Rating: 4.5 Pulses
Alison Lohman, Justin Long
Directed by Sam Raimi
Rated PG-13
Following a vintage Universal Pictures logo, the title of Sam Raimi’s return to horror fills the black screen with crooked, white lettering, dissonant horns and strings announcing the film’s intention to scare you silly. Drag Me To Hell starts with a bang and never lets up, reviving the currently dour state of the horror genre and proving a PG-13 rating doesn’t necessarily mean a toned down film.
Alison Lohman stars as compassionate loan officer Chris, driven to hard-heartedly reject an old woman’s loan extension to impress her boss and secure the assistant manager position. Unfortunately for her, that old woman is a gypsy who curses on Chris a hoofed and horned goat demon. According to a savvy seer (Dileep Rao), the beast will haunt Chris for three days before it finally comes to take her to hell. Gone are the over serious, pale-faced Asian children back for revenge. There is no lame mystery about a past crime that someone needs to solve to put said ghost at peace. The simplicity is refreshing: there’s a girl, and she’s haunted by a demon.
Sam Raimi reminds us how fun and chilling a silly horror film can be. This is Evil Dead “I’ll swallow your soul!” pure Raimi. Not only is the film frightening, this PG-13 rated movie will make you squirm and cringe like the best gore-fest. Sam Raimi and co-writer Ivan Raimi obviously find great joy in trying to gross-out their audience, and they use everything besides gore: mucous, maggots, vomit and more. And most of this gunk somehow finds its way into someone’s mouth.
If this doesn’t sound like your cup o’ tea, you’ve been warned, but if you (like I) have grown tired of general audience J-Horror remakes or dreary and joyless torture porn, then Drag Me To Hell is the tongue-in-cheek antidote you need. Finally horror is fun again.
