User reviews

Two couples are vacationing in a rickety shack deep "Within the Woods". When Bruce and Ellen decide to venture out to have a picnic, they find the worst possible place to roast their weenies. They soon learn that disturbing an ancient Indian burial ground has its price…and they will pay in blood.

Hey, hey you can't really fault the filmmakers for the production. This Super 8 short was put to round up some funding for what would later become "The Evil Dead" (1982). The film itself is actually pretty good with a good atmosphere and music score that punctuate an already creepy cabin and woods. You'll see many a gag and shot that will later be replicated in the official version and let's face it any "Dead" fan has got to see "Within the Woods" for the sheer fun. Word of warning though the short has never gotten an official release (due to music rights issues) it only exists in bootleg form. If you pay for it good luck because you'll get suckered. Downloading is your best bet (it is plenty available on most P2P's) because it always seems to be an 87th generation copy of a 10th generation VHS dupe. Not worth a bloody dime but priceless any other way.

While spending the weekend with friends at a remote house in the country, Bruce (Bruce Campbell) unwittingly violates an Indian burial ground, thereby unleashing a vengeful spirit that possesses his body and proceeds to attack his pals one by one.

Within the Woods is director Sam Raimi's practise run for The Evil Dead, an extremely low budget thirty minute horror that lays down many of the ideas and film-making techniques that Sam and his team of enthusiastic friends would use in the making of their infamous 1981 video nasty.

Although the film is extremely rough around the edges, it will undoubtedly provide half an hour of fun for fans of all things 'deadite' thanks to the the involvement of many familiar Evil Dead names and faces, the familiarity of the material, and, of course, a fair smattering of gore.

I got my hands on a 30th generation dub of this short. The same plot as Evil Dead, but really really old and simple compared to the first full-length production of Sam Raimi. It's nice and campy, with some really cool camera shots, and it's the perfect length for a short. I enjoyed it, but if you didn't know anything about Evil Dead or Sam Raimi, you would just blow it off. I recommend FINDING A COPY, if you are a fan.

given the budget, and terrible quality in which i viewed this, i gave it a generous 7. either way, sam raimi already showed great skill with a very minimal approach at creating suspense, and terror in this short.. the camera moving through the woods towards the character, ala evil dead, and the minimal soundtrack enhance it all. not giving a long detailed review here, but if you are a big fan of the evil dead, and horror in general, this is WELL worth a look.. for all its "amateurness" this really shows some fantastic promise, which is obviously why raimi is where he is today. it goes to show how even with a minimal approach in both plot, and dialogue, through effective use of music, and incredibly inventive camera work, you can create the atmosphere you are going for. really an inspiring piece for anyone who likes the idea of going into the horror genre.. fun stuff.

The Plot.

A group of friends spend a weekend at a remote cabin, and one of them accidentally desecrates an Indian burial ground.

This causes him to turn into a zombie, and kill off his friends. They must band together to try and survive being massacred.

Welllll...it's not really a cabin...it's a house. A big house.

It's hard to review this film because the available prints are horrible! They look like they were pulled off a TV! The were definitely transferred of a video tape.

So it's really dark and hard to know what's happening.

BTW some people have said this is hard to find!!! well it's all over you tube.

Is it good? Not really. It's rather dull. You can see some good Rami touches, but it is no way the caliber of Evil Dead.

"Within the Woods" is largely known as the prequel to "The Evil Dead".This 30-minutes film was created to sell investors on the idea of "The Evil Dead".The film is extremely low-budget and the story is minimal.Still there is plenty of gore to satisfy fans of American horror.Bruce Cambell plays Bruce,who gets zombified.Ellen Sandweiss plays his girlfriend,Ellen.However she doesn't get raped by a tree in this film,though.The cinematography is grainy and the moving steady/shaky camera-a Raimi trademark-probably made it's debut here."Within the Woods" is rather tough to find,but if you get a chance watch it.Highly recommended.

This is not Evil Dead. It is similar to Evil Dead bu it is not Evil Dead. It is scary. It has a good story line. It also has good acting. If you want see a really scary movie to see. See this one. It is no 6.7. 6.7 overrating it a little. But is a good movie.

Sypnosis: Two couples go to a farmhouse for the weekend. One couple goes out for a picnic and accidentally wake evil spirits. Will they survive Within the Woods?

Within the Woods(1978) was, as mentioned above, a damn good little film. Sam Raimi definitely knew where he was going with this when he directed it. Bruce Campbell, of course, delivers, (he never did make a bad performance, did he? I mean, he's the only reason to watch Herbie the love bug and Congo...) and Ellen Sandweiss is believable as the tormented Ellen. Scott Spiegel and Mary Valenti perform to the extent of their roles. (I.E. cannon fodder...) It was shot with approximatively 1,600$ of budget in a three day weekend in Michigan. It premiered in August 1979 at the Punch and Judy theatre in Detroit double-billed with the Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

The good: This movie heralds the birth of the Evil Force, a Raimi horror staple, along with his crazy camera movements. The makeup by Tom Sullivan is great for a first feature and the film has enough gory moments in the latter half. The film was so intense, that even if the super-8 projector filled a 1/4 of the screen, the audience actually reacted to it!

