So here we go. The first horror movie Sam Raimi has wrote and directed since Army of Darkness. Yeah, he has had his hands in a lot of good stuff since then. But, this is one that he can call his own. Well, along with his brother Ivan who hasn’t done as much. But, I have faith. Lets see how it goes.. I’m a huge fan of Mr. Rami and his work so I’m excited to get started on watching this movie.
The movie starts out with a flashback of child cursed and his family desperately trying to rid him of the evil. After we see what he is dealing with, we get to know a little of what we will encounter in this movie. And the 3 day time limit in which to deal with it.
Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) who is a loan officer trying to move up in her job. Pretty soft spoken and really wants to do the right thing. But, her boss doesn’t thing she is cut out to make the tough decisions. David Paymer plays her boss Jim Jacks. This dude has been everywhere. I always like seeing him in movies. Usually supporting roles. But, over all a pretty good guy to have in your film. Unfortunately for Christine, her next customer probably isn’t the right one to try her new tough love approach on. Mrs. Ganush played by Lorna Raver is an elderly Gypsy woman that is on the last day of her loan extension on her house. And she sure doesn’t want to loose it. Begging and pleading she tries to convince Christine to give her more time. But, that assistant manager position looks pretty damn good. Soft spoken and empathic Christine declines and denies Ms Ganush. That doesn’t go well at all. I would love to tell ya all the cool stuff that happens afterwards, but, I hate when people give too much of the movie away. You just gotta see it. What I can say is Sam Rami is BACK. Its been a while since I’ve done the ‘AWGH’ noise.. with the eyes wide, and forehead up, jaw dropping.. You know. Evil Dead style. And, the odds are you know already that the main character gets a curse put on her. Day by day the curse gets worse. Until the 3rd day when Lamia or Black Goat comes for her to drag her to hell. With the help of a true psychic that she encounters, and the mother of our unfortunate son from years ago. They fight to save her soul from an eternity of suffering.
There are a lot of familiar faces in this movie. Most notably is our PC vs. Mac buddy Justin Long. Honestly, I couldn’t help but think he is gonna break out into, ‘Hi, I’m a Mac….’ I liked him in his other movies and he did great in Jeepers Creepers. But, I just can’t get into him in this movie. Doesn’t ruin it for me. But, it just sits in the back of my head. I don’t know if he’ll ever escape it. Along with the before mentioned David Paymer as her boss and Reggie Lee as the ass kissing competition to Christine’s promotion. Everyone knows someone like this. You’ll think of them when you see him and be like, ‘That butt kisser is just like……….’ Yeah, that’s kinda funny. Raimi throws just a little humor in here. Enough for you to see some of his signature style. Lots of nasty stuff going into, and coming out of people’s mouth. That’s some more ‘EGHH’ for ya. He did a good job of not over doing it. Seems like he might have thrown some of his signature cheese in there for the fans to find on their own. Along with some homage to his Evil Dead series. I swear I saw evil Ash in there
OVERALL SUMMARY
In the end, this has been the most enjoyable horror movie I’ve seen in a LONG time. The special effects where pretty good, the cast did a great job. You really feel for Christine in this movie. If Raimi keeps this up, we’re in for some pretty cool stuff. I’ve always said that the horror movies that we grew up with loving and the genre explosion of the 80’s will never return. But, Drag Me To Hell is a step in the prove-me-wrong direction. He didn’t over do it. And gave us the old school so many of us have been longing for without ruining the movie. He did the job great without over doing it. And he even leaves us with a lesson. A moral of the story…… Don’t piss off the one eyed gypsy woman. Even though she may be on her way out. She’ll kick your ass and send you to hell. Give her that loan extension!!!
