 Sam Raimi's Return to Horror |
| Review Date: July 10, 2009 |
| Reviewer: www.TheHorrorMovieCritic.com, |
He's back! No I'm not talking about Freddy, Jason, Chucky or Michael. I'm talking about Sam...as in Sam Raimi. It's been almost 17 years since Raimi has helmed a horror flick and he hasn't lost his touch. Drag Me to Hell feels like the ugly (real ugly), long lost sister of Evil Dead II. It blends jump-outta-your-seat scares with Three Stooges style slap stick. If that sounds like an odd combination then you've never watched a Raimi horror movie before...
Drag Me to Hell is a basic morality tale. The whole thing feels like a polished episode of Tales from the Crypt. The story follows Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), a young woman who is looking to move up the corporate ladder at the bank where she's employed. Her boss tells her that she must learn to make the hard decisions if she wants a promotion and the first time she attempts this she forecloses the house of a disgusting, old, gypsy woman (Lorna Raver). If classic horror has taught us anything it's that you don't EVER screw with gypsies (or carnie folk). The dilapidated crone waits for Christine in the parking garage (in Raimi's beat up Oldsmobile!) and applies the 'Curse of Lamia'. The Lamia is a devil goat that loves the taste of souls. It takes three days to fully manifest and then the demon comes looking for its meal which gets dragged back to Hell for consumption.
Christine is perfectly portrayed by Lohman and I'll be damned if that girl doesn't have some spunk! She is cute as hell and has a knack for physical comedy. One thing about Raimi is that he loves to put his actors/actresses through the ringer. Lohman is a trooper as she gets hit in the face with maggots, mud, blood, drool etc... See that's the beauty of this film. Every time something terrifying happens it's quickly followed up with some disgusting gag that makes you cringe and then burst into a fit of laughter. It's a really great group experience...much like a well executed haunted house.
Justin Long plays Lohman's love interest, Dr. Clay Dalton, and to be honest it seems like he's just along for the ride. Make no mistake about it, this is Lohman's movie and she easily carries it all on her own. The rest of the cast is merely there to witness Christine physically and mentally fall apart as the Lamia's curse intensifies.
My only real complaint is that Raimi actually had the budget to create some CG effects. While they don't ruin the movie, I would have loved to see him stick with the real stuff instead. My main problem is that the things he uses CG for could have easily been done with practical effects.
Drag Me to Hell is horror done right. Sam Raimi has crafted one of the best horror films I've seen in the past 5 years. You've got elements of Evil Dead, The Exorcist and Dead Alive all stirred into the wicked witch's brew that is Drag Me to Hell. The packed theatre I sat in seemed to really get into it, but I'm afraid some folks simply won't wrap their heads around all the goofy stuff that Raimi does. Make sure you drag as many friends as possible to see it. Rest assured that everyone will be jumping in their seats, covering their eyes, screaming and giggling like prepubescent schoolgirls! Drag Me to Hell is just flat out fun cinema. Go see it.
Final Grade: A |
Fun, Old-School Horror from Raimi!
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| Review Date: January 8, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Monty Moonlight, TX |
Christine Brown is an ambitious, attractive, young loan officer struggling to balance her good-nature with doing what it takes to move up life's various ladders. When she encounters a decrepit gypsy woman at work one day asking for a third extension on her mortgage, Christine makes the hard decision in an attempt to earn a promotion over a ruthless competitor. This leads to Christine falling under a gypsy curse, and the rest of the film is all about Christine's downward spiral as she attempts to thwart the Lamia, a demon set on tormenting her for three days before dragging her to Hell forever. Christine enlists the aid of a fortune teller, against her boyfriend's better judgment, who provides a number of ideas to help her, though their results have actually led some fans of the film to theorize on whether or not he is in league with the demon himself.
