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"Drag Me to Hell" is a horror/thriller throwback reminiscent of some of the 1980s films that had you staring suspiciously at shadows during the night.
Alison Lohman ("Beowulf") stars as Christine Brown, an up-and-coming loan officer who's being considered for a promotion but she just needs to show a little initiative. The perfect opportunity arises as she decides to save the bank some money by denying an elderly woman an extension on her loan. Unfortunately, the woman doesn't take too kindly to the rejection and curses her to hell.
With her angelic appearance complete with big expressive eyes and flowing hair, Lohman makes for the perfectly virtuous protagonist who evokes the audience's sympathy.
Christine starts taking the curse seriously and seeks help from the occult, even though her boyfriend (Justin Long, "He's Just Not That Into You") believes that her advisor is a scam artist. Christine needs to figure out a solution soon, as she only has three days to avoid a rather unpleasant trip.
Long before he became synonymous with the Spider-Man franchise, director Sam Raimi's niche was horror/thriller films so this marks his return to a less-than-cheerful past.
At 99 minutes, Raimi paces the film just right to keep everything progressing at a nice, crisp pace. In regards to getting the audience jumping out of their seats, Raimi has a much different approach than many of his contemporaries. Instead of teasing a scare to set up one later, Raimi adheres to the "more is more" philosophy and delivers every time he sets up a scare. The scenes don't ever lose their effectiveness because Raimi understands how to unnerve his audience.
The one odd bit to the film was Raimi's oral fixation. In most instances where Christine encounters another curse or sees a vision, something spews forth from a demon's mouth, something goes into her mouth, or as in many cases, both.
It makes the demons' approach a bit predictable, but most people probably wouldn't want demon goo going into their mouths, so Raimi likely figured he'd play upon the audience's innate fears through Christine.
Co-written by Raimi and his brother Ivan, the script is pretty clever for a horror/thriller film, filled with several dark comedy moments. They're not laugh out loud moments but they're just twisted enough to reinforce that Raimi isn't trying to make you think differently about your politics or give you a history lesson, he just wants to entertain you with a fun, albeit slightly twisted, movie. He succeeds greatly.
Even if you're not a fan of the genre, you might want to drag yourself down to the theaters to catch this one.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Drag Me To HELL
PG-13, Horror, 99 minutes
Director: Sam Raimi
Cast: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao, David Paymer, Adriana Barraza and Reggie Lee