The bad: No available copy (excluding of course Raimi's and Campbell's) has high quality or sound and is hard as all hell to find. Let's hope some day Anchor Bay closes the deal to release this little gem.

Review: 5/5

Despite it's obvious low budget, un-professionalism and complete lack of intelligence: Within the Woods may well be the most important horror short ever filmed. For, if it were not for this little movie; the student team of Sam Raimi, Roger Tapert, Bruce Campbell et al may never have gone on to make the finest film in horror movie history; The Evil Dead. It's well documented by now that this film was the one that the team made in order to get funding for their first feature length movie, but funding wasn't all they would get from it. If you've seen this film, then it's a good bet that you've seen The Evil Dead too; and if you have, you wont be able to get away from the similarities of the techniques used and the sequences shown. Much of what happens in this film made it into the final cut, with things such as the conclusion to Ellen Sandweiss' chase sequence, the zombie at the door and the final monologue of the main character being lifted wholesale from this movie into The Evil Dead.

It's not surprising why Sam Raimi and co ended up getting funded for this short. While, as mentioned, it's not great on the whole; we are shown quite clearly the prowess of the director. Raimi has implemented his trademark camera angles, along with the 'Raimi-cam', brilliantly and this is matched by the post-production, which sees the film being well edited and scored. As you might expect for this sort of film, the acting and script are, frankly, rubbish; but it hardly matters when the rest of the it is so inventive and well done. And 'Indian burial ground' aside; that's what the film is. The basic premise of the film wasn't changed for The Evil Dead, except that the actors have been swapped around. This time, we get to see the great Bruce Campbell as the main monster, and Ellen Sandweiss as the protagonist. While this works because Bruce's charisma allows him to excellently portray a possessed human; he makes for a better hero really, and Raimi and co ended up getting this right for the final cut. If you're not an Evil Dead fan (unlikely), you wont like Within the Woods...but if you are - make sure you track it down!

Raimi's Super-8 precursor to his cult debut feature THE EVIL DEAD (1983) is an amateurish half-hour piece about a geeky young man (the ubiquitous Bruce Campbell) coming under the influence of an Indian graveyard in the woods. A picnic with his girlfriend turns sour as he goes missing and then reappears as a zombie and attacks the young woman; his onslaught is unrelenting even after she reaches a cabin in the woods. The first half of this is pretty deadly (especially given the poor state of the footage) but the latter scenes involve some decent action and suspense – already showcasing the director's fondness for over-the-top gore effects. All things considered, a definite curio but not really worth more than a cursory viewing.

Or more accurately, "Invest In Us...", as that's exactly what this short 30-minute movie was trying to say. This 30-minute concept movie was intended to convince people to loan Raimi and his crew money to make the first "Evil Dead" movie.

We all the know the story by now surely : a bunch of teenagers are staying in a cabin and they awaken an evil curse that tries to kill them all off one by one blah blah blah ... only THIS time, rather than the "Book of the Dead", it is an ancient Indian curse that's causing all the carnage. Fun, huh?

First off, I can't believe that Raimi actually had the nerve to use the words "Ancient Indian Burial Ground" in a horror movie. But that and the vacuum cleaner sound effects aside, this is a great concept movie that showed exactly what it needed to - that Raimi even at that age was a competent director capable of making a successful movie.

There are aspects of this short movie that are present in the later ones, and it is interesting to note these ideas (the follow cam, the banging swing, "Join Us!") and exact sequences such as Linda trying to open the cabin door and the whole three minute "Zombie At The Door" sequence that appear literally shot-for-shot in Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2.

Serious Evil Dead fans should definitely take a look if you ever get the chance.

Before director Sam Raimi and actor Bruce Campbell would team together for their Evil Dead films (thus generating a strong cult following for this series of "funny" zombie films), they wanted to create a mini movie using a Super 8mm camera to demonstrate their artistic vision. This film was shown in theaters only once due to copyright issues and was also shown to potential investors. It must have worked because only a short time later they had enough to make the low-budget classic, THE EVIL DEAD--a film that went on to make millions and led to sequels, of sorts, such as EVIL DEAD II and ARMY OF DARKNESS (and even an off-Broadway musical). This review is for that cheapie short, WITHIN THE WOODS.

So what's the film like? Well, it's cheap, crappy but also amazingly scary for film with minimal production values, an annoyingly dark and fuzzy print and a cast with no training or skill. The problem is that YES it is scary and well-made in some ways, but unlike the EVIL DEAD films which bear a strong similarity to this film, it lacks the sense of humor that made the Evil Dead franchise work so well. An amazing film in many ways, but probably only of interest to HUGE fans of the genre.

A short film by director Sam Raimi, he made it in his college days in hopes of raising money to be able to make his masterful horror film The Evil Dead (1981).

Two couples staying at a country house are terrorized when one of them becomes murderously possessed by evil spirits.

Even with its grainy, home-made quality, Within the Woods is perhaps the greatest horror short ever made! There's plenty of effectively eerie and dark atmosphere, well-timed shocks, and some bloody-good makeup FX. It's a gripping little horror picture! Raimi would later spoof scenes from this short in both The Evil Dead (1981) and Evil Dead II (1987).

