Film: Drag Me To Hell DVD

Returning from the forefront of Hollywood superhero franchises with Spider-Man, Raimi’s first objective must have been to prove that he’s just as unhinged as he was when he created the best of the 80’s video nasties, Evil Dead.

A refreshingly gooey, horror fan’s horror movie, Drag Me To Hell has one hand in camp eighties super gore while the other tugs at the heartstrings.

The film follows Chris, a young female loans officer played by Alison Lohman, who in an effort to throw off her nice girl image refuses a loan renewal to an elderly lady. As you might expect, this elderly lady is not the type who takes bad news well, resulting in possibly the most undeserved three days of terror in the history of unlucky females in horror films. However, the film gets all of the plot points out of the way early, making an expositional first act that is neat but obvious, and leaves more time to focus on the scary parts. Raimi also makes the attempt to have us like his heroine a little too forcefully; she’s a farm girl in the big city, she used to be fat, she’s too nice to be promoted – this grates to begin with, but adds reams of comedy value when the pus starts to fly. Oh yes, there’s pus.

The boyfriend, played by up and coming nerdy heart throb, Justin long, is a brilliant character who remains the voice of reason in a terrifying world of demons and back talking goats that only Chris can see. The result is a priceless few scenes in which the logical boyfriend can’t keep his scepticism to himself – his reaction to being charged sixty dollars for a palm reading is particularly well timed.

The plot is simple really, and effective, and not a backwards walking Japanese ghost girl in sight. Drag Me To Hell really does bare all of the hallmarks of the Evil Dead series, with the addition of some superb acting and story telling skills, fans of Raimi’s earlier work will feel at home.

Be warned though, any punches left pulled from Evil Dead are delivered with force in the first few minutes of Drag Me To Hell. The opening scene sees a young gardening boy succumbing to the same unknown force of evil in front of a young medium. But attacks on helpless Mexican minors are really just a prelude to the atrocities that occur during the next ninety minutes. Luckily, Raimi has made the more gruesome scenes with an undertone of hilarity. No one’s eyes could pop out at that speed, that often, and that accurately, could they? A question you may find yourself asking.

Raimi also makes the most of the cinema space, he uses sound effects with the skill of a horror auteur, and knows how to reel the audience in for the big frights. For this reason, Drag Me To Hell is first and foremost an entertaining horror flick, with emphasis on the fun. Compared to the now formulaic descendants of psychological-horrors such as The Ring that peaked in originality a few years back, it’s an interesting niche. The fact that Raimi isn’t taking himself too seriously is incredibly refreshing and oddly innocent – especially for a film that shocks visually.

Well worth the time, Drag Me To Hell is diet Evil Dead with a far more accessible plot that will entertain you as much as it disgusts you. People fond of cakes and kittens, however, would do well to avoid it.

Chris Hamer

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 10:41 am and is filed under Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.