Everything changed when artist Tom Sullivan made friends with a young indie film director named Sam Raimi in the late 1970s. Sullivan quickly got swept up into Raimi’s world as the idea to break into the film business with a horror movie became an obsession for a handful of 20 something Michiganites. The Evil Dead (1981) was that movie and it took the world by storm, inspiring three sequels, a remake, video games, comic books, a TV series, etc.. This documentary tells the story of artist turned production designer Sullivan’s life, his many trials and tribulations, and lovingly portrays his commitment to the world of fantasy and horror.  

Filmed over the course of many years, Invaluable (2014) is pretty clunky in execution. The numerous types of cameras (both analog and digital), microphones that wildly range in quality, varying degrees of professional and amateur camerawork, and audio/video formats of every shape and size are hard enough to deal with, but then the editor throws in some quirky editing tricks that while fun, are mostly just distracting. And then there’s the music. There are four composers listed on the film adding even more to the inconsistency of tone. And the music being either too loud or too quiet adds more chaos to the mix.

All that being said, this documentary’s energy is infectious and if you are as in love with the Evil Dead franchise as I am, then you will look past these (rather significant) blemishes and nerd out big time on all of the behind-the-scenes horror goodness. Even when things devolve into fanboy schlock with conversations quickly snatched at horror conventions or the camera shakily following Sullivan through the woods towards film locations from the original Evil Dead, it’s almost impossible not to get swept up in director Meade’s unflagging enthusiasm. The filmmakers, friends, and family in Tom Sullivan’s life share inspiring insights into his creativity and reveal just how monumental and essential his heroic amounts of work have been to the Evil Dead universe.

Synapse’s Blu-ray of Invaluable looks decent considering the aforementioned issues with the source material(s). My only complaint is that I wish this disc had optional English subtitles. They would have helped when the music got too loud or the conversations too muddled, but their absence is not a dealbreaker. This disc is absolutely loaded with extras including a very close to feature length documentary about Josh Becker, a film director in his own right, who was very close with Raimi and company, and who worked on the original Evil Dead. Meade’s short films are also on this disc as well as extended interviews with Evil Dead folks and an archival interview with Sullivan from 1989.