7. Within The Woods - Sam Raimi
Did you know that there was a prequel to Sam Raimi's Evil Dead? Well there is. Back in 1978, Raimi had made a few tiny, no budget shorts with his friend Bruce Campbell and decided that he wanted to step it up and try to get his first feature off the ground. But in order to do that, he figured he would have to produce something more substantial to convince investors. So what he made was the 30 minute film Within The Woods. While the footage is clearly damaged now (apologies for that), what you can see is Raimi really finding his feet in a genre he loves. Full of gore, scares and the trademark shot of a protagonist being chased through the woods, this is undeniably Raimi. He eventually convinced a local theatre to show the film before 'Rocky Horror Picture Show'. Due to some interest, he was able to get funding for his feature film and he went on to create one of the great American horror films. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F4ZS22v9rg