Synopsis:Christine Brown is an ambitious L.A. loan officer with a charming boyfriend, professor Clay Dalton. Life is good until the mysterious Mrs. Ganush arrives at the bank to beg for an extension on her home loan. Should Christine follow her instincts and give the old woman a break? Or should she deny the extension to impress her boss, Mr. Jacks, and get a leg-up on a promotion? Christine fatefully chooses the latter, shaming Mrs. Ganush and dispossessing her of her home. In retaliation, the old woman places the powerful curse of the Lamia on Christine, transforming her life into a living hell. Haunted by an evil spirit and misunderstood by a skeptical boyfriend, she seeks the aid of seer Rham Jas to save her soul from eternal damnation. To help the shattered Christine return her life to normal, the psychic sets her on a frantic course to reverse the spell. As evil forces close in, Christine must face the unthinkable: How far will she go to break free of the curse?
Review:First, I want to start this review by saying that I love Sam Raimi and his films. Almost every single one of them. I loved all the
Evil Dead films, all the
Spider-Man films, and even
The Gift, which a lot of critics didn’t really care too much for. Heck, I even liked
Spider-Man 3, which has been critically and fanwise trashed across the board. With that being said, here is my two cents worth and opinion on
Drag Me to Hell.
I was disappointed. This was not the movie I was expecting from the legendary Sam Raimi. I honestly think that most horror fans and Raimi fans would think the same thing, if they really stopped and reached deep down in the hearts and blocked out all the hype about this being Raimi’s “Grand” return to the genre. I mean, really. Let’s be honest with ourselves. If this movie was put put with another director’s name attached, most critics and horror fans wouldn’t give it anywhere near the glowing reviews and attention that it has gotten.
The story really isn’t that bad and hasn’t been overdone that I can think of. That’s not really the problem here. It just didn’t feel fresh. It felt like parts of it were thrown together to fill space or something. Like if you had a new script, but felt it was necessary to take pieces of other horror films and attach them. I know - I probably sound like a goon, but whatever. I just didn’t feel challenged and engrossed the way I wished I would have. I told somebody that I actually enjoyed
The Haunting in Connecticut more than I did this. Don’t get me wrong – it starts out with a huge bang, but just doesn’t deliver big the way you think it will.
Of course the cinematography and direction were great. Why or how wouldn’t it be? The camera angles are classic Raimi. You can see and feel that vibe all over this. The shots of poor Christine being tossed about the room with pans and other household items flying violently through the air crashing into each other are excellent. I do have to say, though, that I started to grow weary of some of the classic angles and couldn’t fight off this feeling that he was might just be doing it to give all the
Evil Dead fans a feeling of nostalgia. Speaking on that subject, there’s also a scene VERY, VERY, VERY (ridiculously) reminiscent of the
Evil Dead type of humor, which I personally felt was out of place and didn’t mesh well with the tone of this film.
One of my real gripes about the film is the CGI aspect. It looked awful. The demonic ooze pouring out of the one guy’s mouth and shooting out into the air during the séance at the end looked like they lifted it right out of
Ghostbusters 2 back in 1989. Pretty cartoony looking. Then there’s the scene where the old lady’s eyes get squeezed out of her head. Man, it looked like the scene in
The Mask when Jim Carrey sees Cameron Diaz’s character for the first time at that club where she’s seeing. You know the one – where his eyes pop out at her and then his heart starts beating out of his chest. That’s what the quality of the CGI looked like. Don’t get me wrong, for the time when
The Mask came out, those were pretty good effects, but come on. It’s 2009, people.
Again, don’t think it’s all negative. It definitely had a lot of really great gross-out parts in it. There are scenes where you’re going to be like – “Holy crap, that’s nasty!” And it does have a lot of very fun moments. So don’t walk away from this review thinking that there’s nothing to be seen here.
The end was kind of a bummer as well. It’s one of those things where you know it’s going to happen, but your thinking “Maybe since it’s Sam Raimi, he won’t end it EXACTLY the way you would expect.” Well, he does.
Overall, I really can’t believe that this movie is getting the kind of over-the-top buzz and attention that it’s getting. I really don’t think it’s deserving, but I’m just another moviegoer with an opinion. I’ll tell you one thing, teen kids who will get to see it because it’s PG-13 and infrequent horror movie watchers will definitely be entertained. And let’s be honest, that’s where a big majority of the money is going to come from.
(Review by Eric Shirey)
