Random Movie Review: Drag me to hell

Today's first review is of a movie that I absolutely adore for it's playful absurdity, visual vicerality and it's completely over the top style.
2009's Drag me to hell was largely ignored by anyone who is not a fan of cult horror, but being that Halloween is upon us, I can think of no better movie to shine a bit of light on.



Synopsis:

A loan officer who evicts an old woman from her home finds herself the recipient of a supernatural curse.
Desperate, she turns to a seer to try and save her soul, while evil forces work to push her to a breaking point.

For those of you who are not familiar with the horrific genius of director Sam Raimi beyond the poor example that is the Spider man trilogy, you should know that his best work has always been done within the horror genre.

He first and probably foremost is responsible for the brutally and darkly hilarious Evil Dead Trilogy and it's iconic central character ,Ash, who's one liners still stand up well against the test of time.

Drag me to hell is Raimi's return to that vein of movie making, a good old fashioned gypsy curse movie in which no character is too likable to die and the feeling of overall doom remains present throughout the film.

The casting may have been the only thing holding this movie back as Alison Lohman and Justin Long never really seemed to fully let themselves into the material (this is more of a critique on Lohman than it is Long, who plays his role as the helpless and naive beau better than I am letting on.).

Also Dileep Rao deserves mentioning here in his role as the seer/psychic who attempts to help Christine rid herself of the curse and Lorna Raver as the old gypsy woman, who plays her role to the fullest and turns in quite the haunting performance.

As I have said before, this movie is an insanely over the top visual feast in terms of gore and creature effects.

The Lamia may not be overtly "Boo!" scary but it is certainly a creeper that will give way to a rough night or two.

Some would say this is Raimi on auto pilot, I say it is him doing what he does best, making creepy, camp horror with dark comedic tones.

The seance scene, for example, is both creepy and utterly hilarious at the same time, as are many of the sequences where Christine is tormented by the Lamia.

I won't lie and say this is the pinnacle of any style of movie making, but it is a bloody funny good time and worthwhile popcorn movie fun.

You'll laugh, you'll get the willies, you'll be revolted, then you'll laugh again and then the movie will be over in, from an old school horror fans perspective, a very satisfying fashion.

I happily give this one a three and a half out of five on the scale and recommend you give it a whirl yourself to get into the Hallows eve mood, enjoy.