"Drag Me to Hell
Starring: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, David Paymer
Grade: B+
Not only is Drag Me to Hell a great bounce back for director Sam Raimi after the dreadful Spider-Man 3, it's also good to see a scary movie that scares. Raimi's past directorial efforts prior to the Spider-Man series were campy horror flicks like the Evil Dead and Darkman. With his latest film, Raimi breathes some life into the genre with this spook a minute tale of gypsy's, demons, spirits, etc.
Alison Lohman who most will know from Big Fish and Matchstick Men plays Christine Brown, a loan officer with a pretty normal life. She's successful at her job, and is dating Clay, who is maybe to good of a guy, played by Justin Long (the Mac guy). One day Christine evicts an old women from her house, mostly in attempt to show her boss played by David Paymer that she can make tough decisions in hopes of getting the assistant manager position. Soon Christine's world is turned upside down, shes cursed by the old women/gypsy, and evil spirits will visit her for three days, on the third day she will be brought to hell unless she can stop it.
While the premise sounds over the top, and not that interesting, I beg to differ. The movie tries to have fun with the viewer, and it succeeds on almost every level. It's loud film with jumps a plenty. This movie has characters puking up insects, coughing up blood, along with many supernatural things that are more than entertaining.
Alison Lohman is the perfect non A-list actress to pull this role of. She has a natural vulnerability that makes the audience care. Justin Long is convincing enough as her boyfriend and Psychology professor. They have a good on-screen chemistry together, which doesn't hurt the movie either.
I haven't seen Raimi's past horror films, but I bet there were a few wink-wink homages to his other films in this. The movie succeeds as being unpredictable for the most part, and total fun for 95 minutes. It's a shame the film will probably only match it's $50 million budget, and not exceed it. For quick thrills, and un-matched fun, nothing stands toe to toe with Drag Me to Hell.
2 comments:
I am hoping that after I show Mike this review that he will want to watch this with me..
Yeah he is the only guy who could scare the crap out of me and make me laugh. I am a huge fan of his Bruce Campbell movies. The only thing I thought was sorta hokey about this movie was the overabundance of juiciness and the goat. The ending was bad-ass.
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