History was made in Los Angeles this weekend. Sam Raimi’s return to horror was made official when he graced the stage of Fango WOH for the first time in 17 years (Army of Darkness)!  Raimi took the stage by storm at Fango WOH and did not disappoint the fans and was also given a lifetime achievement award. Does Raimi prefer shooting low-budget horror over big budget action heroes? Click on through for the entire report!

Can you tell us a little about your return to horror?

I've always love horror movies and Drag me to Hell is based on a short story that my brother Ivan and I wrote many years ago. Years later, just about 2002 we developed it into a larger screenplay. And I've been trying to get other directors to direct it, but frankly no one else was interested. I was trying to get a few of my friends to direct and it and one of my friends said he would do it, but then the studio said he's a first time director and you'd have to cut a bunch of scenes to make it affordable. So I thought about that and I thought I didn't really want to cut the scenes so at that point the project was dead. But then one of my partners at Ghost House Pictures said to me, 'If you direct it, the studio will give you the money for those extra scenes and you'll be able to make the whole picture', so it was that series of events that led me to finally making it.

Which traditions do you carry over from your Evil Dead days?

The most important thing is the personnel I work with, from my partner Robert Tapert who produced the Evil Dead films along with my buddy Grant Curtis who was on the set every day making sure everyone had what they needed. Peter Deming from Evil Dead 2 who was our cinematographer is also our cinematographer on this. Almost all the people I've worked with in the past on other stuff like the Evil Dead films [from] prop people to costumers, we were surrounded by a lot of friends. [Also] some of the old sound effects from Evil Dead, my editor Bob Murawski found some of those and put one or two of them into the picture

Did you ever say to yourself while filming, ‘Hey, why did I stay away from horror for so long?’

I was reminded of how much I love working in the horror field. It's a blast, you're always aware of the audience, I think more than in any other movie because the audience is really aware. Whether there is suspense building up to a big scare so the filmmaker is thinking 'Ok, gonna be a little suspenseful now, what's behind that door, and I'm really gonna try and build it up with these shots and lighting and the actors and when they open that door, they're gonna know there is a scare there but we won't give it to them at that time, we'll wait a beat and then we'll give it to them.' You're aware of your audience and what they're thinking every step of the way.

Sometimes you are wrong, but it's a lot of fun for the director to be so closely associated with the audience and counting on them to provide so much. With Drag Me to Hell a lot of it is made by the audience with the editor suggesting something with a cut or the sound designer putting in a noise to allow the audience to build a monster in their head. We’re trying to give the audience a build the monster kit [and] it’s really enjoyable to work on something where the audience is such a partner with you.

Who are some of your favorite directors?

I love John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. When those friends made a bond/agreement and they shook hands and the camera slowly moves in on that hand shake, that was when I first became aware of how well crafted a shot could be. I became aware of filmmaking at that moment.

Did you ever second guess continuing with the Spider-Man franchise and when will we get to see that 150 million Evil Dead?

Working with the studio was great on the Spider-Man pictures because you get all of these opportunities to work with great technicians, incredible resources and the best sound stages in the world. There's never a limit on the size of the orchestra, if it's right to use a 120 piece orchestra the resources of a Spider-Man film allow you to afford that. I'm able to work with the best visual effects artists in the world, not that these guys aren't great, it's just a very resource rich environment [in which] to make pictures. With a picture like Drag Me to Hell, we [may not] have much time left so [I say] let's do a crane shot as she comes out of the house, we can show the sun setting behind her…but it turns out, you don't have a crane setup (laughter) and then it's like, OK, I'm gonna go to my trailer for 5 minutes and think about how I'm going to do this…and you don't have a trailer (laughter). And everyone's like, the sun is going down Sam.

And it reminds you, all I [really] need is a close up of that main character, she steps into close up and she'll simply play this realization that she doesn't have much time left and she'll rush out of frame.  And that's all I ever needed anyway as it turns out. You find the basics are all you ever needed.

Do you think violence in horror movies have any effect on social behavior?

Generally no, I don't think so, but I think it's possible to make a film that makes things attractive. You can make violence very attractive and something that is sexy where you don't show the pain or ugly aspects of the violence, where you glamorize it. A picture like that probably has the possibility of letting someone think for a moment that there could be a brighter side to violence. I think any intelligent person would just take that grain of influence against one million grains of reality and I don't think they'd be incited to violence.

Horror movies by their very nature are designed to the opposite effect, to create horror because of the violence, to make you frightened or to make you scream. Granted it's for a fun effect, but in general, horror movies are for shock value, for fun - a scary ride, not a pleasure [or] sexy ride.

What do you hope audiences take away from Drag Me to Hell?

I think our goals were to have the feeling like they were watching an old fashioned campfire tale. You’d be giggling before it started, and you'd get goose bumps if it was working well. And a few moments when you jump out of your seat and scream. There will hopefully be some laughs and hopefully a chill by the very end.