Drag Me to Hell (2009) - Film Review
The Evil Dead Creator Returns and Swaps Spidey for Scares
Jun 1, 2009
Back in 1981, Sam Raimi started out by carving himself a niche with his low-budget shocker, The Evil Dead - a brilliant exercise in economic film-making, funhouse scares with a dash of slapstick thrown in. Against a marketplace chock full of gory slasher movies, The Evil Dead stood out as something new, witty and inventive.
Raimi toyed with other genres in the years that followed: the western (The Quick and the Dead), the crime thriller (A Simple Plan), or even a sports-based romantic comedy (For Love of the Game). Then, along came the Spiderman, plus two sequels, tying up the director for over five years. The huge success of that franchise appeared to lock Raimi in; with at least two more Spiderman movies mooted, was he lost to anything other than comic-book capers?
Then, with little fanfare, along comes Drag Me To Hell, a delirious, unexpected return to form almost three decades after The Evil Dead.
Intense Openings
The opening prologue alone sets the tone: a possessed boy arrives at the home of a medium too late and gets dragged to hell - nice to see the film title taken so literally.
Pay close attention to the wonderful woodcut illustrations during the title sequence that follows: pages of an ancient grimoire act as a medieval Dummies Guide to demonic possession, tantalisingly showing the more observant members of the audience what they might expect from the next 90 minutes.
Drag Me to Hell - The Plot
Christine (Alison Lohman) works in the local bank as a loans officer, hungry for promotion. Eyeing the empty desk of Assistant Manager, she rises to the challenge of making a difficult choice in order to impress her boss. Only, that choice means one elderly customer will be evicted from her home. Unfortunately for Christine, the old woman (a brilliant Lorna Raver, relishing the role of demented crone) knows a thing or two about gypsy curses, giving her the mean,marbly evil eye.
To say much more would be to spoil the fun of Drag Me To Hell - and as strange as that may seem, fun is what it is. Cleverly side-stepping the usual horror staples of severed limbs and screaming teens, Raimi instead offers up an experience much like the thrill of a fairground ride, where the shocks and jolts come thick and fast. In the absence of gore, we get gross-out; Lohman certainly gets put through her paces as all kinds of gooey ebullitons assault her.
A Celebration of Classic Frighteners
Fans of the Evil Dead series will know how Ash (Bruce Campbell) gets battered and brutalised by the forces of darkness. This time, Raimi flings the same malevolent energies at his female lead, scratching his itch for physical action married with Three Stooges comedy. Lohman and Raver are both up for it, throwing themselves into the fisticuffs with zeal.
The masterful flair on display here shows a director on top of his game - the camera tears around haunted rooms like a thing possessed, or spins 180 degrees for a shock reveal (at least half a dozen times) - in less capable hands, this would be corny, predictable stuff. And in a way, it is - but with such knowing love for the genre, it becomes a celebration of classic horror movies, most notably Night of the Demon (1957).
Admission For All
It's worth noting that, in most territories, Drag Me To Hell got passed with a low certification, meaning a younger-than-average demographic gets past the ticket stand to see the movie.
Many die-hard horror enthusiasts may take this to mean a watered-down experience, which is most certainly not the case - the movie delivers shocks and scares with such regularity, it succeeds where most contemporary horror vehicles fail miserably. This reviewer sat surrounded by scores of screaming teens, greatly enhancing the experience.
But when screams are soon followed by the sounds of laughter, you know the man behind the lens has the formula right.
Sam Raimi has created an instant classic, a movie that will stand up to many repeated viewings, no doubt becoming a firm fixture in many Halloween movie nights for years to come. Not since Poltergeist has there been such a wild rollercoaster of a ride; not since The Evil Dead has it been done with such ingenuity.
Consider it a very welcome return from the master of the genre.
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