The films of Sam Raimi, ranked
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There's no director quite like Sam Raimi. With a sick sense of humor and a keen eye for dynamic visuals, the director has made definitive canonical works in the horror and superhero genres — plus a smattering of overlooked projects in other styles. He's directed two of the most iconic trilogies of all time, plus an MCU entry, a star-studded Western, a Kevin Costner baseball movie, a Wizard of Oz prequel, and a couple of dark, gothic dramas. But between his generation-defining classics and hidden gems, which of his movies are the best? Read on to see EW's list of every Sam Raimi film, ranked.
15. <i>Oz: The Great and Powerful</i> (2013)
In the early 2010s, studios were eager to capitalize on the surprising success of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which resulted in an onslaught of CGI-heavy reimaginings of fairy tales and children's stories. Oz: The Great and Powerful ranks among the worst of them, with a needlessly convoluted plot, irritating characters, and ugly, flat-looking digital environments.
There's one promising, delightfully Raimian sequence near the beginning, in which a tornado hurls a barrage of circus debris at the eponymous magician (James Franco) and whisks him away to L. Frank Baum's iconic fantasy world, where he tumbles down a waterfall and encounters bizarre wildlife. The whole sequence feels like an immersive theme park ride, and it's the only moment where the movie lives up to its potential, combining the director's knack for energetic suspense with the magic and wonder of the original Wizard of Oz.
Despite solid efforts from Rachel Weisz, Mila Kunis, and Michelle Williams, the rest of the movie is a chore to endure, largely thanks to Franco's bafflingly low-energy performance.
If you liked Oz: The Great and Powerful, you might also enjoy: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), streaming on HBO Max.
14. <i>For Love of the Game</i> (1999)
At the end of a tumultuous decade in 1990s Hollywood, Raimi briefly pivoted to more conventional journeyman work. The result is the strangest — and one of the worst — outliers in his filmography, a failed, generic crowd-pleaser about Billy Chapel (Kevin Costner), a fictional Detroit Tigers pitcher reflecting on his career during his final game. It's Costner's third and final baseball movie, and it can't hold a candle to Field of Dreams or Bull Durham.
If For Love of the Game was just a movie about baseball, we might have ranked it higher on this list, as Raimi shoots the game with fitting energy and romanticism. But the film dedicates much more attention to Chapel's rocky relationship with Jane Aubrey (Kelly Preston) than to the game itself, which is a major problem since the actors have negative chemistry. What's left over is a project so devoid of fun that not even Brian Cox, J. K. Simmons, or John C. Reilly could buoy it — which is seriously saying something.
If you liked For Love of the Game, you might also enjoy: Field of Dreams (1989), streaming on Starz.
13. <i>Spider-Man 3</i> (2007)
The uneven trilogy capper was largely dismissed as bloated and silly upon release, but it's not that much sillier than the preceding two movies. The almost campily melodramatic film uses conflicts with three distinct villains to explore the dark side of having superpowers: vengeful Harry Osborn (James Franco) represents Peter Parker's past failures, Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) allows Spider-Man to unleash some newfound rage, and Venom (Topher Grace) provides an amoral reflection of Peter's unchecked power.
It's worth noting that Spider-Man 3 gives Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) more attention than either of its predecessors, treating her as a co-lead instead of a prize for Peter to win. And it boasts some of the more decent action and special effects sequences of the trilogy — the creation of Sandman and Peter's dizzying airborne battle with Harry are exemplary pieces of stylish blockbuster filmmaking. But at the end of the day, there was no moving past Tobey Maguire's cringe-worthy pseudo-villain arc (don't even remind us of that body roll montage) and ultimately struggled to be taken seriously even by avid fans.
If you liked Spider-Man 3, you might also enjoy: Birds of Prey (2020), streaming on HBO Max.
12. <i>Crimewave</i> (1985)
Despite its misshapen form and off-kilter rhythm, Raimi's sophomore feature is still a creative and engaging movie that's sprinkled with inventive visuals and plenty of ridiculous humor.
Co-written by Raimi and the Coen brothers, Crimewave takes place in a bizarre comedic noir world where every location looks like a cheap set and everyone acts like a cartoon character, evoking a tone and setting akin to Who Framed Roger Rabbit three years before its release. Yes, its broad caper plot is largely nonsensical, but Bruce Campbell as such an impeccable sleazebag is at least one saving grace.
If you liked Crimewave, you might also enjoy: Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), streaming on Disney+.
11. <i>Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness</i> (2022)
Raimi's sequel to Scott Derrickson's 2016 film Doctor Strange follows Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) as he travels through parallel universes with America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) to protect Earth from a powerful threat. The side of the movie that conforms to Marvel Cinematic Universe norms is a bit of a drag: cameos, ill-timed humor, long-winded exposition scenes, and obligatory references to past and future projects all give the impression that the movie is on its hands and knees begging you to like it.
