Every generation has their favorite cult film directors, whether we’re talking about the early days of John Carpenter or George A. Romero in the 1970s or the prodigious career of Quentin Tarantino in the early 1990s. Falling somewhere in the middle of this cinematic timeline, Sam Raimi helped popularize the idea of independent filmmaking as a legitimate alternative to the Hollywood-backed studio system. Relying on a miniscule budget, an inexperienced cast and crew, and hand-crafted special effects, Raimi rose from a talented indie filmmaker into one of the leading cinematic pioneers of the late 20th century, influencing countless later filmmakers from Tarantino and Edgar Wright to Drew Goddard and Peter Jackson.