‘Drag me to Hell’ Review

(Released 5/29/09)

Drag me to Hell, written and directed by Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Spiderman) is a horror comedy that is really hard to put into one specific genre other then a ‘Sam Raimi horror film’.  But, people going in thinking that this will be the latest horror masterpiece will be disappointed, and people who are not familiar with Raimi’s earlier films The Evil Dead, The Evil Dead 2, and The Army of Darkness won’t really understand why the film is so cheesy and at times hilarious.  Raimi creates a film that is so fun to watch that it doesn’t really matter if it’s trying to be funny or scary, but at times it is both.  He mixes parts that will make you jump and parts that will make you laugh out loud which makes for one of the best times you will have in the theater this year.

Loan officer Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is competing with a co-worker for the vacant position of assistant manager. She needs the promotion not only to secure her future but also to impress the parents of her boyfriend, Clay (Justin Long), who think she’s not good enough for their son. The bank manager, Mr. Jacks (David Paymer), delights in playing Christine against her rival and watching the sparks fly. One day, an old woman named of Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) comes to the bank asking for relief from a mortgage she can’t pay. She’s behind on her payments and is about to lose her house. Mr. Jacks leaves the resolution of the matter to Christine and she decides to take the hard-line to demonstrate her toughness. Mrs. Ganush does not react well to this. A verbal confrontation leads to her trying to choke her, which culminates in the old woman leveling a curse at Christine’s jacket button. Soon thereafter, Christine begins having creepy visitations so she goes to the aid of a fortuneteller (Dileep Rao) to rid her of the curse and its associated devil who, after three days of haunting her, will claim her soul and drag her body to hell.

Alison Lohman does a great job of being serious at times while also pulling off some intentionally cheesy acting.  Trust me it is intentional.  If it wasn’t for her and her boyfriend played by Justin Long then this wouldn’t really work as a horror comedy.  I give them both credit for pulling it off.  The old woman played by Lorna Raver is amazingly creepy.  With her weird eye and some gross goo pouring out of her mouth she makes for a perfect horror movie villain.  Raimi mixes in some jump scares with the gross out goods like bugs, slime, and eyeballs flying out of people’s heads.  Raimi is back in form and a lot of the fight scenes in this film reminded me if good ol’ Bruce Campbell fighting in the Evil Dead films.

There are many classic scenes in this film.  The two hilarious fight scenes between Lohman and Raver are so great.  I don’t want to give anything away that happens but I’ll just let you know that they are ridiculous.  The one scene that I couldn’t stop smiling at was the séance.  It is by far the greatest scene of the film.  It keeps you on the edge of your seat and then makes you crack up when things start getting silly.  I was absolutely rolling by the end of this scene.  I loved it.

It’s amazing that this film worked so well considering it was PG-13.  Nowadays that takes some real work, especially for a horror film and a comedy.  It is scary without being too violent and is funny without being to raunchy.  I think Raimi has created something here that he can be really proud of because making a horror comedy work in any case seems nearly impossible not to screw up.

Sam Raimi is back, and lets hope he isn’t finished with this genre that he has mastered.

I’M GONNA GET SOME!!!

STAMPT IT!!!

Imdb: 8.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
Moviewiseguys: 8.5/10