Sam Raimi – All of his Movies Ranked

Sam Raimi has directed  some of the best horror movies of all time and his latest film, Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has just landed. We take a look back at his career and aggregate the scores from IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, and Letterboxd to see how his movies rank up…

15 – Crimewave (1985)
Extermination is not just a business. It’s a way of life.
Thriller | Comedy | Crime

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Top Billed Cast:

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5.25 /10

Fed up of his business partner, Ernest Trend hires the services of two exterminators. When things go drastically wrong and they murder the wrong man, the race is on to frame an innocent video surveillance man.

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Critics response: Universal Praise 

6 Critic reviews: 3 positive (50%); 3 negative (50%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

14 – Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)
In Oz, nothing is what it seems.
Fantasy | Adventure | Family

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Top Billed Cast:

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5.66 /10

Oscar Diggs, a small-time circus illusionist and con-artist, is whisked from Kansas to the Land of Oz where the inhabitants assume he’s the great wizard of prophecy, there to save Oz from the clutches of evil.

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Critics response: Mixed Reviews

273 Critic reviews: 155 positive (56.8%); 118 negative (43.2%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

13 – Spider-Man 3 (2007)
The battle within.
Fantasy | Action | Adventure

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Top Billed Cast:

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5.73 /10

The seemingly invincible Spider-Man goes up against an all-new crop of villains—including the shape-shifting Sandman. While Spider-Man’s superpowers are altered by an alien organism, his alter ego, Peter Parker, deals with nemesis Eddie Brock and also gets caught up in a love triangle.

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Critics response: Mixed Reviews

261 Critic reviews: 164 positive (62.8%); 97 negative (37.2%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

12 – The Gift (2000)
The only witness to the crime was not even there.
Horror | Drama | Thriller | Mystery

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Top Billed Cast:

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6.13 /10

Annie Wilson, young widow and mother of three, makes her living foretelling others’ futures⁠—though her own has become cloudier than even she can see. Threatened by a client’s violent husband and plagued by visions of a missing local woman, Annie finds herself pulled into a thicket of lies and deception in which her extraordinary gift may ultimately get her killed.

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Critics response: Mixed Reviews

122 Critic reviews: 70 positive (57.4%); 52 negative (42.6%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

11 – The Quick and the Dead (1995)
Think you are quick enough?
Western | Action | Thriller

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Top Billed Cast:

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6.17 /10

A mysterious woman gunslinger, Ellen (Sharon Stone), saunters into the town of Redemption looking for revenge. Her father was killed by the town’s sadistic mayor, Herod (Gene Hackman), who is in the midst of organizing a quick-draw tournament. The lady enters, joining a cast of miscreants and outlaws for a brutal competition in which the loser dies. Among the competitors is “The Kid” (Leonardo DiCaprio), an upstart who has his own score to settle with Herod.

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Critics response: Mixed Reviews

40 Critic reviews: 23 positive (57.5%); 17 negative (42.5%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

10 – Darkman (1990)
They destroyed everything he had, everything he was. Now, crime has a new enemy and justice has a new face.
Action | Science Fiction | Thriller

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Top Billed Cast:

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6.17 /10

Dr. Peyton Westlake is on the verge of realizing a major breakthrough in synthetic skin when his laboratory is destroyed by gangsters. Having been burned beyond recognition and forever altered by an experimental medical procedure, Westlake becomes known as Darkman, assuming alternate identities in his quest for revenge and a new life with a former love.

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Critics response: Mixed Reviews

60 Critic reviews: 50 positive (83.3%); 10 negative (16.7%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

9 – Drag Me to Hell (2009)
Christine Brown has a good job, a great boyfriend, and a bright future. But in three days, she’s going to hell.
Horror | Thriller

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Top Billed Cast:

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6.41 /10

After denying a woman the extension she needs to keep her home, loan officer Christine Brown sees her once-promising life take a startling turn for the worse. Christine is convinced she’s been cursed by a Gypsy, but her boyfriend is skeptical. Her only hope seems to lie in a psychic who claims he can help her lift the curse and keep her soul from being dragged straight to hell.

