Within the Woods (1978, Short Film)

Format: Short Film (bootleg VHS)
Director: Sam Raimi
Distributor: none
Release Date: 1978
Runtime: 31 minutes

Within the Woods is a supernatural horror short film which can essentially be thought of as "Evil Dead 0". The film was created back in 1978 to show to producers to try and get filming for a bigger budget remake (which would eventually turn into the original Evil Dead film).

The film is about four teenagers who are spending a weekend out at a cabin in the woods. Two members of the group, Ellen and Bruce, break off to go have a picnic lunch. Bruce then tells Ellen (in a mildly joking manner) that they are on an old native american burial ground and that it is cursed. However, this is no problem as the only way to set it off is to disturb the old burial grounds. Of course, Bruce explores the nearby area and finds an old dagger which he decides to take with him. Ellen takes a nap and wakes up with Bruce having been turned into some form of undead monster who begins to terrorize her and the group.

Considering the short runtime the plot works pretty well in that it gives enough explanation for it to make sense but doesn't bog down the film with too much detail. In a horror film it is better when certain elements are left more mysterious. All of the characters are likable enough and seem pretty "real". Unlike in the actual Evil Dead movies, Bruce Campbell (here playing a character also named Bruce) actually plays the monster instead of the hero. This movie goes the more traditional horror route of having a female main character who is the victim in all of this.

All of the scares and surprises work just as well as any big budget movie released at the time and, in my opinion, even better than many horror films today. There is plentiful amount of gore which looks surprisingly good considering that the film was made on a budget of only $1600. I agree with the director in that having a lot of gore in these kinds of movies can be fun sometimes. A lot of the trademarks of the director start here as well such as having the camera at points be a first person view of the monster's perspective as the monster chases after a lead character.

My only real complaint isn't so much with the movie as much as the video quality. The film was originally shot on 8mm film before being blown up to 35mm and shown at a local theater before The Rocky Horror Picture Show (a movie which I surprisingly still haven't seen). The movie has never been officially released so the only way to watch it these days is some form of bootleg. I essentially watched a couple generations down the line VHS bootleg of a 1978 film shot on 8mm...so naturally the video quality was sketchy at best. Because of this it was often difficult to make out what was happening on screen and dark scenes (which are most of them since this is a horror movie) don't turn out very well.

Overall I would have to say that this is a superb film considering the budget and relatively unseasoned cast/production team at the time. It is pretty scary and any fan of the Evil Dead franchise should give it a watch. However, due to the lack of a better quality transfer I would not recommend this film to those who are not already big fans of the series (or horror in general) and instead would simply recommend watching the 1981 film. If we're lucky this will someday get a proper release on DVD or Blu-Ray as maybe a bonus feature in a box set of the series, although I won't get my hopes up. The original film print is probably not in good shape to begin with which only lowers the chances of such a thing ever happening.