Sam Raimi is, at his best, a schlock genius, a way-better, not-retarded Robert Rodriguez, has too long been caught up in the Spider-Man franchise. The first film was a moderate success, the second a pretty complete film, and the third was a disaster. Out of all the superhero franchises, Spider Man might be the most popular, and therefore, the most high-maintenance. On the other hand, Guillermo del Toro added to his horror-auteur resume while working on less profile characters like Hellboy and Blade. Del Toro was able to spend time on personal projects like The Orphanage and Pan's labyrinth. With the demise of the Spider Man movie franchise (hopefully), Raimi too, gets a chance to return to his horror roots with Drag Me to Hell.
The film stars Alison Lohman (Where the Truth Lies) as Christine, a loan officer with a pretty comfortable life, though she feels some pressure to keep up with her college professor boyfriend, Clay (Justin Long). When an old gypsy woman comes into the bank and requests an extension on her mortgage payment, Christine, in hopes of a promotion, rejects her. However, it’s not a regular old gypsy woman. This one has mystical powers and places a curse on Christine (well, I guess that sounds like a regular old gypsy woman). After three days of violent haunting by an evil spirit, Christine will lose her soul unless she finds a way to reverse the curse.
Raimi, stylistically, seemed the perfect fit for the Spider-Man films and not a lot of American directors can do the rollercoaster horror better. With his use of extreme close-ups, wind-blown front gates, and quick zooms, he’s able to capture the spookiness and hokey-ness of the old EC comics. The scares of Drag Me to Hell aren’t ones of extreme violence, but of starts and stops, tricks of rhythm. Raimi knows how long to let the scary music play before giving us a quick cut, say to the decrepit old woman suddenly in bed with Christine.
There’s a lot of Raimi’s Evil Dead in this film, too. Like Ash, Christine is physically assailed by, for the most part, an invisible ghost. It knocks open doors and shakes pots and pans. It also punches and flings Christine around her house. Her abuse is funny at times, for instance when the old woman pukes maggots on Christine’s face. But while Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness are almost one-man Three Stooges films, Drag Me to Hell is more traditional horror. Lohman isn’t anything too special and she plays it much blanker that Bruce Campbell. Her performance is quiet enough as to keep the laughter in check, and keep us somewhat emotionally invested. There’s a bit more suspense here since we can’t help but be a bit afraid for Christine.
Drag Me to Hell is a good throwback horror films. American horror has been completely bleak of late, with the popularity of the gorn films like Saw and Hostel, and the remakes of slasher films like Friday the 13th and Halloween. There’s a tradition of drive-in, popcorn fare that’s startling, without the sleep depravation. Hopefully, enough people give Raimi’s latest a chance. I’m as depraved as the next horror fan, but sometimes I need a little sunshine, a light little break from the axe murderers.
I think a Spider-Man 4 is in the works with Raimi on-board to direct.
I'm not a big horror guy, but I would like to see something that isn't a remake or gorn movie.
Scary movies for me are those that stay with you and make you afraid to be alone in the dark. A prime example is "The Entity" where there is no gore and startling scenes but the story has that premise that this can really happen to you...
I read something about the character Christine swallowing rotting meat and I thought, "I'm not going to see this film." I agree what you said about the Spider Man films. What happened between 2 and 3?