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Critics response: Overwhelmingly Positive

270 Critic reviews: 249 positive (92.2%); 21 negative (7.8%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

8 – For Love of the Game (1999)
Billy Chapel must choose between the woman he loves and the game he lives for.
Drama | Romance

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Top Billed Cast:

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6.61 /10

A baseball legend almost finished with his distinguished career at the age of forty has one last chance to prove who he is, what he is capable of, and win the heart of the woman he has loved for the past four years.

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Critics response: Slightly Negative 

94 Critic reviews: 43 positive (45.7%); 51 negative (54.3%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

7 – Spider-Man (2002)
Go for the ultimate spin.
Fantasy | Action

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Top Billed Cast:

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7.19 /10

After being bitten by a genetically altered spider at Oscorp, nerdy but endearing high school student Peter Parker is endowed with amazing powers to become the superhero known as Spider-Man.

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Critics response: Overwhelmingly Positive

246 Critic reviews: 221 positive (89.8%); 25 negative (10.2%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

6 – Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Enter a new dimension of Strange.
Fantasy | Action | Adventure

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Top Billed Cast:

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7.35 /10

Doctor Strange, with the help of mystical allies both old and new, traverses the mind-bending and dangerous alternate realities of the Multiverse to confront a mysterious new adversary.

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Critics response: Mostly Positive

439 Critic reviews: 326 positive (74.3%); 113 negative (25.7%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

5- A Simple Plan (1998)
Sometimes good people do evil things.
Crime | Thriller

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Top Billed Cast:

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7.71 /10

Captivated by the lure of sudden wealth, the quiet rural lives of two brothers erupt into conflicts of greed, paranoia and distrust when over $4 million in cash is discovered at the remote site of a downed small airplane. Their simple plan to retain the money while avoiding detection opens a Pandora’s box when the fear of getting caught triggers panicked behavior and leads to virulent consequences.

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Critics response: Overwhelmingly Positive

73 Critic reviews: 66 positive (90.4%); 7 negative (9.6%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

4 – The Evil Dead (1981)
The Ultimate Experience In Grueling Terror
Horror

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Top Billed Cast:

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7.75 /10

When a group of college students finds a mysterious book and recording in the old wilderness cabin they’ve rented for the weekend, they unwittingly unleash a demonic force from the surrounding forest.

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Critics response: Universal Praise

63 Critic reviews: 60 positive (95.2%); 3 negative (4.8%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

3 – Spider-Man 2 (2004)
There’s a hero in all of us.
Action | Adventure | Fantasy

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Top Billed Cast:

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7.77 /10

Peter Parker is going through a major identity crisis. Burned out from being Spider-Man, he decides to shelve his superhero alter ego, which leaves the city suffering in the wake of carnage left by the evil Doc Ock. In the meantime, Parker still can’t act on his feelings for Mary Jane Watson, a girl he’s loved since childhood. A certain anger begins to brew in his best friend Harry Osborn as well…

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Critics response: Universal Praise

274 Critic reviews: 255 positive (93.1%); 19 negative (6.9%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

2 – Army of Darkness (1992)
Trapped in time. Surrounded by evil. Low on gas.
Fantasy | Horror | Comedy

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Top Billed Cast:

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7.86 /10

Ash is transported back to medieval days, where he is captured by the dreaded Lord Arthur. Aided by the deadly chainsaw that has become his only friend, Ash is sent on a perilous mission to recover the Book of the Dead, a powerful tome that gives its owner the power to summon an army of ghouls.

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Critics response: Mostly Positive

49 Critic reviews: 36 positive (73.5%); 13 negative (26.5%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

1 – Evil Dead II (1987)
Kiss Your Nerves Good-Bye!
Fantasy | Horror | Comedy

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Top Billed Cast:

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8.23 /10

Ash Williams and his girlfriend Linda find a log cabin in the woods with a voice recording from an archeologist who had recorded himself reciting ancient chants from “The Book of the Dead.” As they play the recording an evil power is unleashed taking over Linda’s body.

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Critics response: Universal Praise

62 Critic reviews: 59 positive (95.2%); 3 negative (4.8%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

This chart shows both Sam Raimi’s average ratings and the worldwide box office haul for each movie. Click on the red or blue labels below to see each one individually.