Young Bruce Campbell heads the small cast. Campbell does a good show as a likable teenager turned horrid monster by an evil spirit. Ellen Sandweiss (who would go on to star in The Evil Dead) appears as the films heroine.

A bit of a rare find, but a must-see for Raimi's fans!

*** 1/2 out of ****

Made as a simple university project, this short film was the seed that would end up starting the Evil Dead saga. Like any project of that type, this is a very low budget film with a young Bruce Campbell before he was Ash and with very few resources. Raimi managed to try to do something and at least made a story that is quite entertaining in its 30 minute length. The bad thing is the terrible video quality that makes it difficult to enjoy the film a bit. It shows that it has aged quite a bit and it is a pity that it could not be retouched or remastered. The special effects are obviously crappy, but at least the blood is something and also the first design of what the Deadites would be. As a movie itself it's pretty bad due to its horrible quality and that makes it the least inferior in the entire Evil Dead saga, but it does have a certain degree of value for being the pilot episode of the saga and that makes it somewhat worthwhile. The love of the fans. Recommended only for fans, not for anyone. My final rating for this movie is 3/10.

This is a great effort for an amateur horror film, and I think a film like this could inspire many amateur filmmakers to fulfill their dreams of making a great film. The low quality got in the way, but I still enjoyed this movie quite a bit. The similarities between this and Evil Dead/II are obvious, and I think Evil Dead II especially because one of the stars of this film (Scott Speigel) co-wrote ED2. I love this movie, and I think that in a few ways it is superior to ED. Anyone who likes Evil Dead or Evil Dead 2(-Dead By Dawn) will probably enjoy this effort of Rob Tapert (who is credited as Rip Tapert), Sam Raimi, and Bruce Campbell. If you can get this movie, I suggest you do it as soon as possible.

The idea is interesting but problematic. The script is cliché, I don't even need to go into details. The execution doesn't have much quality, but you can see the effort that has been put into it. The 1981 film, though flawed, executed the idea much better than this short one.

Bruce Campbell and Ellen Sandweiss go out for a picnic while Scott Spiegel and Mary Valenti play Monopoly. Ellen is told by Bruce about the whole place being an indian burial ground, before falling asleep. She wakes up to find Bruce missing, and then there's a whole lot of running, stabbing, and POV shots. Sam Raimi made this film for $1,600 on Super-8 over one weekend. This film is a real treat for Evil Dead fans, because, despite lacking Campbell's Ashness (where he was a wimp in Evil Dead, and progressed into an asshole in Army of Darkness), it contains many scenes that would later be seen in Evil Deads 1 and 2, and Sam Raimi's Evil POV shots. It is also atmospheric and quite scary, something that seems almost impossible given the budget. Evil Dead fans will love this, and it is worth searching the net for bootleg copies of the film (as Anchor bay were unable to provide the film on the new Limited Edition Evil Dead DVD), for anyone else, this film would only appeal to aspiring filmakers.

6/10 Anyone with a casual interest in film

8/10 Evil Dead fans like myself

Purity, without any budget, literally showing everyone all you need is a camera and friends to make a movie, hard to find, but seek this out, is it a professional feature film of course not, it's a group of friends doing something twenty years ahead of there time, This is basically a prequel to the evil dead franchise. They were just building up props and showing off what they could do with a few hundred bucks to probably show bigger producers they were ready to go big too. Bruce is mastering his craft as you will see, so good at being freaked, and being the hero at the same time, not quite the hero he grew to become but just fantastic.

I remember making amateurish home movies with my buddies during our high school years, but young Sam Raimi took it a step further. At 18, he wrote and directed this amazing half-hour short that would, a year later, be remade as The Evil Dead.

While its far from a great film, its a truly amazing little gem that has sadly gotten lost in the folds of time. The acting is all right, the cinematography is quite good, and the gory effects are extremely promising. Its no wonder that Raimi and companions were able to take this reel around and secure financing for a full-length version.

Sadly, the boys used a bevy of copyrighted music, which kept it from being publicly released for some time. Now, in an age when music could easily be lifted from the feature, Raimi (and his star Bruce Campbell) have made numerous comments that they're happy it is not readily available. To quote an interview, "releasing it would be like showing off our dirty underwear".

What they fail to realize is just how much fans of their work want to see this movie in a pristine version - or at least a better version than the one readily available online.

Come on Raimi... for those of us who want to see where it all began. Release it already.

This is the short film from the filmakers that made "The Evil Dead". The film is kind of rough, and it doesn't come in that great, and about the only place to find it, is bootlegged on the internet.

The story involves college students who take a picnic on an indian burial ground. One of them becomes possessed by a spirit and goes on a murder spree.

Very dark and gory.

Contains Strong Violence, no nudity though

Sure Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell have gone on to bigger and arguably better things but this short is one of the coolest things they've ever done. With no money and a super 8 camera Raimi, et al. created a gritty, scary professional quality monster movie perfectly played in 30mins. It's a shame this has never been given a legitimate release, I think it would inspire many people to go out and make their own horror films!