Drag Me to Hell

The early trailers for Drag Me to Hell dubbed it as (sic) "the return to classic horror", and for once at least, they are correct.

Sam Raimi manages to incorporate genuine thrills and terror using the old-fashioned format of surprise, misdirection and suggestion. As a frequent viewer of horror films, little surprises me, but in this film I was caught off-guard several times while watching it.

While the majority of the movie is kept on a serious and foreboding level, much like the original "Evil Dead", Raimi can't help but throw in elements of the absurd and slapstick during some of the more horrific scenes, thus reducing the tension and echoing the latter 2/3 of the "Evil Dead" trilogy.

WHile I have nothing against the modern trend of horror movies to provide shocks merely in the form of how much blood and gore they spill, this flick was wonderfully refreshing. It's a must-see, not just for Raimi fans, but for anyone who loves a good scary story and a great movie in general.

"Drag Me To Hell" transports to you to the era of 1980's where blood, gore, chills and likes of "Nightmare on Elm Street" / "Evil Dead" spawned in plenty. And yes, for a welcome change "Drag Me To Hell" steers clear from the Japanese horror genre and pans out to be a very much American product.

† Alison Lohman "i can shriek" delivers the right expressions warranted for a horror movie. Anything more would have been potential overdose.

† Justin Long "Keanu Reeves impersonator" is plastic expressions all the way.

† Reggie Lee "corporate pacman" does a good job of munching up everything that comes between him and the success ladder.

† David Paymer "carrot dangler" knows how to make the rabbits dance to his tunes.

† Lorna Raver "the trigger of Lamia curse" ensures to get etched in the memory and haunt you for a very long time.

† Dileep Rao "amateur spiritualist" was okay'ish. It appears his part got hijacked by his Guru.

† Flor de Maria Chahua "avenger in waiting" has a brief but effective role. And so was her assistant.

All in all "Drag Me To Hell" is both tacky and cheesy, but that doesn't stop it from sending shivers down the spine. The screenplay is void of drag moments ensuring the audience get fright doses at regular intervals. Good utilisation of visual effects and the background score alleviate the visual experience. The potholes in writing could have been easily creased out. Not exactly horror-comedy like "Shawn Of The Dead" but it does have well-interlaced comical moments between the chills.

Watchable fare... and yes a few days you potentially might abstain from using the staplers.

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.

This garbage is considered to be a masterpiece??? Why does this have 90 percent on rotten tomatoes. I don't understand the positive reviews and praise? This movie was terrible disgusting schlock. Also, a complete rip-off of Stephen King's Thinner which also a shitty movie.

This was supposed to be a horror comedy? First of all this movie is neither scary or funny. They might as well called this jump scare the movie. Take a drink every time there a loud jump scare scene. There's an unnecessary scene where the main character stabs and kills her cat. She got what she deserved when she was dragged to hell at the end. Good riddance!

The acting is horrible and dry. Alison Lohman is an awful actress. No wonder her acting career ended after she did this movie. Her line delivery is horrid. You never believe anything coming out of her mouth especially when she tries to act angry or swears. She sounds like she's reading off cue cards. She also lacks reaction to anything crazy going on around her. She pretty much ruined this movie for me with her bland emotionless performance. She had that same stupid blank worried face the entire movie. I just wanted to punch her in the face! I was rooting for the gypsy woman to kill her!

Justin Long and Alison Lohman have zero chemistry and make for boring leads. I felt like they were both miscast. Justin Long felt outta place in this movie. He looked like belonged on set of Two and a Half Men with Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer. He pretty much phoned in his performance as he slept walked all his scenes. The gypsy came off more hilarious than scary. Every scene with her was a joke!

This movie is way over the top and just plain old disgusting. They're replacing suspense and horror with blood, guts, and potty humor. This movie basically Alison Lohman getting attack absurdly and nastily every 5 minutes. This movie is full of gross. Burping up a fly, dentures flying out of mouths, old lady sucking on people's chins, vomiting bugs and maggots in somebody's mouth, bloody nose squirting blood everywhere, shoving arms don people's throats, possessed talking goat spouting profanities, spooky flying handkerchief's. None of this is scary or funny. Just childish, cheesy and stupid.

If this wasn't made by Sam Raimi it would have gotten negative reviews and trashed by fans and critics. This movie sucked! Forgettable characters you don't care about, not scary, not funny, bad acting, dull plot, repetitive fake out scenes, gross out humor, lack of a musical score. It's is one of the most overrated horror films in the last couple of years.

Sorry fans, this crap has nothing the on Evil Dead films. Those films were classics. This garbage is forgotten tripe.

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.