Evil Dead

Evil Dead is perhaps the most famous independent film of all time! Sam Raimi wrote the book on low budget, DIY horror and influenced a legion of independent directors that followed in his footsteps — not the least of which was Joel Coen (of the Coen Brothers) who got his start working as an editor on Evil Dead. Sam Raimi has a style of filmmaking all his own and it’s amazing to see how many of them are on display in the Evil Dead, including the prodigious Three Stooges-esque slapstick! He also introduced the world to the man with the chin, the one and only Bruce Campbell. I think we can all be happy about that!

Sam Raimi spent years tirelessly trying to get Evil Dead distributed. Evil Dead was made in 1981, but despite several festival showing the first wide-release distribution deal didn’t come together until late 1982, four full months before it was distributed in the US by New Line Cinema. This UK quad is extremely rare and dates from the very first wide-release screening of the film in any country. However, while many of you have probably seen this wonderful art from Graham Humphreys before, it was most likely on one of the undersized video release quads. Evil Dead was on in theaters for a few weeks — but it was quickly distributed on video (one of “video nasties”) and became the top selling title for 1983. Video shops were distributed a nearly identical poster to this theatrical example, but those all had the white borders machine trimmed, making them slightly undersized for a standard UK quad — nearly all are factory folded as well. This full-size (30×40″) theatrical release quad is extremely rare with only a handful of copies known to exist. This poster is one of the Holy Grails of modern horror!