Drag Me To Hell Review [2]

Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 06.01.2009

Welcome back, Mr. Raimi. We've missed you.

Directed by: Sam Raimi
Written by: Sam Raimi & Ivan Raimi

Starring:
Alison Lohman - Christine Brown
Justin Long - Clay Dalton
Lorna Raver - Sylvia Ganush
Dileep Rao - Rham Jas
David Paymer - Mr. Jim Jacks
Adriana Barraza - Shaun San Dena
Chelcie Ross - Leonard Dalton
Molly Cheek - Trudy Dalton
Reggie Lee - Stu Rubin
Bojana Novakovic - Ilenka Ganush
Kevin Foster - Milos




Running Time: 99 minutes
Rated PG-13 for sequences of horror violence, terror, disturbing images and language

The horror genre is one that lends itself to the auteur filmmaker's often-distinctive styles. The elements of horror are ones that can be unveiled in unique and interesting ways, which allows those directors with strong personal creative visions and imaginative methods the freedom to make films exactly the way they desire. This uniqueness to horror is coupled with the lower budgets often afforded to such films which means less pressure from the financing studio and thus less meddling, thus allowing the auteur more freedom to express his vision. As such, the genre has seen a host of names who have brought their individuality and vision to bear. Names like Wes Craven, Eli Roth, John Carpenter, Dario Argento, George Romero, Tobe Hooper, Alexandre Aja and Rob Zombie all come to mind when discussing horror movie auteurs; one more that deserves inclusion into that list is Sam Raimi. Raimi, who began his film career shooting Super 8 movies with his childhood friend Bruce Campbell, broke into the horror scene with 1981's The Evil Dead, a low-budget and highly successful horror film that became a cult hit for distributor New Line, who picked it up after its screening at Cannes and after nearly every studio had passed due to its graphic content. Raimi would then proceed to--in the eyes of many--top himself with Evil Dead 2, which brought in more of what would become known as Raimi's trademark humor/horror mix and would once again prove to be quite profitable considering its low budget. Army of Darkness would complete the trilogy before Raimi moved onto other genres, taking the spot behind the camera for films such as The Quick and the Dead in 1995, A Simple Plan in 1998 and For the Love of the Game in 1999. The last decade has seen Raimi largely tied up with the Spider-Man franchise; his fans have always clamored for a return to the genre that made him famous however. Finally he acceded to those wishes, and has brought us Drag Me to Hell, his first horror film since Army sixteen years ago.

The movie stars Alison Lohman as Christine Brown, a loan officer who dreams of becoming assistant manager at her bank. Christine is a genuinely nice girl, doing her best to help out those who come into see her. Her boss Mr. Jacks (Paymer) tells her that to get a leg up on her competition, the slimy and brown-nosing Stu (Lee), she needs to learn to make tough decisions in the best interests of the bank. Desperate to secure her future and make a good impression on the parents of her born-to-wealth psychologist boyfriend Clay (Long), she resolves to do whatever it takes to get the promotion. As it turns out, her first test comes in Sylvia Ganush (Raver). Mrs. Ganush is an elderly Gypsy who has encountered health problems and needs a third extension on her loan. When Christine denies her against her better judgment, the old lady begs for mercy and then upon being pulled away by security blames Christine completely. After a late-night confrontation with Mrs. Ganush in the parking lot, during which the now-homeless lady throws down a curse, Christine finds herself being haunted by a mysterious and malevolent force. A visit to a fortune teller (Rao) reveals that she's been cursed by the lamia, an ancient demon, and has three days of torment ahead of her before she gets dragged to Hell to burn forever. With time counting down, Christine becomes more and more plagued by the relentless spirit and finds herself becoming more desperate to escape, which thus pulls her into deeper and darker acts to stave the Lamia off.

Drag Me to Hell was co-written by Raimi and his brother Ivan, who he previously collaborated with on Army of Darkness, Darkman and story elements for the Spider-Man films. The duo's influence working together on Army is in full swing here, as the story retains the fun, kitschy element that made that film so much fun. This is more straight horror than that film, more of a throwback to the B-horror "Gypsy curse" storylines of the 1950's with Raimi's sensibilities applied. The majority of the focus is on Christine as a character, with time also given to Clay, the fortune teller Rham Jas, Mrs. Ganush and another medium who had a previous lamia encounter, Shawn San Dena (Barraza). The rest of the characters are more or less window-dressing, but they don't ever really seem like pointless stock characters. They are there to support the story instead of just become victims for the lamia's rage. The plot is simple and straight-forward; it is in the places the plot takes us that the story excels, particularly as Christine finds herself increasingly desperate, and the Raimis obviously understand that precarious balance between building enough plot for the audience to care yet not overloading the film with too many twists and pointless red herrings. In fact, one of the few flaws is the twist ending that seems cliché and obvious, remarkably not the kind of ending one could imagine Raimi approving of, but the way it unfolds is done with the finesse of a magician's sleight of hand, leaving one feeling stupid that they didn't realize how it was done until after the fact. Certainly there will be those who will figure it out, but part of the set-up is done so subtly that it’s very easy to miss. That's part of what this script contains that more recent horror farings lacked.

