Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead, Spider-Man) hasn’t made a horror movie in almost a decade (if you count The Gift), but it is the genre where he cut his teeth and created cult hero Ash, played by Bruce ‘This is my boomstick!’ Campbell.

Drag Me To Hell is Raimi’s return to the genre, although he certainly hasn’t been idle in the horror: his production company, Ghost House Pictures, introduced Western audiences to The Grudge and 30 Days of Night.

Drag Me To Hell takes as many cues from Raimi’s old work as some of his more recent Ghost House work. In the vein of the best 70s horror, it is at its heart a morality play, although one with a wicked sense of humour and slightly less gore than your average splatter-horror flick.

Alison Lohman plays Christine, a Midwestern girl trying to make her way in Los Angeles alone. She’s a loan officer at a bank and her boss subtly suggests that making ‘hard decisions’ will help her earn a promotion. Her ‘hard decision’ turns out to be denying an elderly gypsy woman an extension on her mortgage so the bank can repossess her property. Some drama ensues and Christine ends up with a gypsy curse: for three days, she will be tormented by an evil spirit that becomes increasingly more aggressive until it finally – yup – drags her off to Hell.

In this instance, a very literal fire-and-brimstone place beneath the Earth. There’s the usual bits about stopping the curse, the skeptic boyfriend (Justin Long) who ends up coming around to help, and the monetarily-motivated fortune teller who may be Christine’s key to beating the curse.

No need to spoil the ending, the first two acts of the film are Christine being in turn startled, scared, and beaten to hell (pun intended) by the demon while her boyfriend shifts from atheist liberal skeptic to believer. The last act turns the tables a bit and is where Raimi’s classic comedy-horror gets an opportunity to shine. No holds are barred and for a film rated 15 Drag Me To Hell is as genuinely scary and – in the best sense of the word – horrific as you could want.

Horror fans should be well satisfied with Drag Me To Hell, probably the best entry into the genre from a major Hollywood studio in years. And Raimi fans will find a lot to like as well: a familiar car plays a sizable role, and there is an extended reference to a scene from Evil Dead 2 that Sam does a brilliant job of turning on its head.

If there’s anything to complain about, it’s that for the first two acts the film relies a lot on ‘jump’ moments and loud musical cues for its scares – but by the time Christine decides to start kicking demon ass, the movie is in full swing. The ‘twist’ at the end is so obvious it’s almost taking the piss out of dreck like The Sixth Sense – and the final scene should be obvious to anyone who has been paying attention. But it’s an excellent, fright-filled ride to get there.

Now then, grab your chainsaws and head to the cinema. Got it?

Groovy.

[story by Jason Mical]

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