Horror Movie Review: Drag Me to Hell

Sam Raimi may be the blockbuster director of the Spider-man films now, but he began as the humble director of the fast paced and inventive horror films known as the Evil Dead trilogy. Drag Me to Hell brings Raimi back to his scream-inducing roots and it's as if he never left. The film jumps from "BOO!" type scares to slowly building tension smoothly, sometimes even within the same scene. Horror fans can rejoice in the return of a master of horror entertainment.

Drag Me to Hell deals in an oft-neglected subgenre of horror films: the gypsy curse film. Following a vivid and intense opening sequence that gives a taste of things to come the audience is introduced to bank employee Christine Brown, played by Alison Lohman (Matchstick Men). Christine is kind hearted and slightly timid, vying against an aggressive co-worker for a management position. She's told by her boss that she may be passed over for promotion because he's not sure she "can make the tough calls." Christine isn't about to watch her slimy new co-worker get promoted before her. So when she is confronted with an old gypsy woman, played by TV regular Lorna Raver, begging for a third extension on her house payment Christine holds firm and denies the extension. The enraged gypsy curses Christine to be tormented and eventually claimed by a demon which will haunt her for three days before claiming her soul to forever suffer in the fires of hell. With her supportive (but not completely convinced) boyfriend, played by Justin Long (Accepted) at her side Christine struggles to find a way to free her soul from the fate that has been laid upon her.

The cast of Drag Me to Hell doesn't have many recognizable faces and even a few first timers in surprisingly large roles. However every actor has been perfectly cast to the role they play and bring very high energy to an already energetic film. Alison Lohman carries the film beautifully in her wonderfully endearing performance. Often in gypsy curse stories the person who has been cursed really does deserve it, however here the character of Christine is just doing her job, and actually being as gentle as she can about it. This sincerity and well meaning nature just makes it all the more entertaining to watch her get pushed to the edge. Watching a sweet character be pushed by desperation to extreme acts is far more enjoyable than watching a character that might have been able to do those things under any other circumstances. Justin Long also deserves special notice in the often misused role of the boyfriend. Usually in these sorts of films the boyfriend would be skeptical and generally unhelpful until he saw something that proved to him that it was all real. In this case he loves Christine enough that he's willing to believe her even without proof, it seems like a small thing but it really strengthens the bond between these two characters. Another standout is newcomer Dileep Rao as a psychic trying to help Christine free herself of the curse. This sort of role is very often painfully on the nose and very cheesy. But Rao treats it straight and keeps it grounded which gives everything more weight in the end.

More than anything Drag Me to Hell is something that horror movies rarely are anymore: fun. The modern trend of horror movies is to either be very realistic (as seen in Paranormal Activity) or just very sadistically twisted (as with film such as the Saw and Hostel series). But it's very uncommon of either of these types of films to simply be trying to give the audience a good time that also happens to scare them along the way. This is exactly what Sam Raimi is going for and he nails it perfectly. He wants his audience to jump and scream but do it smiling. The fact that the film is rated PG-13 hasn't taken any of the bite out of it either. Raimi is good enough at what he's doing to not require blood and gore to make the audience squirm in their seat, and there are more than a few squirm worthy moments (mostly involving this going into or coming out of people's mouths).

There are a few weak points in Drag Me to Hell. As much fun as the over the top action is it does sometimes become slightly too cartoonish for its own good. For the most part it all fits with the story and works but at a couple of points it goes overboard (somebody gets an anvil dropped on their head for crying out loud). Also events at the very end are telegraphed a bit too obviously (for anybody who's paying attention) and slightly too far in advance. Thankfully this doesn't make the ending less satisfying overall but it does take the wind out of the sails slightly.

In the end Drag Me to Hell is very much a flashback to the Sam Raimi of old. After the slog that was Spider-man 3 this film seems to have reinvigorated the talented director by forcing him to bring it back to the basics. Even though this film had a budget that Raimi could only have dreamed of back when he was doing the Evil Dead films it's still a very small budget compared to what he's been working with lately. This forced Raimi back to simple camera tricks and just well planned scares to get impact rather than excessive computer wizardry. It all pays off wonderfully and hopefully will help the director stay grounded for whatever his next project may be.
Final Score: 4 out of 5