Sam Raimi’s First Feature Was This Forgotten ‘70s Comedy-Horror Whodunit

With gore, slapstick, and possession, director Sam Raimi launched his film career with The Evil Deadin 1981, and it spawned a series that is harder to put down than a Deadite. Bruce Campbell’s “groovy” badass Ash Williams has become a horror icon, and the franchise has become a genre mainstay, with the upcoming Evil Dead Burn making sure the Necronomicon gets opened again. Evil Dead is synonymous with Raimi, but it wasn't his directorial debut. Before any Deadites got hacked into pieces, there was the spooky makeup, outrageous gags, and dim-witted sleuthing in Raimi's student film, It's Murder!in 1977.