Today I had to go into Glasgow for something and decided to go see the film at the world’s tallest cinema in Glasgow City Centre. Drag Me To Hell is Sam Raimi’s return to the horror genre and boy what a return! Over the last few years Raimi produced the recent Spiderman movies but he is most famous for the legendary Evil Dead trilogy from the 1980’s  and Drag me to hell has been mention to be the scariest movie of the year and I have to agree but it is also a funny movie.

This film is a rollercoaster of  “shit my pants” and “piss my pants” moments done the way only Raimi knows. It has reminiscent of the Evil Dead; the spinning Lohman been dragged in a room similar to Campbell been dragged and spun around a undergrowth in Evil Dead two, also the tilted disorientated camera giving a lot of tension. This film is a cameraman’s heaven with so many styles of filming taking place and all defining Raimi; The shaky cam giving the stalker approach, the fast moving follow camera and the whip-pan super fast cam that causes a image to blur like a disorientation which Raimi used several times in the Spiderman movies.

The story of this film is so simple, Christine Brown (lohman) a successful Loans officer for a LA bank is gunning for promotion and is approached by an old Hungarian Gypsy woman to her get more money to keep her house but Christine refuses and from there the old gypsy breaks down and curses her. Christine’s shift finishes and makes her way to her car in the banks eerie underground car park. Christine is getting paranoid as the only other car in the lot was the old woman’s. The old woman’s hanky floats over to Christine’s car and slips into her car and the old gypsy woman is now in the back of Christine’s car and her life just goes down hill from here. After a brawl with old lady  which included a handy use for a staple gun, the gypsy woman curses Christine once again. There is so many moments of cringe and don’t look ectoplasmic gore backed up with Raimi’s wicked sense of humour, like a moment Christine fights with the old woman’s hanky which was similar to Campbell’s fight with his severed hand in evil dead 2 movie.

through out the film you do feel sorry for Christine as she breaks down piece by piece and you wonder how far she’ll go to live. If you are looking for a Evil Dead for the 21st century this is it, it has all the trademarks of a typical Raimi horror. I’m not a fan of rollercoasters but this was one rollercoaster I did enjoy, I’m sceptical of movies that get so much hype but this one deserves the hype  as its so good. As your old mum always says to you before you go out “remember to wear a clean pair of pants as you never know what could happen” well this is great advice for this flick, a masterpiece.

★★★★|Paul Devine

Horror, Comedy | USA, 2009 |15 |27th May 2009 (UK) | Lionsgate Films |Dir: Sam Raimi | Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Ruth Livier, Dileep Rao

Originally posted at The Peoples Movies | 30th May 2009