Drag Me to Hell

Sam Raimi hasn't made a bad movie yet, and while Drag Me To Hell has emerged as a case of you hate it or you love it (like Apocalypse Now, Forrest Gump, and Avatar). It turns out to be a fun ride.

Christine Brown is a loan officer in L.A. and is trying to get the position of assistant manager. She decides that in order to impress her boss, she has to be tougher. So when an old gypsy woman comes and asks her for a third extension on mortgage payment, Christine denies her that. Feeling shamed, the old woman puts a curse on Christine, and sends a demon after her. Her life is suddenly in ruins, but with the help of a fortune teller, and his Latin American friends, Christine attempts to rid herself of the demon, before it takes her down to hell.

the ending of the film is more than somewhat controversial, and in fact you could even spend the rest of the day going over it in your mind, trying to figure out what the Raimi bros were thinking. In fact considering what they choose, the entire story is kind of pointlessly staged, but at least it is fun. Raimi takes us on a crazy ride, we the viewers are treated to a handful of shocking and humorous moments, many of which directly resemble, the Evil Dead flicks. You can tell from this that after fifteen years, Raimi is still a master at horror. He has tackled every genre but it is clear now that he is most at home with this genre. I would not say it's lovable, but it doesn't disappoint either.

Creepy terror caused by a curse against a young woman with a bright future that goes wrong . The bank employee named Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) finds herself growing distresses after she assertively refuses to extend a loan to an old gypsy woman ( Raver ), then she places a hex on her . As when a button is removed during a scuffle , a curse is placed on her . It will result in her being taken to hell in a few days time and the things get worse . Now the girl must call upon his boyfriend named Clay Dalton (Justin Long) and a spiritual adviser (Rao) to help her persuade the gypsy to lift the curse. Time is running out for the desperate loan officer as he draws closer to his own death . At a mansion reunite various mediums who are determined to save her. The psychics attempt to rid her of the strange demon , a malevolent force she is up against , leading until an incredible ending .

This exciting picture is a terror story full of supernatural elements with eerie moments here and there and brief touches of black humor . The makeup and special effects vary , but for the most part, they are quite good , they are realized by Robert Kurtzman and Howard Berger . Colorful and adequate cinematography by Peter Deming who captures perfectly the peculiar scenarios . The film displays adequate musical score fitting to terror and suspense by Christopher Young , an expert composer of dark atmospheres . The motion picture is professionally directed by Sam Raimi ( Crimewave, Evil dead I and II ) who directed ¨Army of darkness¨ another horror film with humor and tongue-in-cheek . This one isn't his worst movie , but definitely not the best either . The result is better than previous Stephen King adaptation called ¨Thinner¨, that bears remarkable resemblance to ¨Drag me to the hell¨. Rating : Acceptable and passable Horror-Comedy from Sam Raimi , well worth watching for Alison Lohman fans .

People who gave this a very low score don't get Sam Raimi. I found it entertaining and I enjoyed the humour. A homage to classic horror films with a mix of humour and old school special effects.

DRAG ME TO HELL sees Sam Raimi attempting to update his EVIL DEAD formula to the modern era, reinventing it as a teen-friendly comic horror about an unsuspecting bank worker who becomes a victim of a witch's curse. It sounds entertaining, and you'd think it would be easy for a man who once made it his job to bring fresh, energetic horror to our cinema screens.

Sadly, time has passed, and nowadays the formula seems a little stale. Raimi relies far too much on CGI in this movie, so that most of the (frequent) scare scenes are fake-looking and cartoonish; sometimes making this look like a Looney Tunes cartoon done via live action. I'd much have preferred practical effects, because then the film wouldn't have been so cheesy and laughable.

The mood is all over the place, too. The witch's curse storyline has real potential to be interesting, but none of the scare scenes work, mainly because Raimi goes for the gross-out over the genuinely spooky. There's a kind of infantile relish in watching a toothless old crone slobbering over her victim that makes me wonder what exactly he was thinking of. Playing it straight would have worked far better, I think.

The cast is nothing to write home about, with performances ranging from the pantomime (Dileep Rao) to the decent (David Paymer). As the heroine, Alison Lohman tries very hard to convince, although she does fail to elicit much sympathy. The pacing's good, though, and there are plenty of set-pieces and jump-in-your-seat moments, so undemanding horror fans might find themselves entertained regardless. Sometimes, though, Raimi goes too far; take the goat scene: just what on earth was he thinking?

Drag me to Hell is, really, a throwback in so many ways to the fun of The Evil Dead 2. The camera angles, the excellent score - it all recalls how Raimi played with us in his earlier trilogy. What has changed however, is the sense of pace. We know its coming and Raimi employs all his skills to draw out the tension. The thrills are all there in place, I jumped like there was an electric buzzer under my seat. Perhaps a little too much CGI is indulged in but its easy to forgive in a film as wicked and blackly comic as this. I genuinely found the film disturbing for a 15 as well, again I think this is a mark of tension that Raimi creates with the score and camera work throughout the film. So incredibly refreshing to see a horror film with out the hallmarks of the recent saw franchise. Special mention for the ending, which has conviction and guts and was the proverbial cherry on top of the cake. throughly entertaining.