Raimi’s road: Hellions to heroes
Long before there was a “Spider-Man,” much less “Spider-Man 2,” there was “The Evil Dead.”
Made for three magic beans and not much more, “The Evil Dead” was that curious creation – a drive-in movie playing at your local metroplex.
Back in 1981, when “The Evil Dead” premiered, Spokane still had seven drive-in theaters. During the summer, crowds of cars would flock to theaters so badly lit that you could barely tell one actor from the next. Crappy speakers sounded more scratchy than a spayed cat. Add in the occasional couple making out in the car parked next to you, and the drive-ins themselves often were more entertaining than the movies playing on their tattered screens.
Even in that kind of atmosphere, “The Evil Dead” would hold your attention. Following in the tradition of George Romero, Tobe Hooper and Wes Craven, director Sam Raimi used friends and family as cast and crew. He got funding where he could, came up with a “style” because he didn’t have the money to do better and made a movie that became not only a cult favorite but the start of a career.
From the buckets of gore (syrup mixed with food coloring) to a camera racing across a Tennessee forest floor, from girlfriends becoming evil fiends to a basement trap door that holds back demons more ravenous than Spokane meter maids, “The Evil Dead” makes “The Blair Witch Project” look like a “Lizzie McGuire” special.
Even so, little about the film would lead you to believe that Raimi would go on to make Hollywood blockbusters. Yet, the first “Spider-Man” grossed more than $800 million worldwide, putting it at No. 5 on the list of all-time money-makers.
And expectations of the sequel are just as high. Todd McCarthy of Variety calls it “crackerjack entertainment from start to finish.” Peter Travers of Rolling Stone calls it “that rare comic book sequel (along with ‘X-Men: X2’ and ‘Superman II’) that one-ups the original.”
It’s a long trip from “The Evil Dead” to “Spider-Man 2,” from a guy making horror home movies to a guy whom film backers trust with budgets of $200 million and higher. Yet Raimi made the trek.
And his movies? Hey, that first one was good enough to – every five minutes or so – tempt those couples making out to come up for air.
Forget money. That’s a true sign of artistic success.
Moore movie lights up Spokane screen
By now we know that Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” is, like the rest of his films, more of a political commentary than an actual documentary. Either way, the film is striking a core in the American film-going audience: It made more than $24 million its opening weekend, almost unheard of for an independent film that doesn’t star Adam Sandler.
Shows at Spokane’s River Park Square Cinemas sold out over the weekend, which was especially surprising. This is Spokane, the All-American city, face of the conservative West. Movies made by left-leaning filmmakers aren’t supposed to play big here.
Yet during Friday’s 4 o’clock showing, viewers twice applauded. They laughed at Moore’s jokes. They grimaced at the sight of veterans missing various limbs. They sniffled at the sight of a woman sobbing over having lost her soldier son.
And when the film was over, they applauded for a third, and prolonged, time. They then filed out, buzzing with emotion.
Whatever you think of the film – that it tells the story that the mainstream media has failed to report, or that it puts forth blatant lies and misrepresentations – this much is clear: November’s presidential election is likely to be one of the ugliest, most bitterly fought political battles since the Vietnam War.