Sam Raimi made his name in the horror genre thanks to the Evil Dead trilogy, but several other potential horror projects have gone unrealized. Raimi - whose next directorial effort is the hotly anticipated MCU sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - is probably best known to moviegoers for helming Sony's Spider-Man trilogy starring Tobey Maguire in the 2000s. To horror lovers though, he'll always be the creative genius behind loudmouth braggart Ash Williams' (Bruce Campbell) recurring battles with Deadites.

Raimi showed off his versatility with each Evil Dead movie as the original is mostly a straight, unrelenting horror story full of gore, monsters, and creepy imagery. It's also full of striking camera techniques that would become a director trademark. Evil Dead 2 takes a left turn into horror/comedy, spraying gallons of blood of various colors, but doing it hilariously, with Campbell's knack for physical comedy carrying the day. Later, Army of Darkness blended horror, comedy, and fantasy, for yet another fresh experience.

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Unfortunately for horror fans, Raimi's work in the genre has been almost nil outside of Evil Dead entries. Drag Me to Hell is the only other entry in his filmography that's an unabashed horror film, while 2000's The Gift edges near the genre, but is also more of a crime thriller. It turns out that Raimi almost had several other projects added to his horror resume over the years, only for them to fall through.

Thinner

Robert Burke in Thinner

Back in the 1980s, Italian producer Dino de Laurentiis was behind many Stephen King movies, including King's only directorial effort Maximum Overdrive. In 1986 - the same year Maximum Overdrive came out - he offered Sam Raimi the chance to direct an adaptation of King's Thinner. Thinner is the story of a sleazy, overweight defense attorney who kills a Romani woman due to negligence while driving, only to have a deadly weight-loss curse placed on him by her grieving father. Raimi declined the offer, as he was busy trying to get Evil Dead 2 made, and with help from noted Evil Dead fan Stephen King, de Laurentiis eventually agreed to fund and produce the sequel instead. Considering how terrific Evil Dead 2 turned out to be, Raimi definitely made the right choice. Thinner would eventually be adapted into a 1996 movie directed by Fright Night's Tom Holland.

The Curse

The old lady screams in Drag Me to Hell

Unlike Thinner, The Curse actually did get made, but only in a roundabout kind of way. Written by Sam Raimi and his brother Ivan back in the 1990s, The Curse script kept getting bumped to the back burner as Raimi kept taking on other projects, including a near-decade as helmer of the Spider-Man franchise. At one point, Raimi actually offered Edgar Wright the chance to direct The Curse, but Wright passed, saying he felt Raimi himself was the only man for the job. Finally, in 2009, Raimi did indeed direct Drag Me to Hell, a critical and commercial success. However, The Curse script, while retaining the basic premise of an otherwise good person who gets punished for making a selfish choice, is said to have undergone massive changes as it evolved into what would become Drag Me to Hell. Sadly, details are scarce on what was altered between the two ideas, and it seems like fans won't get to ever know.

Evil Dead 4

Evil Dead 4 Header

While Evil Dead Rise, which features Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and other essential members of the Evil Dead family on board as producers, is on the way, audiences will seemingly never get a true fourth installment in the original franchise. Raimi spent decades after Army of Darkness trying to get an Evil Dead 4 starring Campbell's Ash made, with Sam and brother Ivan going through dozens of ideas that never ended up happening.

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One saw Ash try to sell his own story as a documentary, while another ambitious idea would've cut between Ash in the present and Ash in the middle ages. This would've been based on the fact Ash had different fates in the theatrical (studio-mandated) Army of Darkness ending and Raimi's alternate director's cut ending. Yet another idea pit Ash against Terminator-esque robots. While no proper Evil Dead 4 became a reality, it should be noted that devotees of Ash did at least get Campbell slaying Deadites for three seasons on Starz's Ash vs. Evil Dead TV show. That may not have been exactly what they wanted but Raimi directed the pilot while Campbell was back in fine form, wielding his chainsaw hand and boomstick as if no time had passed since Army of Darkness - despite all the age-related jokes an older Ash endured. Campbell will also reprise the Ash role for an upcoming Evil Dead video game.

The Nanny (AKA The Guardian)

The Guardian (1990)

The Nanny is a 1987 book by author Dan Greenburg, and at one point in the late-1980s, Sam Raimi was attached to direct an adaptation. The novel's titular villain is a woman so addicted to love that she'll do anything to maintain it, killing anyone who stands in her way. She takes over and dominates entire families, seducing the parents and claiming the children as her own. While that premise doesn't sound ripe with humor, Sam Raimi's version was actually being positioned as a tongue-in-cheek thriller. That was until he dropped out of the project, opting to direct his cult superhero film Darkman instead, which was released in 1990.

Also released in 1990 was The Guardian, directed by William Friedkin, helmer of The Exorcist. While ostensibly based on The Nanny, The Guardian deviated in major ways from the book to the point where any resemblance is mostly superficial. Instead of a woman obsessed with love, The Guardian's nanny abducts babies and literally feeds them to an evil tree. The script process with Friedkin was famously crazy, with the director wanting constant changes, and writer Stephen Volk eventually quitting due to a reported nervous breakdown. Perhaps if Sam Raimi had adapted The Nanny, all of that could've been avoided, but Darkman is treasured by lots of viewers, so again, it would appear Raimi made the right call.

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