"Drag Me To Hell" is a great return for Raimi fans to his horror roots, studded with Evil Dead style action, camp, and over the top gross-out scenes, but set within a more thoughtful story with great performances and higher-tech effects. Allison Lohman stars as Christine, and she does a great job of seeming innocent but corruptible, while Justin Long plays her adoring boyfriend and gives his usual fine performance. Lorna Raver is fantastically upsetting as disgusting Mrs. Ganush, the old gypsy woman. The story of the film could be compared to the Stephen King story, "Thinner", also a great film, but "Drag Me to Hell" is quite a bit more exciting and fun. There are a lot of jump moments and oldschool type scares, including one of those disturbing talking animal scenes reminiscent of the old Evil Dead mounted heads, which folks may find quite laughable under some viewing circumstances, but they can be rather disturbing when you're watching alone, in the dark, in the middle of the night. In general, "Drag Me to Hell" seems to be a film that was pretty well received, but you still have the occasional complaint that it "isn't scary". I always find such complaints amusing, because often when said complainers give you examples of films they think ARE scary, they're pretty lame. I suppose what a person finds scary is going to be different from person to person. This film employs a demonic figure for the scare factor, and many folks who don't believe in such things simply don't find them scary in films. Well, what can you say to that, except try using your imagination a little... All I can say is, "Drag Me to Hell" is a much better film than most of the horror films we've gotten in the past 20 years, and along with "Trick 'r Treat", it's one of my top picks for post '80's horror. It may not be that scary to you, both those films are more thrilling than scary most of the time, but frankly, there aren't many films I would actually call truly, consistently scary anyway (films like The Exorcist and The Shining, and even the original Amityville and Night of the Living Dead), and I'd still say these have their moments. After all, have you ever watched Evil Dead 2 alone at night, in the dark?
The Blu-Ray of Drag Me to Hell looks great, but it's a bit of a disappointment in the extras department. The main extra is that you get two versions of the film, theatrical and director's cut. Well, frankly, if you give me the director's cut, I'll never watch the theatrical, so I really don't even know how they're different and having the theatrical cut is kind of wasted space. Besides that, the only bonus is the collection of Production Video Diaries. These work well as a behind the scenes featurette, so they are much appreciated. But, beyond that, not even a theatrical trailer is included. A commentary would have been great. We do get a digital copy, but I almost never use those, so another waste... Still, the movie itself is fantastic and I'm glad to own it! I do highly recommend it, especially if you are familiar with Raimi's earlier work and will be able to handle the few campier moments.
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Raimi has created another horror classic....
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| Review Date: September 10, 2009 |
| Reviewer: M. Powell, |
I have to admit that the Evil Dead movies are 2 of my favorite horror movies of all time. I loved Army of Darkness, but I guess it's debatable if that is even a horror movie. Anyway, I was at the theater opening weekend to see Drag Me to Hell and was not disappointed. It has Raimi written all over it with the screechy violin type music, the close up shots, and all the cool little camera tricks. I was laughing and jumping throughout the whole movie and left the theater with a smile on my face.
The plot is pretty simple. Alison Lohman plays Christine who works as a loan officer at a bank and is competing with a co-worker for an assistant manager position. She has been at the bank far longer than this person, but has a difficult time making tough decisions. So when Mrs. Ganush, an old Gypsy lady with one bad eye, false teeth and generally bad hygiene, walks in one day for an extension on her house payment Christine, trying to impress her boss, decides that the bank cannot extend the loan any further. This ends in Mrs. Ganush begging Christine and causing a scene in the bank. A confrontation between the two later leads to Mrs. Ganush putting the curse of the Llamia on Christine. This curse basically means Christine is going to be haunted by a demon goat from hell until, on the third day, she is literally dragged to hell.
The sound and camera work in this movie was awesome. Make sure you are watching this somewhere with a good surround sound system. The effects are generally good, there are only a couple of things I can think of that were a little cheesy, but it fits in with movie. Expect the same dark humor from the Evil Dead films which is a good thing. I think Raimi really understands what having fun while watching a horror movie is all about. After all the crappy remakes we seem to get in America, Drag Me to Hell was a much needed breath of fresh air for horror fans. Don't miss it! |
Drag Me to Hell is a modern horror masterpiece
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| Review Date: August 23, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Monkdude, Hampton, Virginia |
I can't believe I'm going to say this but Drag Me to Hell is one of my favorite movies of the year so far. I thought this Sam Raimi gem would get mixed reviews at best, so I was blown away when I saw the 100 or so positive reviews flowing in from critics. It ranks with UP and Star Trek as one of the best reviewed movies of the year. That rarely happens with a horror film, but this one is so much more. It's full of dark humor, gross out gags (really pushes the PG-13 envelope), good acting, nice SFX and an interesting story. I can't remember the last time I was this surprised at how much better the movie was than any of the trailers or what I had expected going in.
Alison Lohman really sold me here. She is very cute, but she shows the smarts and toughness you almost never see in a horror flick. Really good stuff from her. The whole cast from Justin Long to the evil gypsy lady is spot on and you can't leave out director Sam Raimi. His visual style here will remind you of The Evil Dead trilogy, but with a bigger budget and just as much creativeness. It was great to see this now summer blockbuster director go back to his roots and knock it out of the park. The music and sound effects are some of the best I've heard in a long time. When it goes from quiet to extremely loud, the sound alone will make you jump. Out of all the movies I have seen in theaters, I can't remember one with sound mixing this good.
