Sam Raimi is an American film director, producer, actor and writer known for works in the horror and thriller genres such as The Evil Dead films. He started making low-budget horror films in college and had to seek distribution in Europe before gaining popularity. Raimi is now a versatile creator known for both horror films and big-budget action films like Spider-Man. Universal Pictures is one of the oldest and largest film studios in the world, located in Hollywood, California. It has distributed thousands of films across many genres since 1914, including horror films. The studio was acquired by NBC Universal but continues to distribute a wide variety of films. Dark Castle Entertainment is a smaller production company focused on horror

1. Research: Institutions
Lucy-Anne Richardson

2. Sam Raimi
• Sam Raimi is an American director, producer, actor and writer.
• He worked on films such as The Possession and The Evil Dead which are
both within my genre of horror/thriller.
• He started making horror films in college with his roommate. As the USA
did not accept it very well, he aimed some of his films to Europe in order
to gain a status. Once he had created a reputation, he started getting
involved with action films such as The Spider-Man series. He has recently
moved back to horror/thriller films such as The Possession in 2012.
• This shows he is a very versatile creator – not only because he is an
actor/writer/director and producer – but because he can adapt/apply
his skills across different genres.
Director Producer Actor
Drag Me To Hell (2009) The Possession (2012) The Shining (1997)
Spider-Man 1, 2, 3 Drag Me To Hell (2009) Innocent Blood (1992)
Army Of Darkness (1992) The Grudge 3 (2009) Intruder (1989)
Within The Woods (1978) Evil Dead (2013) The Stand (1994)

3. Universal Pictures/Studios
Universal Pictures is an American motion picture companies. It was founded in 1912 by numerous
members such as Mark Dintenfass, Cark Laemmle and Charles Baumann and is the oldest known
film studios in the USA and ranks third throughout the world. It is located in Hollywood, California
and is owned by ‘Comcast’.
In 2004, a stake in the company was sold to ‘General Electric’ which is linked with NBC. This created
a media super conglomerate so the company was then renamed ‘NBC Universal’ – even though
Universal Studios (Inc.) stayed the same.
It also has its links in TV programmes resulting in ‘NBC Universal Television Distribution’.
Universal Pictures has released thousands of films from 1914 starting with ‘By The Suns Rays’ all the
way until the present 2013 and onwards. An example of a film they have distributed – which is in
keeping with my genre – is The Skeleton Key 2005.
This distribution company does not focus on a certain genre, it holds many different films from
horror to romance and comedy. It has approximately released 3,500 films.

4. Dark Castle Entertainment
Dark Castle Entertainment is a production house linked with Warner
Bros. and Silver Pictures. It was formed by Joel Silver, Gilbert Adler
and Robert Zemeckis in 1999.
The name of the company comes from William Castle who was a
horror filmmaker between the 50’s and 60’s as they wanted to remake
his horror movies. After this, it went on to create other horror/thriller
films including: Orphan, Unknown, Thir13en Ghosts, House of Wax
and the upcoming The Apparition 2013 which I have previously
looked at for inspiration with regard to logistics (makeup used etc.)
and trailer techniques.
This production company is obviously smaller and less well known
than huge names such as Universal Pictures. However, I wanted to do
research into this production company as it focuses on a certain genre
including horror/thriller as well as supernatural. This fits my genre
perfectly and allows me to look at other similar films.
I would look at Dark Castle Entertainment to distribute my film rather
than Universal Studios – even though it would gain more recognition
and advertisement. This is due to the specific genre interest. This
company would already have a wide knowledge of marketing
techniques and a set specific audience due to previous films. By doing
extra research, I was able to look at every film they have been linked
with, to see if was successful – which it was, in my opinion.