Back to their roots

Sam Raimi is the latest director to return to his roots

By Brett Buckalew, Special to Metromix

This weekend, fans of director Sam Raimi’s early work—gruesome yet ghoulishly funny B-horror-movies like “Evil Dead” and “Army of Darkness”—can thrill to his latest, “Drag Me to Hell.” The throwback features the sick jolts and “Looney Tunes”-esque slapstick that distinguished Raimi’s first few stabs at moviemaking, without any of the bloat that threatened to drag his last big-budget superhero sequel, “Spider-Man 3,” straight to hell.

But Raimi’s not the first filmmaker to successfully return to his roots. Here’s a look back at other instances in which big-league directors rewardingly recaptured the creative essence of their early work.