil Dead and Darkman, strapped himself into a strait-jacket to direct A Simple Plan, a deliberate thriller that has less in common with his genre faves than with friend Joel Coen's greed dirge Fargo, especially in its frosty milieu.
Set against a snowy backdrop that recalls the Coen Brothers' Fargo (indeed, Raimi, who has frequently collaborated with the Coens', asked his friends for advice about filming in such conditions), A Simple Plan is saturated with atmosphere.
Though the frozen tundra and forlorn characters initially echo Fargo, director Sam Raimi anchors his film in darkly realistic tragedy, not warped serio-comedy.
Daredevil (2003)
Directed by Mark Steven Johnson
influenced by Spider-Man (2002)
Visuals Themes Characters
(Anyone annoyed by shortcomings in Spider-Man's special effects can start working out the wording of their angry Internet posts now.)
Unfortunately, Affleck and Garner, the star of TV’s “Alias,” exhibit no chemistry together after this first encounter – even though the film pays homage to “Spider-Man” with a soggy love scene set in the rain.
With the recent comeback success of big screen adaptations of comic books such as "X-Men" and especially "Spider-Man," many are hoping and/or expecting that Affleck's appearance in and as "Daredevil" will take both him and the character to the top of their respective lists.
He’s more like the various aloof Bruce Waynes of the the Batman franchise than the more human heroes of Spider-Man or X‑Men .
Understandably, given the $400 million that "Spider-Man" took in at the box office last summer, the powers that be at Twentieth Century Fox are anticipating "Daredevil" will be an across-the-board smash and the beginning of a franchise.