Movies 2010 #9 Drag Me To Hell

Drag Me to Hell is like watching Sam Raimi puke out the megaplex cooties he gained by working on the Spider-Man movies. It’s not a classic on the level of Evil Dead II or Army of Darkness but it’s got a lot of the key elements that made Raimi a real favorite around these parts. It’s funny, gross, wild and violent. In other words, my kind of movie.

My biggest problem with it is I didn’t actually like any of the characters. There’s no Ash to pull for throughout. Instead we have the slightly unpleasant pair of Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) and Clay Dalton (Justin Long.) they’re not the worst people in the world, but they’re also not all that appealing. So when terrible things happen to them there’s no emotional punch to back up the pure joy of Raimi’s creative approach to horror + comedy + violence. Which isn’t to say I needed this film to be Ran, it’s just nice to feel something for the characters on screen from time to time, no matter what insanity is happening on-screen.

Still, it’s worth checking out if just to remember why Raimi gained a cult following and why we should all celebrate his return to horror.

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