In the late 1970s, 20-somethings Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Rob Tapert decided that they were ready to make their first feature. Raimi and Campbell were childhood friends, and Raimi and Tapert met while simultaneously attending Michigan State University, and they were all unified in aspirations as filmmakers. Having experience making shorts on Super 8mm film, they decided their best course of action to make something economical and marketable was to make a horror movie, and it was while studying the Egyptian Book of the Dead in an ancient history class at MSU that Raimi found inspiration for the story. All three men would be producers, with Raimi also writing and directing and Campbell starring.
Sam Raimi went about writing the screenplay (originally titled Book Of The Dead) as a credited independent study project, and a proof of concept short film titled Within The Woods was shot to be shown to potential investors… but it was an uphill climb to raise money, which would be indicative of how the rest of the production would proceed. As discussed by Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Rob Tapert on the 30th anniversary Blu-ray commentary track, the mission was to raise a $150,000 budget exchanging a $10,000 investment for a two percent stake, and while getting a number of rejections, they were able to raise $85,000 from a number of different sources – including a man who Raimi met at K-Mart while getting film developed.
