Drag Me to Hell

Sam Raimi’s first horror flick since 1992’s Army of Darkness, Drag Me to Hell stars Alison Lohman as Christine Brown – an ambitious loan officer who is hit with a supernatural curse after she denies a creepy old lady’s request for an extension on her mortgage. The movie subsequently follows Christine’s efforts at reversing the curse before she’s forcefully taken to hell by a mysterious demon called the Lamia, with her increasingly perilous quest aided by concerned boyfriend Clay Dalton (Justin Long) and a helpful spiritual advisor (Dileep Rao’s Rham Jas). Though saddled with a lamentable PG-13 rating, Drag Me to Hell has nevertheless been outfitted with many of the elements that have come to define Raimi’s work within the horror genre – including gross-out special effects, irresistibly stylish visuals, and a sporadic emphasis on slapstick-heavy instances of comedic relief. Raimi, along with co-screenwriter Ivan Raimi, has infused the proceedings with a briskly-paced sensibility that effectively ensures that there are few lulls within the narrative, although it’s just as clear that the unapologetically over-the-top atmosphere results in an experience that’s often akin to a trip through a funhouse (ie the movie is rife with spooky noises, sudden shocks, etc). This is admittedly a minor complaint for a film that’s otherwise consistently engaging, with the absence of palpable scares – seemingly necessitated by the family-friendly rating – not quite as problematic as one might’ve feared thanks primarily to the overt (and relentless) enthusiasm with which Raimi tackles the material (ie the movie’s climactic séance goes from relative tedium to balls-to-the-wall insanity within the space of a few minutes). And while the abrupt and flat-out baffling conclusion ensures that the whole thing ends on a less-than-enthralling note, Drag Me to Hell ultimately stands as a refreshing alternative to the myriad of Asian-horror remakes that have been flooding the marketplace as of late.

*** out of ****