To celebrate the release of the original, uncut version of The Possession on DVD, Blu-ray and download this week, we’re dedicating our latest ‘FPI Five Favourite’ list to its producer and one of our all-time favourite filmmakers, Sam Raimi. If you didn’t catch The Possession in the cinema, now’s your chance. If you’ve seen a Ghost House Pictures film before, then you’ll have a good idea of what to expect: traditional, unpretentious horror goodness with a real creative flair.
Clyde (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Stephanie Brenek (Kyra Sedgwick) see little cause for alarm when their youngest daughter Em becomes oddly obsessed with an antique wooden box she purchased at a yard sale. But as Em’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic, the couple fears the presence of a malevolent force in their midst, only to discover that the box was built to contain a dibbuk, a dislocated spirit that inhabits and ultimately devours its human host.
Without further ado, here are our five favourite Sam Raimi-related projects:
5. DARKMAN (1990) – as Director, writer,
Who doesn’t like Darkman? It’s rare that any new superhero works brilliantly from the get-go, let alone one designed for the silver screen (although technically originating in a short story by Raimi) so we think it’s a major shame that we’ve seen precious little outside of a couple of comics and a few figures since 96′s Die, Darkman, Die. The 1990′s original was supposedly conceived after Raimi unsuccessfully chased rights for both Batman and The Shadow. Add those two together, add some tragic disfigurement and a performance by the man whose badassery only gets finer with age, Liam Neeson and you have probably all the reasons you need to check this out on DVD or Netflix if you haven’t been initiated yet.
Find out our other pics under the cut!
4. GHOST HOUSE PICTURES as Founder, Producer
Ghost House Pictures was established as a partnership between Raimi, Mandate Pictures and Evil Dead producer Rob Tapert in the early 2000s . Although they were behind the excellent Raimi-directed Drag Me To Hell (more on that later) and film adaptation of 30 Days of Night, what we like most about Ghost House is that they are a horror task force. We’re really interested in seeing the direction in which producer triumvirate Raimi, Tapert and Bruce Campbell have taken the Evil Dead remake this year. See you in the cinema queue?
3. SPIDER-MAN (2002), as Director
Let’s not forget that it was Raimi who successfully took one of comicdom’s most beloved superheroes to the silver screen in 2002′s Spider-Man. Although Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 was a bit of a mess (Studio meddling reportedly being one of the reasons), we still dare to dream that one day we’ll get to see Raimi’s Spider-Man universe on the big screen again. Not likely, we know, especially seeing as Marc Webb’s 2012 reboot The Amazing Spider-Man was pretty good in its own right.
More Spider-Man on the FPI webstore.
2. DRAG ME TO HELL (2009) as Director
Oh, Drag Me To Hell, how special you are. The oasis in the desert of late-2000s horror. Any fear that Raimi would show signs of rustiness in his grand return to horror dissipated as soon as audiences sat down to watch what turned out to be the most technically creative/ weirdly comedic scarefest since Army of Darkness.
1. EVIL DEAD 2: Dead by Dawn as director
Two words: Linda’s Head.
More Evil Dead on the FPI Webstore.
So there we have it. Please don’t hurt us for not putting Army of Darkness on this list! The only reason we left it off was because we got in a huge argument over which version of the ending was the best. If you must complain, let us know exactly what would have been on YOUR Sam Raimi list over on our official Facebook, Twitter or G+ accounts.
Fri, Jan 25, 2013
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