Very well executed

Truly Dreadful Film

Good concept, poorly executed.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

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.

Remarkable for a Super 8 short (and I've seen more than my share over the years), WITHIN THE WOODS proves that Sam Raimi had "The Fright Stuff" from the very beginning. Leading man Bruce Campbell, looking not unlike Clark Kent in a pair of glasses, demonstrates that he's already fully capable of carrying a film. Like THE RESURRECTION OF BRONCHO BILLY (co-written by John Carpenter), A TIME OUT FOR WAR (with Barry Atwater, who would go on to infamy as the vampire in THE NIGHTSTALKER), COMES A TIME (with Ally Sheedy), SOME FOLKS CALL IT A SLING BLADE (the impetus for the feature, with Billy Bob), and AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE (the French short that turned up on THE TWILIGHT ZONE), to rattle off but a few, WITHIN THE WOODS warrants a look. Raimi and Company manage to generate some genuine suspense and the makeup fx and the music and sound fx are all outstanding for a short (the totem pole was a nice touch and one can't help but smile when the normally scene-chewing Bruce Campbell gnaws off his own hand). Special thanks to the good folks at SubCin.com for the copy I saw; it was definitely worth seeing.

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.

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!