Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-REviL75zg
Drag Me to Hell is based on Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) a loan officer who turns down an estranged old lady payment extensions on her house and evicts her, in an effort to prove to her boss she's assistant manager material.
Only to find out the old woman was in-fact some sort of evil gypsy and as a result, puts curse on her. Followed by about 70 minutes of curse breaking attempts, mental break downs, haunting and a fair amount of dramatic irony.
I had mixed feelings on it to say the least.
Although it doesn't seem to follow standard Hollywood horror conventions like most other American horrors do (it was pleasing to not see another 18 year old pretty girl, with an IQ of 40, and the acting capabilities of a Latvian crack whore playing the main protagonist for once)
I felt that the film was largely reliant on blunt scare tactics and was rather repetitive in using them, as in, the same dead grannies face does pop up screaming at you around every 7-8 minutes.
In saying that, he successfully managed to do it ALOT and still make me jump out of my chair. I think the worst part was when I was literally so unprepared for a pop out, that I started shouting and shaking my hands in fear (call me a pussy), which didn't do any favors for my masculinity especially when sitting next to a well built African male who had the flinching capacity of large stone.
All in all Sam Raimi did end up, in my opinion making an interesting flick. He managed to effectively combine subtle humor and horror together, which is quite rare, but it should be considered that without the pop out dead grannies and vile substances entering or exiting human orifices there is very little else to the film.
Is it worth paying for? Most likely not, but if your with a group of friends, want a few scares and a few laughs then I'm sure you'll enjoy it to substantial degree.
It should also be noted that 60% of my positive feelings towards this film, lay in the cinematic and atmospheric experience from watching it in a cinema, which will no doubt, sadly be lost on the dvd release.
