Movie Review - Drag Me to Hell (2009)

Updated Post 10/30/09
So, based on my love for this one in theaters, I bought this. Unfortunately, on the small screen, Alison Lohman's performance seems much too big and silly. In theaters, it was larger than life and worked; on tv, it just seems a little too forced.

That being said, I still enjoy the film. The last 30 minutes are really quite good, and the last scene...still is amazing. The face at the end...of fear and sorrow...pretty damn cool. A slight adjustment to the original rating can be found below.

Original Post 5/29/09

Starring Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, David Paymer, and Adriana Barraza
Written by Sam and Ivan Raimi
Directed by Sam Raimi

I've never seen any of Sam Raimi's horror movies, but that's where he got his start -- cheesy comedic horror films made with a low budget. The guy goes on to direct all the Spider-Man movies (only succeeding in his first venture there, in my opinion, and I know it's not popular, but #'s 2 and 3 sucked), and now ventures back to his horror roots with a bigger budget.

I would've never thought that of the two movies opening the weekend of May 29 -- Up and Drag Me to Hell -- that I would have ever said that the latter of those two would be my favorite. But there is no question as to which one was the more enjoyable film for me to watch. In this movie-watching case, I'd rather go down to Hell, than Up into the sky. [Ouch...that was awful. You get what I was going for there? But that's just painful.]

I'm gonna let the tagline on the poster sum up the story:

Christine Brown has a good job, a great boyfriend, and a bright future. But in three days, she's going to hell.

Sounds like a blast, huh? And a blast it is. To add just a tad to that summary, Christine works at a bank and denies a decrepit old woman a loan. The woman is pissed and Christine soon realizes that she messed with the wrong chick. Hellbent on revenge, the old lady places a curse on Christine that, as we soon find out, may cause Christine to be dragged to hell (hence the title) in three days.

The thing that makes this movie great is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. It's not poking fun at the genre a la the Scream trilogy, but it does recognize that this is all a bunch of baloney. Movies like this are made for the sheer fun of it, and Raimi milks it for all it's worth.

Starting out with the old-time Universal Studios logo from the 60s/70s, Raimi already sets the stage that the film's gonna be a little old school. And it is. The fact that this film was only PG-13 made it infinitely better. Similar to Jaws or Poltergeist, it's the lack of blood and gore that makes this movie work. Now, don't get me wrong...there's definitely blood and gore, but none of it is over-the-top. Instead, the scares are simply built by the wonderful direction and script by Raimi and his brother. The build-up of tension is palpable. There's a seance scene that had my heart racing, and as I was walking out to my car, I was jittery in a good way.

Acting-wise the movie is absolutely far superior to most films of the genre. Alison Lohman as Christine is perhaps the worst (let's say "least best" instead of worst, shall we?) of the principal actors, but that's because she's also the only one really forced to play the stererotypical scared horror chick. However, she carries this movie...there are minutes upon minutes where it's only her (and invisible ghouls) onscreen and she holds the viewer's attention for sure. Justin Long isn't given much to do, but he makes the most out of every scene he's in, providing some of the movie's comedic one-liners, while at the same time acting like a grown-up (which is good to see, for once). Lorna Raver's old lady is amazingly eerie and frightening, and Adriana Barraza as the medium during the seance brings an uncharacteristically superb acting ability to a role we've all seen before (Barraza could've easily gone the kooky medium route, but she kicked the portrayal up a notch by avoiding that stereotype).

This is the thing...is this movie as good as, for example, Revolutionary Road or Rachel Getting Married? No. Those movies stimulated me on an intellectual level, while also being entertaining. Drag Me to Hell hits me on a purely visceral level...it's a scary movie that does its job and does its job incredibly well. Not all movies have to be about something...it's perfectly acceptable to simply be going for sheer entertainment.

Is it a masterpiece? No. But it's the best horror movie I've seen in ages, and the first horror movie that I think I've ever wanted to watch again in a theater. Who's up for another round of Drag Me to Hell? Any takers?

The RyMickey Rating: A- (5/29/09)
The RyMickey Rating: B+ (10/30/09)

Note: I'm going to add a mild spoiler in the comments...