Sam Raimi Returns to Horror Genre With Thrilling ‘Drag Me to Hell’

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – The gleefully gory Sam Raimi who made “Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn” and “Darkman” is back in close to prime form with this week’s thoroughly enjoyable “Drag Me To Hell,” a horror thrill ride almost certain to satisfy any audience member willing to choose a movie with “Hell” in the title over the latest Pixar offering.

“Drag Me To Hell” delivers on modern genre expectations even if it doesn’t quiet exceed them to become a true horror classic. With tighter editing, a stronger lead, and a few more surprising twists in the screenplay, “Drag Me To Hell” could have been something truly remarkable, although, with the state of the horror genre, just being as good as it is will be more than enough for most fans.

Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is attacked while in the wet grave of her enemy.
Photo credit: Universal/Melissa Moseley

Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is about to learn that life often has more than a glass ceiling. Sometimes it has a blazing floor. Playing off the themes of misogyny so rampant in all horror, “Drag Me To Hell” presents a heroine just trying to get ahead at work, put her dark past behind her, and impress her new boyfriend’s parents. Of course, we all know how well that’s going to turn out.

With a promotion looming, Christine is instructed by her boss (David Paymer) that she needs to prove that she can make the tough decisions required of management. An elderly woman named Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) comes to her looking for one more loan extension on her mortgage and Christine sees the opportunity to impress her boss. She refuses the wrong client and ends up on the wrong end of a Lamia curse.

After a trip to a seer named Rham Jas (Dileep Rao), Christine learns that she has three days to reverse the curse or be literally dragged to Hell. During that period, Christine is what you could call “prepped” for her upcoming journey. She hears sounds that her boyfriend Clay (Justin Long) does not, blood gushes from her nose, and she sees dangerous shadows that like to toss her around the apartment. The question becomes whether or not Christine can do anything to stop her trip to Hell. Can any of us? How far is Christine willing to go to stop her damnation? Is there any length you would not go to if it meant your soul’s redemption?

You can nearly picture writers Ivan Raimi & Sam Raimi gleefully setting up each twist and turn in the entire project and laughing the entire time. “Drag Me To Hell” is designed to provoke responses and the laughing, screaming, jumping crowd I saw it with serve as evidence that it works.

(L to R) Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), Milos (Kevin Foster) seer Rham Jas (Dileep Rao) and Shaun San Dena (Adriana Barraza) in a séance gone wrong.
Photo credit: Universal/Melissa Moseley

The glimpses of “Evil Dead” horror-comedy brilliance come through in a few key sequences that more than justify the ticket price including a fantastic seance-gone-wrong with a possessed goat, a parking garage battle of the gross, and a nearly-slapstick fight with a killer hankie that brings back memories of “Ash versus his own hand” in “Dead by Dawn”.

I also loved Raimi’s embrace of the grotesque in “Drag Me To Hell”. It may be PG-13, but you will hear more “ew”s and see more people turn away than during Raimi’s vision of bodily fluids, muddy graves, and creepy-crawlies. When a character actually pukes up another animal and the audience cringed, I could picture Sam & Ivan in the back of the theater laughing at the reaction.

What holds “Drag Me To Hell” back from “Evil Dead”-level greatness is simple. There’s not quite enough to it to warrant its running time and the film feels long at nearly 100 minutes. Something called “Drag Me To Hell” with this simple a plot should run closer to 80 minutes. Another twist or tighter editing would have made for a stronger film.

I’m also not convinced that Lohman can lead a film. She’s not awful by any stretch of the imagination, but someone with a stronger screen presence might have made for more effective scares. And Justin Long continues to bore me.

Most people, especially horror fans, won’t notice the acting or the pacing. They’ll just be having fun at one of the more straight-up enjoyable films of the year. It would be sinful to blame them.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com