The Production

Interesting Facts

Within the Woods was filmed over a long weekend in 1979 at Tapert family farm house. The same farm house was later used in the filming of the cellar scenes in Evil Dead 1.

A funny anecdote, the hand-cutting scene was not pre-rehearsed. Ellen was supposed to cut off the entire appendage, but the knife wasn't sharp enough and didn't slice all the way through, but instead of ruining the take, Bruce improvised by gnawing the rest of it off. Sam liked it so much, that he decided to use in the first Evil Dead. A lot of other scenes in Within the Woods would later appear throughout the Evil Dead trilogy. Within the Woods did the trick in gaining support for the first flick, originally titled Book of the Dead. They were able raise about $90,000 and then it was off to Tennessee where a cult classic trilogy was born. Please note this film was never released on video, but there are some bootleg copies of it floating around somewhere out there.

The film was first shown to friends and relatives in the backyard of the Tapert family home. Within the Woods premiered to the public in August 1979 at a Detroit cinema known as The Punch and Judy. It opened before The Rocky Horror Picture Show on consecutive Saturdays via a Super 8mm projector that only appeared on a quarter of the screen!

Within the Woods helped Rob, Sam, and Bruce helped raise $90,000 and convince investors that they were serious about filmmaking. The film helped the team get just enough money to film the first Evil Dead film and thus launch their careers.

Special thanks to IMDB and Within the Woods for providing information.