The more self-contained side of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness unleashes the director to do what he does best. Raimi injects more personality and playfulness into the film's style than the Marvel format typically allows, using creepy point-of-view camerawork, unusual visual compositions, and throwback crossfades to spice up the usual superhero formula. There are zombies, skeletons, a witch, and apocalyptic pocket dimensions — though claims that the movie is a full-blown horror film are greatly exaggerated, even if it's undoubtedly the spookiest Marvel project to date.
If you liked Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, you might also enjoy: Everything Everywhere All at Once, available to rent on Amazon Prime Video.
10. <i>The Quick & the Dead</i> (1995)
Raimi's dazzling Sharon Stone vehicle is a fine Western for people who don't like Westerns — it's practically all action. The Quick & the Dead takes place in a small town controlled by a brutal outlaw (Gene Hackman) who starts a tournament of duels, meanwhile Stone's mysterious stranger enters the contest for vengeance and redemption.
What follows is a relentless series of slick one-on-one shootouts, which Raimi presents with striking camera angles, harsh edits, and cartoonish gore. The cast also features a host of familiar faces, with other key shootout contestants played by pre-Gladiator Russell Crowe, pre-Titanic Leonardo DiCaprio along with genre vets Keith David and Lance Henriksen in a formidable vengeance tale.
If you liked The Quick and the Dead, you might also enjoy: For a Few Dollars More (1965), streaming on Tubi and PlutoTV.
9. <i>The Gift</i> (2000)
In this deadly-serious drama-thriller, Cate Blanchett plays a widowed fortune teller who tries to solve a grisly murder in her small Georgia town. The character is loosely based on screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton's real-life mother — and it's as weird as it sounds.
The film makes fantastic use of Blanchett's otherworldly presence, and there are solid supporting turns from Greg Kinnear, Katie Holmes, and against-type brute Keanu Reeves. Raimi also successfully adds nightmarish, horror-tinged flair to the sequences depicting the protagonist's visions. Overall, it's a solid semi-supernatural murder mystery… though it never fully amounts to the sum of its parts.
If you liked The Gift, you might also enjoy: The Lovely Bones (2009), streaming on Starz.
8. <i>Drag Me to Hell</i> (2009)
After cranking out three increasingly massive Spider-Man movies, Raimi went back to his roots, delivering a tight, low-budget horror movie that relentlessly tortures its protagonist for 99 minutes. The premise is simple: bank loan officer Christine (Alison Lohman) tries to rid herself of a nasty curse cast by a would-be customer (Lorna Raver) whom she rejected.
Like Ash and Peter Parker before her, Raimi delights in tormenting Christine — for scares, for sympathy, for laughs — and because she's such a morally dubious character, it's simultaneously cathartic and uncomfortable to see her suffer. Drag Me to Hell , which also stars genre stalwart Justin Long as Christine's other half, is just one gross-out gag after another, weaponizing as many bodily fluids as a PG-13 movie will allow to inspire maximal revulsion.
It would rank higher if it weren't for its fundamental flaw: the stereotypes and xenophobia toward Romani people make it impossible to recommend without at least some reservation.
If you liked Drag Me to Hell, you might also enjoy: Malignant (2021), streaming on HBO Max.
7. <i>Spider-Man</i> (2002)
The web-slinger's first Hollywood outing channels the gee-whiz earnestness of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's original comics into a crowd-pleasing blockbuster spectacle. It's the quintessential origin story, codifying every step in the superhero's journey: introducing the protagonist, giving him powers, testing his abilities in montage, figuring out a costume, and learning a defining moral lesson before facing the Big Bad.
Tobey Maguire excels in Spider-Man as the quiet, down-on-his-luck Peter Parker — a well-meaning, nerdy everyman whose outsider status and working-class background make him a better vessel for audience wish fulfillment than Batman or Superman could ever be. And Raimi's hyperkinetic style makes him an ideal filmmaker to translate the bold visuals of comics to the silver screen.
If you liked Spider-Man, you might also enjoy: Shazam! (2019), streaming on HBO Max.
6. <i>A Simple Plan</i> (1998)
This dark, somber drama bears none of the visual flourishes typically associated with Raimi's directorial style, but it's among the strongest, most nuanced work he's ever done. It follows three unassuming men (Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, and Brent Briscoe) who find over $4 million in a crashed plane and go to staggering lengths to protect it.
The film is a chilling morality tale concerned with the way people justify their questionable actions. The characters wave off their most egregious sins by insisting they commit evil for good reasons, but they still internally grapple with the complex tensions between selfish and selfless behavior.
Paxton is terrific as the sympathetic everyman at the center of the chaos, but A Simple Plan's crown jewel is Thornton, who fills a stripped-down role with dignity and complicated interiority that challenges all assumptions you initially make about his character.
If you liked A Simple Plan, you might also enjoy: Fargo (1996), streaming on Starz.
