Crimewave

Crimewave (1985)

Extermination is not just a business. It's a way of life

A pair of whacked-out cartoon-like exterminator/hitmen kill the owner of a burglar-alarm company, and stalk the partner who hired them, his wife, and a nerd framed for the murder, who tells the story in flashback from the electric chair.

Date of release
1985-04-12
TMDB
5.5 / 10 (178)
Runtime
1h 23m
Genres
Comedy, Crime, Horror
Director
Sam Raimi

Casting

Interesting facts

Crimewave is a 1985 American comedy film directed by Sam Raimi, from a screenplay he co-wrote with the Coen brothers. It stars Reed Birney, Sheree J. Wilson, Paul L. Smith, Brion James, Louise Lasser and Bruce Campbell, with Campbell also serving as a co-producer. An unusual slapstick mix of film noir, black comedy, Hitchcockian suspense, and B-movie conventions, Crimewave portrays bizarre situations involving a nebbish everyman (Birney) entangled in a murderous plot while pursuing his love interest (Wilson).

Production

By 1983, long-time friends Campbell and Raimi had collaborated on several projects together. The duo had just completed the production of Within the Woods and The Evil Dead, the latter of which was a box-office and critical hit. Following his involvement in The Evil Dead, Campbell had difficulty establishing a career as an actor. He appeared on the soap opera Generations, and in several local Detroit commercial ads.

Raimi was not initially optimistic about the talents of the Coen brothers. He recounted that Ethan was "just a statistic accountant at Macy's at the time." After reading the Blood Simple script, however, Campbell commented that the screenplay was "great", comparing it to the work of Alfred Hitchcock.

Given the commercial success of The Evil Dead, studio financial backing for the new project came quickly. Though Raimi and Campbell did not profit from the film, the studio believed in Raimi, initially allowing the director complete creative control on the project; however, executives later took control of the production.

Raimi and the studio clashed several times during production. The first disagreement between the director and the executives stemmed from the latter's insistence on casting a "Hollywood" actor in the lead role instead of Raimi's long-time collaborator and friend Campbell.

Raimi budgeted the film at $2.5 million, an amount the studio greenlit. But the calculations had not taken union fees and regulations into account, making the proposed budgeting and scheduling unrealistic. In addition, the crew were talked into spending three times the allotted money for one shooting location. The shoot quickly went both over budget and over schedule.

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