 Raimi and Campbell grew up together, and have been friends from a young age. The duo directed several low-budget Super 8 mm film projects together. Several were comedies, including Clockwork and It's Murder !. Shooting a suspense scene in It's Murder! inspired Raimi to approach a career in the horror genre, and after researching horror cinema at drive-in theaters, Raimi was set on directing a horror film. The idea was to shoot a short film first, which would attract the interest of producers, and then use the money gained from that to shoot a full-length project. The short film that Raimi created was called Within the Woods. It was produced for $ 1,600, but for The Evil Dead, Raimi needed over $ 100,000.
