Drag Me to Hell (2009)

Sam Raimi has long held a special place in the hearts of horror fans. While Evil Dead held a definite entertainment value, its sequel, Evil Dead 2, struck a chord of hilarity that shivered the lifeblood of the entire genre. Sam Raimi's take on horror back in the late 80's was whacky, gory, absurd, and fun. Raimi since became the lost prodigal son to horror, however, as he understandably took a divergent path into the profitable Spiderman series. Now, with his pockets much fuller, he's returned to the sort of film he started with in Drag Me to Hell to show us that his creative talents within the genre are still bright, shiny, and full of smoking brimstone.

Drag Me to Hell is summoned from the same remarkable fun-loving spirit as the original Evil Dead series. This film will startle you, gross you out, and will make you laugh out loud!

Christine Brown (Lohman) is just an every day girl trying to get a little success in the world. She's a lot like most of us are; reasonably good-hearted and wanting the best for everyone. However, the chance at a promotion at the bank she works in as a loan officer is attainable only after she has proven she's capable of making the "tough decisions". Christine takes a stab at this by rather cruelly denying a loan extension to an elderly gypsy woman (Raver), thus forcing her home into foreclosure.

This act doesn't earn her many thanks, of course. In fact, it earns her verbal assault, sprayed spittle, gobs of mucus, minor bite wounds, some lost hair, shattered car windows, and at least one torn button from her overcoat. Despite the indignities of the prior attacks, it is this last seemingly trivial item that is the more important. The old gypsy quickly imprints an ancient killing curse, the curse of the dreaded lamia, into the stolen coat button and shoves it back to the girl. Soon very, very, bad things happen to Christine in a haunting violent enough to make even Bruce Campbell's Ash a little nervous. The poor young girl is then forced to commit various rituals, some particularly loathsome, in a desperate struggle to get rid of the bedeviling spirits sent upon her by the old gypsy crone.

Drag Me to Hell is executed with an exuberant humor designed to make you laugh just as surely as it grosses you out. The film is riddled with the same absurdist humor that Evil Dead fans have come to respect and enjoy. That's not to say Raimi hasn't evolved; for the man has. Besides great roaring moments of hilarity, there are also gags requiring a more subtle comedic timing that just might set you to feeling ticklish. There is one brief conversation involving a cat disappearance that's awkward, uncomfortable, and really funny all at once. This more delicate humor is due to some great writing and some rather brilliant comedic timing by actress Alison Lohman.

This film will gross you out. Look forward to all sorts of vile things getting fired into people's mouths. While so many horror films struggle to make gross things creepy, Drag Me to Hell settles for letting gross things be gross. It revels in being nasty. The entity pursuing Christine Brown is a filthy beast, and it certainly thrives on nauseating its victims just as surely as it hurts them. While the film stops far short of hitting a Takashi Miike level of disgusting (e.g., poop or mansalt do not stain the covers of this feature), it certainly will make your average film-goer break out a good "Ewwwwwww!" on many different occasions.

Use of sound within the film is done with expert precision. Sound is one of those underrated qualities of horror films that rarely get the respect it deserves. Sound is really what is unnerving in the big jump-scares that are one of the main trademarks of the genre. Watch a jump-scare with the mute on and see how startling it is; it's not. Such a technique might seem easy on the surface, but the timing needs to be impeccably perfect. Drag Me to Hell comes with booming qualities of sound that strike and powerfully surge to brilliant peaks of acoustic assault. The music is similarly done with a skill that completely adds to the film. Music in horror films is also underrated; too often it is just canned and dull. Drag Me to Hell dons itself in suitably witty musical accoutrements that add to the frenetic energy without making you yawn.

The character of Christine Brown is interesting in that, morally, she is a fairly accurate representation of a great many of us. She's generally a good person, but certainly allows herself to be driven to do some pretty icky things in the name of desperation. Who wouldn't get a little medieval to shake the devil off of our tails? We're all good people when life is going well, as we can afford to be; it's when slobbering demons are chomping on our chins that we tend to cut corners in morality.

Drag Me to Hell deserves to be lauded not only for its entertainment value, but also for doing it all in a PG-13 shell. This is so rare. It is so well done that it is quite easy to forget that you're watching a PG-13 film. Too often film studios contrive PG-13 films that suck all the smart fun out of horror, resulting in a mindless teenybopper abomination that no respectable teen would even enjoy. Let this film be a wake-up call to those studios attempting PG-13 fare. While T&A and grue are great in their own course, they are not a requirement for making a funny, gross, and scary movie; Drag Me to Hell certainly proves this to be true. This is guaranteed to be one of the better horror films to hit theaters this year. Go see this movie.