Drag Me To Hell

I just got back from seeing the newest movie from Sam Raimi, Drag Me To Hell.

Some history: I grew up on horror films and still love them to this day. I am a late bloomer to the Sam Raimi type of horror film. I saw Darkman in the theater when I was a kid, but had never seen Evil Dead beforehand. I saw the Evil Dead trilogy in college and immediately loved it. Some of the most fun horror/comedy movies around however I can understand why people don't enjoy this type of movie (even if I think they're wrong).

As you can probably guess, I'm also a HUGE Spider-Man fan and think the movies are all quite good with 2 being the best, 1 being quite good and 3 had potential to be good, but is flawed in numerous ways (which I will not get into now).

So yesterday my friends Nick and Kerri told me they were going to see this. I had originally not planned to see this movie in the theater and instead opting to wait until it was available on Netflix, but since friends were going and I had nothing going on tonight I figured why not. I can't thank them enough for the idea since I enjoyed it immensely.

The movie is not perfect, but there are no dull parts. It starts with a big action scene that will set up what we are in for then jumps from Mexico to LA where we meet the main character Christine. She is quite normal and she just has a little bit of bad luck that gets her in a jam where a little devil will find her and literally drag her to hell in 3 days.

With most Raimi movies, the plot is really an excuse for him to use his camera gifts, and fantastic puppets and make-up skills to show some awesome gross-out scenes and he really delivers here. There are at least 3 scenes that made my theater scream in delight/terror/disgust and joy. I really do not want to give anything away, but I was very happy with the entire movie and with an almost perfect ending that has to be seen to be enjoyed.

The acting was also quite good for a "cheesy horror film" with Alison Lohman proving to me that she is one of the better young actresses around today. Too bad the last movie I remember her in was Matchstick Men which was 6 years ago so I hope this opens some doors for her. Justin Long who normally bothers me was pretty good in this movie, although I'm pretty sure he's contractually obligated to pimp Apple products everywhere he goes since there were Mac computers and Iphones all over this movie. For all the Raimi purists, the yellow Oldsmobile Delta 88 has a very prominent role in the movie, but I don't remember seeing Maker's Mark anywhere. Maybe because of the PG-13 rating, they couldn't show booze.

So to wrap up, if you enjoy horror, and velveeta covered movies, please do yourself a favor and go see this movie (or at least rent it when it comes out). And if this movie tought me anything, it's to never say no to a gypsy when they ask you for a favor.