The other thing that the film contains that other horror films have lacked recently is a sense of fun. While the Saw movies have been creative and sick, enjoyable for what they are, they've been cruel and gloomy; the films that actually deserve the torture porn title have been even less than that. The glut of PG-13 kiddie horror films such as Prom Night, The Haunting of Molly Hartley, The Covenant, When a Stranger Calls and so on have had the fun neutered out of them by filmmakers who have been unable to work around the limitation that bringing a younger audience in applies. Raimi, in crafting his own PG-13 film here, seems to view the rating as a challenge and he pushes it as far as it will go. We get plenty of grossness to add to the fun, mostly launched at Lohman; she finds herself doused in embalming fluid out the mouth of a corpse, eye gunk squirted over her face and mouth, maggots spit at her, a nosebleed that spouts like an arterial spray, and that's just a sampling. The only thing keeping this film from earning the R is a lack of nudity or hard profanity, because the gross and the scares are there. Much like Campbell in the Evil Dead films, Lohman becomes Raimi's muse by way of inflicting as much degradation, horror and torment on her as possible and in having such a muse, Raimi is at his best. He invests the film with so much fun that it's nearly impossible not to sit back and enjoy the roller coaster ride, which veers solidly from comedy to horror and back, sometimes straddling both rails. Raimi uses many of his old tricks, keeping the CGI as low-key as the story allows for and instead using camera tricks and shadows to embody the image of the lamia. This suffices until an exorcism scene that is perhaps most obviously Raimi's work. The exorcism scene starts spooky and quickly progresses into a tone that is creepy, gross and hilarious, with an exuberantly evil villain who makes the most of the situation and a goat that talks quite maliciously and leaves one hell of a bite. Raimi shows just how far he stands ahead of his contemporaries in the genre by the fact that while he does use a host of jump-scares, he knows how to use them effectively and make them not seem cheap. This film is Raimi clearly having the most fun he’s had in years, and he’s determined to bring everyone along with him.

Of course, that includes the cast, and they do really look like they’re having fun even while they’re being tormented by Raimi’s twisted whims. Alison Lohman burst onto the movie scene in 2002 with White Oleander and the next year made some big impressions with Big Fish and Matchstick Men. Since then she has played it mostly low-key, appearing in lesser-publicized films. Drag Me To Hell is her return to stardom and she handles it perfectly, handling Christine’s turn from meek, innocent little farm girl at heart to take-charge, calloused and tough girl very well. She gamely endures everything Raimi inflicts on her and while she may not have Bruce Campbell’s gift of hamming it up, her take on a Raimi protagonist works almost as well as Ash. Opposite her as the main villain of sorts, Lorna Raver is phenomenally creepy as Sylvia Ganush. She handles the gross-out scenes where she has to be full of mucus or fluids or whatever the case may be quite well, and the chemistry Raver and Lohman conjure up as adversaries is exceptional. Justin Long does an very good job in his relatively brief role as the shrink boyfriend/skeptic who’s willing to go along with things; he continues his trend toward playing roles more straightforward that he began with He’s Just Not That Into You and it works quite well. David Paymer and Reggie Lee are both decent as the sketchy boss and slimy work rival, and Dileep Rao and Adriana Barraza handle the requisite spiritualist roles handily. Everyone has brought their A-game for Raimi, and it shows.

This is not, unfortunately, to say that Drag Me to Hell is a perfect movie. There is a subplot regarding a loan Christine is working on that seems needlessly thrown in to add fuel to a fire that doesn’t need it and while the point of it is clear, it could have used either fleshing out or excising. Also, as much as Raimi is a sleight of hand artist with the twist, it is a disappointing plot element that strikes more as a concession to the studios than an organic part of the story. This however is belied by the intensely satisfying final moments, delivered only as a pro like Raimi can. The only other flaw the film has is the occasional noticeable flaws in the CGI, such as a shed fight that features zombie Mrs. Ganush shoving her arm down literally down Christine’s throat. Again this is mitigated by the fact that is just enhances the B-movie feel without sacrificing quality in the story. That a horror film has only these nitpicks as noticeable flaws just underscores how fantastic Raimi’s return to horror is.

The 411: In the days of tame trash like The Unborn and The Uninvited or over-the-top torture flicks with no substance like Hostel, Sam Raimi's Drag Me To Hell is a film that should be joyously and enthusiastically greeted by horror fans. Raimi blends comedy and horror excellently as few others can, and the performances by the cast are top notch. A PG-13 rating does little to stymie the writer-director and he gets away with things that other filmmakers wouldn't even try. It's a return to the top of horror for the director, and a film that is well worth seeing for those who have been waiting for the next great film in the genre.

Final Score:  8.5   [ Very Good ]