Movie Review: Drag Me to Hell

Drag Me to Hell

After the creative debacle that was Spiderman 3, it seems like Sam Raimi had to re-discover his joy of film...what better way to do that than to return to his absurdist horror roots? Drag Me to Hell is a roller coaster, with more real laughs and scares than most horror movies today. It's the type of movie Raimi does better than anyone else.

Alison Lohman plays Christine Brown, a loan officer who denies an old gypsy woman an extension on her loan in an effort to impress her boss. While her actions do end up impressing the boss, it unfortunately angers the old woman so much that she assaults Christine in the parking lot and puts a curse on her. In three days, the demon Lamia will drag Christine to hell. She has three days to find a way to break the curse.

Though there are some gross parts in the film (the, er, bloody nose scene), Raimi doesn't rely on gore. The most effective chills deal with a clever, eerie sound design and some pretty creepy cgi shadows. And as for the humor - wow, it may not be outrageously funny like Army of Darkness, but there are some laugh out loud, absurd moments that are an absolute treat (the aforementioned bloody nose scene).

The cast and crew all perform quality work, with special shout outs to Alison Lohman who shows she can carry a film on her tiny shoulders and to Dileep Rao as the mystic who tries to help her. He's young, and this is his first movie, but we are about to see a lot more of him soon (he must be good because he is both in Cameron's Avatar and Nolan's Inception, two of the most anticipated movies of the next year).  Christopher Young, meanwhile, serves up a top notch score, certainly his best of the 2000s, and right up there with his earlier horror classics.

So all in all, this is a pretty fun time. But most importantly, it sounds like this movie has slapped Raimi out his funk and hopefully reinvigorated the creative director we've been missing.

TRIVIA: Ellen Page (Juno) was originally cast in the lead, but had to pull out because of scheduling problems.

BEST LINE: "I don't want your cat, you dirty pork queen!"

MVP AWARD: Well, Raimi said it best - without a good score this movie would have been nothing. And I have to hand it to Christopher Young for creating some epic horror awesomeness. It's probably not as good a composition as Hellraiser 2, but it still rocks. An eerie violin solo plows its way through the whole movie, never really hitting notes in the right way, always subconsciously throwing you off balance. It's clever stuff. And I think it should have gotten Christopher Young a long overdue Oscar nomination. You should check out my friend Scott's review at http://www.soundtrackdb.com/soundtrack/674/drag-me-to-hell-soundtrack.