10 Directors Who Nearly Killed Their Actors

3. Sam Raimi Almost Had Bruce Campbell Stabbed To Death

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yewlUp4BJc Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead is a horror classic that totally worked against the odds, given its low budget, ridiculous shooting schedule - it was shot on weekends over 15 months - and made incredible demands of the cast while not even providing basic health and safety. If a character had to smash a window, the actor had to do it and hope for the best, while the shooting location of the cabin didn't have any running water or heat, so it was hardly particularly sanitary, especially shooting during the colder months. However, Bruce Campbell suffered the most for his art, because the scene in which he was to be accosted by a possessed woman with a dagger actually ended up putting him in mortal danger. The contact lenses that the woman stabbing him had to wear were opaque, meaning she wouldn't be able to see, and what's more, the dagger was real. As a result, Campbell was legitimately trying to avoid being stabbed by a blind person slashing away at him, and could easily have been badly hurt or even killed for real. What's most disconcerting to me is that despite the film's budget being $400,00, shooting in a single, cheap location and casting no-name actors, they still couldn't pony up the money to buy a fake knife. Talk about having your priorities way out of whack...