Sam Raimi's return to the genre where he started, schlock horror, with 'Drag Me To Hell' is nothing more than it needs to be and the most fun you will have had in a cinema this year.
As far as I can tell Raimi based 'Drag Me To Hell' on a true story. After bursting onto the scene with 'The Evil Dead' and follow promptly by 'The Evil Dead 2', Raimi eventually worked his way up to the helm of 'Spider-Man' and 'Spider-Man 2'. Raimi breathed new life into the superhero genre and we are still feeling the effects today, no matter which way you look at it and despite their differences, without 'Spider-Man' you wouldn't have 'The Dark Knight'.
Next Raimi did 'Spider-Man 3', an appalling film that was a let down to the series and hurt the character of Spider-Man in films. Fans were outraged. As were gypsies. One particular nasty old gypsy woman put a curse on Raimi, instructing a demon to drag him to hell in exactly three days. Raimi tried everything to rid himself of the curse and at the zero hour, with help from Bruce Campbell, he managed to do just that and survived.
This is the true story on which Raimi based his return to horror, 'Drag Me To Hell', changing just a few minor details. The lead character is named Christine Brown, not Sam Raimi, and she is a banker, not the director of 'Spider-Man 3'.
Christine is visited by Mrs. Ganush, an older gypsy woman who is close to being thrown out on the street. With a promotion in mind, Christine refuses Mrs. Ganush a loan extension, inspiring a late night attack and a curse for Christine to be taken to hell in 3 days. Like Sam, Christine begins to seek help to rid herself of the demons.
The film is more funny than horrific but that is to be expected from Sam Raimi. His imagination runs wild to come up with some of outlandish situations a person being terrorised by gypsies, demons and goats. One sequence set in a car park perfectly demonstrates Raimi's ability for combining comedy with thrills that he honed with 'The Evil Dead' triolgy.
The acting from Alison Lohman and Justin Long is ordinary without being wooden, but that is all you would really expect from such a schlock horror film. It is not meant to be taken seriously and it is not aiming for depth.
The film is in all the jumps, laughs and groans, and Raimi exhibits no delusions about the type of film he is making and he never has. Raimi is not making auteur pictures, he is making horror flicks and comic book films.
The film sadly does at time resort to the stereotypes so popular in American horror cinema. Particularly with a somewhat xenophobic characterisation of gypsies. This cannot be ignored but it won't necessarily detract too much from the experience of the film.
