The hands-down, no-questions-asked, undisputed heavyweight champion of the schlock horror world, The Evil Dead began a fantastic series and a historic legacy as well. Known severally as Evil Dead, The Book of The Dead, Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead, and The Evil Dead: The Ultimate Experience in Grueling Terror, this ultimate fright-fest may have killed off a few hapless college students, but it gave birth to the greatest B-movie star of the last quarter century.

Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert, and Bruce Campbell were not just old chums dating back to their high school days in Michigan, but collaborators as well. After spending their free time making some fifty odd Super-8 films, they eventually produced Into the Woods as a vehicle for gaining some investor trust. Their efforts gave them enough money to head to an actual abandoned cabin in Tennessee. Using copious amounts of creamed corn, 2% milk, marshmallows, Karo syrup, and red food coloring, production began on what would become the best bad horror movie of the latter twentieth century. It’s scary. It’s funny. It’s creepy. It’s runny. (Must have been all of that creamed corn.)

American distributors waffled, forcing the film to seek business in Europe where -- despite being banned in Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Great Britain, and Germany -- the film enjoyed instant success. Its ticket and video sales (both legal and pirated) prompted distributors to bring it back to the states where it became a hit. It made Sam Raimi’s directing career and started Bruce Campbell on the road to B-film immortality. The Evil Dead, along with its sequels The Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness still show regularly around the country at college campuses and horror fests, ensuring that it will remain a huge steaming pile of culture for generations to come.