It isn’t Bruce Campbell: the one thing Sam Raimi includes in all of his movies
Taking it upon himself to gain a foothold in an industry that’s notoriously difficult to break into, Sam Raimi opted for guerrilla tactics, shoestring budgets, and content so graphic it ended up being banned in numerous countries to put himself on the map.
The filmmaker was only 21 years old when The Evil Dead premiered in October 1981, and the instant cult classic would go on to recoup its budget ten times over at the box office, gain notoriety among the ‘Video Nasty’ crowd, launch his career, and serve as an inspiration to a generation of filmmakers that sometimes the only thing that’s needed is ambition and foolhardiness to succeed.
Raimi has helmed another 14 features in the decades since, which cover everything from rounding out his demented trilogy to helping popularise the 21st-century comic book boom through his Spider-Man trio by way of manic superhero story Darkman, supernatural thriller The Gift, Disney-backed fantasy Oz the Great and Powerful, and one of the best PG-13 horrors ever made in Drag Me to Hell.
Along the way, Raimi has developed a number of signatures and distinctive techniques, ranging from his frantic camerawork and crash zooms to a gratuitous Bruce Campbell appearance. However, there’s only one thing that can be relied on to pop up in every single thing that he makes, and it’s ‘The Classic’.
That’s the name Raimi gave his Oldsmobile Delta 88, which was purchased brand new by his father in 1973 and quickly became a fixture of his filmography. It’s the car that Campbell’s Ash Williams drives in the Evil Dead triptych. It took pride of place in the climactic car chase of Crimewave, Liam Neeson dangled from a helicopter above it in Darkman, and it even popped up in the Coen brothers’ A Simple Plan.
Cate Blanchett drives it in The Gift, Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben is seen behind the wheel of the Oldsmobile in Spider-Man before it returns as a family heirloom parked in the driveway in the sequel and as part of a flashback in the threequel. It’s also the preferred mode of transport for the malevolent Sylvia Ganush in Drag Me to Hell.
Fede Álvarez paid tribute to what came before when he incorporated ‘The Classic’ into his Evil Dead, and it was glimpsed floating ominously through the air in an alternate reality when Raimi returned to Marvel with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Oz the Great and Powerful and The Quick and the Dead stand out as two examples of Raimi flicks where the Oldsmobile isn’t readily apparent, but he’s insisted that it’s in there somewhere. It would be a strange thing to lie about even if eagle-eyed viewers haven’t picked it out as of yet, so it’s probably best to take him at his word.
