12 Things You Didn't Know About The Evil Dead Movies
7. The Original Was Mostly Funded By Dentists
Getting a film funded is difficult. Especially when you're going down the independent route, shirking the involvement of major studios who would provide their own money in return for some degree of creative control. At the time the first Evil Dead was made, however, there was a trend for enterprising young filmmakers getting by on their own.
Which meant that they got away with all the gore, nudity and general bad taste that horror films of the eighties are infamous for. No way a proper producer would stand for all that. Except a lot of those filmmakers were at least within the vicinity of California, whileas The Evil Dead was made in Morristown, Tennessee.
Showing a lawyer friend “Within The Woods”, a sort of prototypical short film version of the film, Raimi was advised to seek investment from local professionals and business owners. So he screened the film to other lawyers, doctors, bankers, and the guy who ran the supermarket. In the end, most of the $350,000 budget came from dentists.