“Drag Me to Hell”
4 out of 5 Stars
Stars: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver
Director: Sam Raimi
Rated PG-13 for sequences of horror violence, terror, disturbing images and language.
Running Time: 99 minutes
Awesome title. Well-done trash. If you like icky fun, “Drag Me to Hell” is the spooky spine-tingler for you.
“Spiderman” trilogy director Sam Raimi first made his bones in horror with his cult classic “Evil Dead” trilogy of the 1980s and ’90s. He revisits his roots with an ample budget and an even more honed ability to engineer suspense and wink along with the audience. The result, through a screenplay he co-wrote with his brother Ivan Raimi, is a good time at the movies for both casual and militant fans of the genre.
But if you don’t like paying to watch spurting/oozing bodily fluids, the grotesquely decayed elderly, and graphic visions of the evil purveyors of eternal damnation, well, please go see “Drag”‘s polar opposite. The sweet cartoon “Up,” which by contrast lionizes a senior citizen, also opens this week. It not only offers broader appeal; it does something wonderful for the human spirit.
As for the rest of you sickos who can’t wait to know more about today’s promising cinematic repulsiveness, keep reading. Because if there is such a thing as high-class horror, this is it. Not only are the technical appointments more refined than the genre’s customary schlock — the sound effects and sound editing here are especially masterful — the story even manages to tweak a timely cultural hot button.
Even though the script was written before the recent recession’s attendant deluge of housing foreclosures, it hinges on one. The strange old one-eyed gypsy woman Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) begs for mercy. But loan officer Christine Brown (a sympathetic Alison Lohman) enforces the bank’s foreclosure proceedings against her anyway. The otherwise well-intended Christine is trying to prove to her boss (David Paymer) that she is aggressive enough to beat out her sleazy rival co-worker (Reggie Lee) for a promotion.
But such worldly considerations soon will pale in significance after Ganush not only physically attacks Christine but also puts a tormenting three-day curse on her that may eventually send her to — uh, you know — the fiery abyss. A powerful, perverse soul-gatherer will haunt her until then, just as she is about to meet the snooty parents of her rich, understanding boyfriend Clay (Justin Long).
It culminates, of course, in both a sance and a late night visit to a cemetery. Everything you expect if you want to catch “Hell,” including the surprise twist.
