Within the Woods

Name: Within the Woods
Genre: Horror
Released: 1979-05-31
Duration: 32 min
Rating: 1.5
Cast: Mary Valenti, Scott Spiegel, Ellen Sandweiss, Bruce Campbell

Rating

1.5 (1)

Release Date

5/31/1979

Runtime

32 mins

Genres

Horror

Overview

The low budget film starring the young Bruce Campbell that influenced the Evil Dead films.

Status

Released

Original Language

English

Budget

$1,600

Revenue

Homepage

How It Feels

Read from this film's synopsis, keywords and credits, and used to work out what it sits beside.

A raw, scrappy proto-slasher that establishes the cabin-in-the-woods curse narrative with relentless dread and practical gore. This is the blueprint that would become Evil Dead, grimy, urgent, and genuinely unnerving despite its lean runtime and budget constraints.

Mood

Dread-soakedUnsettlingTense

Themes

SurvivalCorruption

Tone

Earnest

Pacing

Propulsive

Look

HandheldPractical effectsHigh-contrast

Structure

Linear

Heads up

Graphic violenceBody horror

Bruce Campbell

Bruce

Ellen Sandweiss

Ellen

Scott Spiegel

Scotty

Mary Valenti

Shelly

Reviews

nicolascagegoons

Aug 27, 2026

its a simple proof of concept so i'll give it some slack but there isn't much here to enjoy. its also preserved like shit so the only available version was probably a vhs rip. that sucks because this is a very important piece in horror history.