Drag Me To Hell is a horror/thriller released in 2009 directed by Sam Raimi (Evil Dead series, Spiderman series) and starring Alison Lohman, Justin Long and Lorna Raver.
It tells the story of Christine Brown (Lohman) a nicey nice Bank Loan Officer who walks into trouble (or rather it walks into her) when she upsets a scary gypsy woman begging a third extension on her mortgage. An obvious dig at society, Raimi should already be tickling your ribs. After all, those mean spirited bank workers you curse under your breath should certainly be condemned to hell for not allowing you that extension you desprately needed. Unfortunately Christine is a nice bank loan officer who certainly does NOT deserve what happens to her in the next hour or two. This gives Raimi the chance to really get stuck in. His ability to take a simple story, etched from his Evil Dead series no doubt (nice hero/heroine makes
the only God damn mistake in their whole life, hero/heroine pays BIG TIME) and craft it into something eye boggling is amazing in itself.
Raimi really does what he does best here. Swooping, ducking and diving camera angles represent the horrifying encounters Christine has with the wicked Lamia, the entity responsible for the whole darned curse. He also zooms in when he wants us as the audience to feel the effect of a scare. As well as flicking fright at the curious audience, Raimi also uses humor to his advantage. For this reason Drag Me To Hell is lesser a horror movie than rather a black comedy. Talking cursing goats and ridiculously OTT nosebleeds out of the way, Raimi sketches his characters perfectly. If you are not rooting for Christine by the third act of Drag Me To Hell then you really must be hard heartened.
Drag Me To Hell... perhaps not the most inviting title to any movie, as could be seen when the trailer boomed over the private screening of Haunting in Connecticut. I recently managed to see Raimi's latest masterpiece after many weeks of excitement leading up and I have to say I am not disappointed. After the lacklustre Spiderman 3, Raimi shows that his roots have always lied with the horror movie. A bucket full of chum and blood, Raimi gets stuck into Drag Me To Hell, packing a few punches and rib ticking the audience all the way. Drag Me To Hell feels like a ghost train ride, where animated scares burst out to shock and surprise you. Gore hounds will howl at the grotesque and gross out gore and squeamish bystanders will undoubtedly puke over their popcorn as the ham fisted blood and pus comes flying out. But Drag Me To Hell sure knows how to be creepy. The Lamia isn't something copied and pasted from an episode of Looney Tunes. This mean mother of a villain is creepy as hell and will shiver the hottest spines. Alison Lohman and Justin Long are fantastic together in what could have been a paper thin phone in. As the woman expected to carry the film (after Ellen Paige dropped out) Lohman manages to be both cute and a nice heroine throughout. You will also root for her, making her performance all the more captivating. Long plays his character with a definitive straight face but his charming 'caring' role and 'so what' attitude will make you snigger. The show stealer is Raver. She is creepy, she is funny and she is revolting. She will have you squirming in your seat and she will make you jump when she pops up in the most unfamiliar places. Big kudos to Raver for being the creepy old witch that scared you as a kid.
Drag Me To Hell is without doubt the best horror picture submitted this year. Not spectacular by anymeans, this roller coaster ride of horror and comedy will push your buttons marvelously. After the terribly out drawn Ju-On The Grudge series, the atrocity that was Boogeyman and the let down that was Spiderman 3 Raimi is back to where he belongs. At the helm of an outrageous horror frightfest that matches his own masterpiece the Evil Dead series. Drag Me To Hell may not appeal to everyone, but those looking for a truly shocking horror and those with a taste for spooky humdrum will lap it up.
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Production Year: 1980 - Horror - Director: Stanley Kubrick - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd
Advantages: Apparently if you like Sam Raimi's Evil Dead films then this film will be for you Disadvantages: Bad acting, Bad story, It's supposed to be a horror, but it made us laugh. Waste of mone
DixieChick10 04.06.2009 (04.06.2009)
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Review of Drag Me To Hell (DVD)
Jul 25th, 2009
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