Review: Drag Me to Hell

The other day I was dragged to Drag Me to Hell. Despite all my big talk about being a horror movie expert, I haven’t kept up with the recent barrage of horror films. And why should I? Few of them have been worth my nine bucks at the movie theatre, rarely being screened for the critics and when they have been, receiving dirt-poor reviews. Drag Me to Hell is the first horror flick in recent memory that hasn’t been critically chopped to pieces. Plus it’s Sam and Ivan Raimi of Evil Dead fame. I love their trilogy and so I decided to give Drag Me to Hell a chance.

Drag Me to Hell tells the story of Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), a loan officer who denies a third extension to old lady Ganush (Lorna Raver). Shamed, the Gypsy lady finds Chris and curses her. Over a period of three days Chris is haunted by visions of a goat, with the visions becoming stronger and finally resulting in physical attacks. With no help from her logical boyfriend (played by Justin Long), Chris turns to the fortuneteller Rham Jas (Dileep Rao) to help rid her of the curse.

Alison Lohman was a suitable replacement for Ellen Page, and possibly a better choice because she appears older. The only character I had a difficult time believing is Justin Long. He played his character well enough; he just didn’t appear old enough to have earned his doctorate for me. A tiny point, but one I found that took me out of the film for a moment.

What makes this movie is the sound, and by sound I mean the choices of sound that Sam Raimi and his sound team chose to exemplify. From footsteps to a squeaky gate, the tapping of fingers to pure silence Raimi knows how to cause tension in his  audience without any visuals. The wonderful Christopher Young’s score also helped this, which was creepy in scenes that had no visual terror to speak of due to his strong use of strings. Speaking of visuals, Raimi did throw in a couple of cheap shots of close ups to then quick terrifying images. Raimi and his brother also brought in some of their Evil Dead humor, mainly in the gross out comedy of the various forms of projectile vomit displaying all colors of the rainbow throughout the entirety of the film.

The film is a mix of quick jolts of scary moments and humorous gags. But I wouldn’t say the movie is terrifying. I mean unless you have pissed off a Gypsy recently the movie won’t stay with you and cause nightmares.

With this summer full of sequels and reboots, along with Hollywood announcing films such as Where’s Waldo and Stretch Armstrong, it just goes to prove they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. What this should show them is that the two original screenplays out (Up and Drag Me to Hell) are also two of the highest rated films as well.

I recommend seeing Drag Me to Hell at the busiest possible time so you can see it with a large audience. The reactions from the gasps, screams, laughs (especially when my friend called a line mere seconds before it happened) all heighten the experience of Drag Me to Hell. It’s a fun ride, but one that should be shared.