Drag Me To Hell (2009) ***1/2

After that piece garbage that was Spider-Man 3 Sam Raimi returns with what is essentially a cousin to the films that became his calling card, The Evil Dead saga. Drag Me to Hell stars Alison Lohman as loan officer Christine, who's trying to get the big promotion, yet appears too meek to pull it off. When confronted with an old woman (Lorna Raver) who asks for another extension on her house, Christine uses this as an opportunity to show that she has the brass balls to shut someone out of their home. Well, it turns out that this is the wrong old, crazy broad to do that to because after a scene in the office and an attack in a parking garage where Christine has a button stolen it soon becomes apparent that Christine is now a victim of a curse that is slowly getting ready to drag her to hell.

Drag Me To Hell is a sort of hybrid between Evil Dead and Evil Dead II. Evil Dead was a genuine thriller that had little bits of comedy thrown into it, while its sequel tended to go slapstick almost to a Stooge level. Drag Me To Hell balances that all out. It's not particularly scary, but it doesn't seem to be meant as a jump out of your pants thriller. Most of the hilarity comes with the gross out scenes. Eyes popping out, corpses vomiting on people are met with an initial "ugh" but soon turns into a little chuckle over how over the top it really appears on screen. Most of the cast is alright, most being typical background actors you may have seen a few times before. What's nice about a film like this is that it doesn't take itself too seriously and keeps its running time in order. I for one am sick of sitting down to movies that are two hours plus and could have easily been cut to the 105 minute point.

In all, the film is a great little horror flick that doesn't really scare too much, but still keeps you enthralled with its pacing and shenanigans. It's not a perfect film by any means, but serves as something a little more original than remakes and sequels that the horror genre has been hammered with in recent years.