Reliving director Sam Raimi's MSU ties

Even in a week heavily dedicated to music, a gem found when perusing The State News’ archives shifts the focus today to Hollywood movie director Sam Raimi.

Long before he was directing Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst to one of the highest grossing film trilogies of all time in “Spiderman”, Raimi was an MSU student looking to make a name for himself.

As a follow-up to a film he wrote and directed entitled “Happy Valley Kid,” Raimi co-wrote, directed and starred in this 1977 “slapstick mystery/comedy,” “It’s Murder!”

According to IMDB.com, the film follows a family whose uncle is murdered, with then-18-year old Raimi’s character getting everything because it’s in his will. The detective in the film — played by noted director and producer Scott Spiegel — tries to investigate the murder without ending up dead himself. Despite seemingly having the plot of a poor man’s Sherlock Holmes, it seems like an interesting take for the young director with all that he’s accomplished since then.

After three semesters of school, Raimi left MSU to film the American horror classic “The Evil Dead,” which later turned into a notable film franchise and expanded to comic books and video games. It also appears Raimi will be a part of an effort to reboot “The Evil Dead” franchise, set to be released in 2013.

But before his next project picks up momentum, here’s a look at a brief on the release of the one of his first films that ran on Oct. 11, 1978 in The State News:

MSU sophomore follows ‘Kid’ with second film, ‘It’s Murder’

The MSU Society of Creative Film-making will be presenting the world premiere of a movie directed by an MSU student on campus this Friday and Saturday. It’s Murder!, a slapstick mystery/comedy that was co-written and directed by sophomore Sam Raimi, will be shown at 7:30 and 9:30 both evenings in 111 Olds Hall.

This isn’t the first film Raimi has made. Happy Valley Kid, a film he wrote and directed about the plight of an MSU student driven mad, played on campus for five weeks last winter. It’s Murder! was made with three times the budget of that film.

Although it was completed weeks ago, the premiere of It’s Murder! was deliberately delayed to fall on Friday the 13th. After its run at MSU is completed the film will be shown at several other universities around the state.

Admission to this weekend’s showing is $1.50.