Drag Me to Hell

Drag Me To Hell (2009) starring Alison Lohman, Dileep Rao, Lorna Raver and Justin Long.

Before...I had heard very good things about this film. Said to be one of the scariest films ever and in reading the back I had to agree. All about curses and spiritual stuff...it made me scared of What Lies Beneath! So i was looking forward to hiding behind a pillow for this one, quite apart from the fact that it's a new horror film from the legendary Sam Raimi!

A loan officer (Lohman) ordered to evict an old woman (Raver) from her home finds herself the recipient of a supernatural curse, which turns her life into a living hell. Desperate, she turns to a seer (Rao) to try and save her soul, while evil forces work to push her to a breaking point.

My wife's view...she did not have one as she cleverly left me and a friend to watch this one!!

Where to start...before I begin this review I feel it is necessary to let the reader know that I am not one of those "quiet horror movie viewers". I don't sit there in silence and take the film in. I will talk to the TV set. I will say to the characters (some people have said I shout) "Don't go in there" or "Don't open that door" or as was used last night effectively "NOOOOOOOO". Already from this piece of information you will realise that this definitely was a scary film. It wasn't pant changing in it's scariness like What lies Beneath but it was up there. Anyway onto the review...

As Julie Andrews once said "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start". What Raimi is really good at is building up tension. Fiercesomely and violently he plunges straight into the horror with a brilliant sequence of a small boy being dragged to Hell. Then after the opening credits we are quickly introduced to Christine Brown and soon before we know it she is cursed. The great thing about this film is that it is tense and keeps you tense for 93minutes.

You are fearful about what is to come and yet at times it flies off into a comedic vein. I know Raimi's past films with the Evil Dead franchise had comedy but it was not until this morning in reading the reviews for Drag me to Hell that i realised that this too was supposed to be a comedy horror film.

It is such a rarity in the film world for someone who can balance pure horror with such hilarity. Yesterday when watching it I feared that Raimi had lost the plot and there was too much cliché and silliness in it, however this morning, in doing my research for the film I found that these comedic elements are very deliberate on his part. Looking back I realise that it is an excellent device to lull the viewer into a false sense of comfort only to scare you half to death a second later.

The performances are chilling and you definitely sympathise with both Lohman and Long (her boyfriend in the film). The woman is horrifying and I hope she doesn't haunt me in my dreams, last night I was free of her and I hope it stays that way! Last night I was going to give this film 3 stars, but armed with the information that Raimi's comedy genre is deliberate I cannot help but have a more compassionate view of this film. It makes me like it more...and so I am going to give this...

★★★★☆