Well, do you think I liked Drag Me to Hell just a little bit? Really? When it comes to horror films, especially in recent years, few pack the thrills, laughs and entertainment value that this one brings.
4 and 1/2 out of 5 stars |
Great Fun
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| Review Date: January 18, 2010 |
| Reviewer: General Zombie, the West |
In a subpar year for film, Sam Raimi's "Drag Me to Hell" stands as perhaps the most deliriously entertaining release to pass through America's cineplexes. Raimi's return to the horror genre is as perfect a distillation of lowbrow entertainment as one could hope to find; there is not a moment's subtlety and precious little that is in good taste. Though most horror geeks will compare it negatively to Raimi's cult "Evil Dead" series, "Drag Me to Hell" is actually a decided maturation of Raimi's horror/comedy style: while the average horror-comedy is simply a gruesome farce, "Drag Me to Hell" is a legitimate horror film turned totally absurd, with every element pushed one step too far.
Though the stylistic debt to the "Evil Dead" films is enormous, the actual story harks back to the British classic "Night of the Demon" and the blackly humorous horror comics of the 1950s. (Or so I'm told, on the latter point--I've not read any EC stuff.) As in "Night of the Demon," "Drag Me to Hell" focuses on a frantic attempt to escape an impending curse, this time inflicted by an aged gypsy woman (Lorna Raver) on ingénue loan officer Christine Brown (a lovely and always very young looking Alison Lohman) after Christine refuses to give Mrs. Ganush any further extensions on her mortgage. The curse is rather unpleasant: after tormenting Christine for three days, the Lamia, a demon of the classic anthropomorphic goat type, will, yep, drag her to hell. Along for the ride are Clay Dalton (Justin Long, less annoying than you'll expect), Christine's dorky boyfriend, and Rham Jas (Dileep Rao), a fortuneteller they enlist in their struggle.
Though pseudo-intellectual critics insist on highlighting the purported timeliness of this backstory, social commentary is quickly dropped in favor of Raimi's always entertaining setpieces and the broadly drawn, almost caricatured figures. Despite the free rein the premise allows him, Raimi is more restrained than in his earlier efforts. (This isn't saying much, of course.) While "EDII" and "Army of Darkness" utilized a formless "everything including the kitchen sink" absurdity, "Drag Me to Hell" builds more like a conventional horror film, with slow burn atmospherics punctuated by self-parodically overdone jump scares giving way to the grand guignol madness of later scenes. Though the tone is somewhat different, Raimi's techniques still recall the cult classics of his past: frantic, cockeyed camerawork; murderous inanimate objects; spewing goo and, of course, flying, wild-eyed demons. The best of the horror sets are stunning: the wild, bare-knuckle parking lot brawl between Ganush and Christine is a delight, and a climactic séance is deliciously, maliciously funny. Some of the more low-key moments are equally charming, particularly a bleakly desperate evening in an all-night café which I sadly cannot describe w/o revealing to much. With a much higher budget at his disposal, "Drag Me to Hell" displays a sort of slickness absent from Raimi's earlier horrors, but this cleaner, sharper look only serves to make the grotesque weirdness more striking when it comes. (By the way, those worried about the PG-13 rating are foolish--the last two "Evil Dead" films barely had anything that could be described as disturbing by any but the most sensitive viewers, and our steadily more desensitized culture allows the surrealist grue to remain largely in tact.) More notably, Raimi sometimes generates a sort of tension that was almost entirely absent in the last two "Evil Dead" films. This tension is more likely to break in humor than horror, but the effect remains impressive.
The film's air of straight-faced insanity extends to the performances. Raver's one-eyed gypsy is inconceivably repellent, though not w/o a hint of pathos, while Lohman's lost yet grasping innocent grows steadily more deranged and hostile as the end approaches. The supporting turns are uniformly one dimensional (particularly Dalton's ultra-WASP, old money parents and Reggie Lee as Christine's absurdly conniving coworker), but they're performed with an unwinking precision that wrings as much humor out of figures as possible. (Surprisingly, Long and Rao give two of the flatter turns, when they could easily have been among the most over the top of characters.)
All the ridiculousness culminates in a final twist that, while unlikely to surprise many, puts an appropriate sick joke spin on the proceedings. It is, as always, far from subtle, but it goes out with a bang, one last roaring sound cue before it fades to black. It is, all in all, very appropriate. Check it out.
Grade: A
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