Alison Lohman is a not-very assertive loans officer who is competing for a promotion with uber butt-kisser Reggie Lee (you’ll want him punched out from his first scene), and chooses the absolute most wrong person possible to deny a home loan; The grotesque-looking gypsy woman Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver), who so shamed by having to beg for an extension and be rejected, attacks Lohman in a car park and decides to put a curse on the poor girl. After experiencing some freaky goings on, Lohman visits East Indian mystic Dileep Rao, who informs her that a curse has been put on her, and a Lamia (demonic entity) will come to drag her soul to hell within three days. Justin Long is her cynical, doubting, but supportive psychology professor (!) boyfriend who doesn’t believe a word of any of this, but knows something is tormenting poor Lohman. David Paymer is her boss, who wants Lohman to be more assertive and able to make tough decisions.
Director Sam Raimi hasn’t visited the world of horror in a good long while, and in fact he’s been somewhere in between critics’ favourite and blockbuster filmmaker lately. But this bit of old-school schlock horror gets Raimi back to where I believe he really should be. This is a fun B-horror flick from an A-filmmaker, and with a wonderful sense of silly humour to boot. And hey, it even manages to get a performance out of Lohman that is so very decent that I forgot for 90 minutes that she’s the Freaky Jessica Lange lookalike, let alone forgot the fact that I normally hate her (and Lange for that matter). Long, however, is annoying, miscast (does he look like a professor of anything to you?), and not given much of interest to do.
The film gets off to a pretty darn intense start, and whilst having a typically Raimi feel, it also reminded me of films like ‘Poltergeist’, ‘The Entity’, and the underrated ‘An American Haunting’. An excellent score by the underrated Christopher Young also helps. There’s a terrific scene in a parking garage as Raver gets hit by a car and her false teeth come flying out, and she starts coming at Lohman with her mouth open and no teeth! Hilarious. I also laughed heartily at the most darkly amusing funeral scene I’ve encountered in a film since ‘Death at a Funeral’. The eye-popping bit would’ve been brilliant if not for the rather hokey FX by the overrated KNB EFX team (‘Halloween 5’, ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’).
It’s not A-material (it’s somewhat reminiscent of Stephen King’s ‘Thinner’ at times), and the FX are kinda sloppy at times (loved the nose bleed to end all nose bleeds, though!), but it’s fun, and it’s better than a lot of horror movies out there lately. The story, whilst not original, is still pretty much up my alley. Best of all, Raimi creates lots of tension, and it’s rather scary at times. Genuinely scary. How many horror films can claim that these days? Tension-building, weird noises, and possible hauntings- it’s all terrific stuff. You just can’t go wrong with blowing curtains and rustling leaves, folks. Even the CGI-assisted shadows were great.
Raver, who is really quite revolting, creates one of horror’s most memorable characters in recent memory, disgusting and funny often at the same time. Surprisingly repulsive and bloody at times, for a film that was rated PG-13 in the States, too. I loved how Lohman need to perform an animal sacrifice to lift the curse, when she’s a PETA-loving vegan! Priceless stuff, and as much as I love cats, the scene is hilarious, cruel or not (Raimi definitely has a Stephen King-like sense of humour). On a similar note, as uneven as the FX are (they’re very 1993 if you ask me), the talking goat is just plain freakin’ funny.
OVERALL SUMMARY
With better FX and a better leading man, this film could’ve been even better, but anyway, welcome back Mr. Raimi, we’ve missed you! Remember when horror movies used to be fun and scary, well Mr. Raimi certainly does.
