'Drag Me To Hell', Sam Raimi's much-hyped return to the horror genre, had a lot to live up to (not least because the screenplay was allegedly penned way back in the early nineties after he finished 'Army Of Darkness'). I can safely say that fans of the Evil Dead films won't be disappointed by Drag Me To Hell, although it takes itself a bit more seriously.
The story is simple enough - Christine Brown is desperate to win the assistant manager's position in the bank where she works. In an out-of-character attempt to impress her boss, she refuses to allow a loan extension to Mrs. Ganush, a hagged, one-eyed gypsy who bares more than a passing resemblance to a Deadite from the Evil Dead films. Shamed and bankrupted, Ganush attacks Christine in her car later that day, and inflicts an evil curse on her - Christine is going to be tormented by horrific visions of the goat-demon Lamia for three days, and then dragged down into hell for all eternity (with me so far?).
The film is a nice, fairly short length and moves quickly from scene to scene. Raimi, possibly in an attempt to shake off his action-blockbuster-Spiderman-trilogy-reputation, has pulled out all the stops to give the viewer some serious scares. The film plays by the classic horror rules (or certainly by Raimi's classic horror rules), but manages to avoid the cliche of 'silence, silence, silence, silence, "phew, there's no one there", silence, VERY LOUD NOISE TO MAKE YOU JUMP!' Instead, Raimi uses sound to create some seriously creepy atmosphere, and the film's soundtrack rises and falls constantly, drawing the viewer towards those inevitable shock moments quite effectively.
Many of the famous nuances from Raimi's past films are present in Drag Me To Hell, most notably his incredible use of camera work. One scene in particular, involving a seance, is extremely reminiscent of scenes from Evil Dead 2 and 3, with lots of fast camera zooms, bizarre rising sounds, rattling crockery and window shutters, and so on. Drag Me To Hell however, manages to be on the whole, quite a lot scarier than the Evil Dead films were, mainly because it takes itself a bit more seriously, and because Raimi seems more experienced as a director. It might also be due in part to the lack of Bruce Campbell (who, it turns out, refused a role in the film because he was too busy working on his American TV series 'Burn Notice'). Raimi's famous car however is present in this film as Mrs. Ganush's car, and Raimi himself, as well as his brother Ted, both have cameos (although I didn't notice them when I watched it).
This film is pure trash, and Raimi is back doing what he does best and truly plays by his own rules with Drag Me To Hell. With some truly hilarious and gruesome moments, some extremely effective scares and an absolutely brilliant twist ending, this is comedy horror at its finest, and I can highly recommend it to any fan of decent cinematography.
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