Long himself previously worked with Raimi on the similarly subversive “Drag Me To Hell” in 2009, where he evidently gained an appreciation for the legendary director’s keenness on-set. Speaking to GQ, the co-star of “Barbarian”
“[Zach] is so passionate and specific. He reminded me a lot of Sam Raimi in that way. Sam’s got this childlike enthusiasm for what he’s doing, like he’s a kid playing in the sandbox. I think he even used that metaphor with me.”
Long went on to talk about how he would watch Raimi on the set of “Drag Me To Hell” and see him “mouthing the lines, moving and contorting his body in the way he wanted Alison [Lohman — the film’s star] to be moving.” He even likened the director to a “puppet master” due to his close connection to the material, before claiming to see those same characteristics in Cregger.
