Sam Raimi was also the director of The Evil Dead - you probably recall the controversy surrounding that low-budget 1980 horror picture. In the cold light of day it’s hard to see what all the posturing was about - Evil Dead was a good, competent, cabin-in-the-woods horror flick, certainly not a cause célèbre worthy of all the anguish and outrage that surrounded its release on video. Raimi’s bigger-budget Crimewave (1985), was considerably less successful, but Evil Dead 2 (1987) was a tremendous film, full of all sorts of manic originality. Manic originality is less in evidence in Sam Raimi’s first studio picture, Darkman.