5. <i>Darkman</i> (1990)
The post-Batman boom of early-'90s retro pulp adventures yielded a handful of charming, beautifully designed oddities, including Dick Tracy, The Rocketeer, and The Shadow. Oddest among them, perhaps, is Raimi's vengeful thriller starring Liam Neeson and Frances McDormand. It's like a 1930s Universal monster movie thrown in a blender with a modern crime thriller — in the best way.
After an altercation with the mob leaves a brilliant scientist disfigured, he resorts to vigilante justice for revenge, uncovering a local conspiracy in the process. There are bursts of the wild maximalist horror that Raimi uses so effectively throughout the Evil Dead trilogy, as well as an out-of-nowhere helicopter chase sequence with incredible stunt work.
But you can feel Raimi struggling to fit his unique outsider sensibilities into a more mainstream Hollywood project, as the movie lingers on the intricacies of its narrative business and not quite enough on its main characters. That said, the spectacle of its cinematography and its stellar performances solidify Darkman as one of Raimi's greatest creative visions to date.
If you liked Darkman, you might also enjoy: Dick Tracy (1990), available to rent on Amazon Prime Video.
4. <i>Army of Darkness</i> (1992)
The third Evil Dead film is the most expensive and the most ridiculous, sending Ash (Bruce Campbell) back to the Middle Ages to fight a medieval army of the undead. Very few of the series' horror elements remain intact — instead, the film is a full-blown action-comedy with extensive slapstick scenes and huge battle sequences.
With over triple the budget of Evil Dead II, Raimi pumps a ton of money into elaborate miniatures, puppets, and stop motion fantasy creatures, which nicely expand his bag of anarchic tricks. And while it doesn't quite live up to the legacy (and low-budget charm) of its predecessors, Army of Darkness holds its own as yet another thoroughly entertaining and outrageous romp (think Monty Python's corniness meets Raimi's raw energy).
If you liked Army of Darkness, you might also enjoy: Mars Attacks! (1996), available to rent on Amazon Prime Video.
3. <i>Spider-Man 2</i> (2004)
Raimi's best Spider-Man film is the platonic ideal of the modern comic book movie — and the standard by which all subsequent superhero entertainment should be judged. It improves upon all the strengths of its predecessor, swinging from scene to scene with total confidence in its complex camera maneuvers and unusual transitions to create a seamless blockbuster experience. The characters are more nuanced, the action scenes are better-staged, and New York City feels even more alive.
Spider-Man's battles with Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) and Peter Parker's everyday struggles with school and relationships both provide ample opportunities for the film to meditate on what it means to be a hero. It's overflowing with simple, moving wisdom, primarily delivered by its secret weapon: Rosemary Harris' Aunt May. She miraculously makes long-winded advisory monologues seem so earnest and authentic that they feel like you're listening to your own grandparents reminiscing about the good old days. Those precious moments embody the warm, resolved optimism that makes Spider-Man 2 so unique in the comic book movie pantheon — it has the power to inspire you to be a better person.
If you liked Spider-Man 2, you might also enjoy: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), available to rent on Amazon Prime Video.
2. <i>The Evil Dead</i> (1981)
Sam Raimi's micro-budgeted debut deserves its cult classic status — it's efficient, scary, silly, and astoundingly creative. When Ash (Campbell) and his friends discover a cursed book at a ramshackle cabin, they're haunted and attacked by a primal force of evil. The Evil Dead immediately establishes Raimi's unparalleled directorial style, as his rapidly moving camera seems to have a life of its own, unpredictably weaving through locations and practically attacking the actors with manic zooms. It infamously goes too far in one or two tasteless sequences, but the rest of the movie is electrifyingly fun to watch even decades later, and aging like a fine wine with its awe-inspiring practical effects and unabashed chaos that's so hard to come by these days
If you liked The Evil Dead, you might also enjoy: Rabid (1977), streaming on Tubi.
1. <i>Evil Dead II</i> (1987)
At the crossroads of the Evil Dead trilogy's journey from horror to comedy, the middle entry remains Raimi's funniest and scariest movie to date. Following a swift restaging of the first movie's events, Evil Dead II spends its remaining 80 minutes throwing increasingly preposterous obstacles at Ash (Bruce Campbell), including a haunted house, evil trees, his girlfriend's corpse, his own hand, and (in sporadic moments of possession) other human beings — all rendered with top-notch practical effects.
Campbell emerges as a titanic master of physical comedy, delivering a gonzo performance at the exact intersection between the Three Stooges and Bruce Willis. Though he made plenty of superb films following the franchise that put his name on the map, this is undoubtedly the most Sam Raimi-ish movie in the director's filmography — and he uses every trick in his book to maintain an utterly unique energy, tone, and frenzied style we've never seen done the same way since.
If you liked Evil Dead II, you might also enjoy: Beetlejuice (1988), streaming on HBO Max.
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