Drag Me To Hell review

Drag Me To Hell review

Returning to form from his outing with the Spiderman trilogy, Sam Raimi – with more bucks at his disposal – goes back to basics, delivering the type of horror that made him a household-name on the cult circuit during his college years.

Buy on Amazon: Drag Me to Hell [DVD] [2009]

Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is a bank loan officer on the top of her game. A promotion hopefully heading her way, a comfortable home life with long-term boyfriend Clay (Justin Long) and a good head on her shoulders, she has a happy set-up for a 20-something year old – but not for long.

At the office, when the mysterious and terminally ill Mrs Sylvia Ganush turns up at Christine’s desk, (played to a wonderfully theatrical affect by Lorna Raver) begging for an extension on her home loan, Christine ignores her instincts to help the old woman out and denies Mrs Ganush her extension, showing that she has the guts to be ruthless in the banking world.

Having now shamed the Gypsy woman and fatally lining her up for sure household repossession, Christine is put under Mrs Ganush’s torturous curse of ‘The Lamia’, all for trying to impress her boss for that big promotion.

Luckily, the local fortune teller (Inception’s Dileep Rao), after knowing of what lies ahead for the young woman, is willing to aid Christine who has three days to free herself from the Gypsy’s curse that if not broken, will result in the sacrificing of her soul and an eternity burning in the bowls of hell.

Christine results to some pretty desperate acts to save her own skin once her life-clock starts ticking away.but will she get out alive or suffer the curse that has been bestowed on her?

Drag Me to Hell is the perfect introduction to what Sam Raimi is really about outside of his Spiderman mould. The laughs, splattering visceral display, jump-scares and over-the-top camp acting of his 80s and early 90s genius, it’s the long awaited comeback of Raimi’s younger years that had been sorely missed during his summer blockbuster days where he’d swapped the underground audience for the mainstream.

Fitting for die-hard fans and newcomers of the auteur of American 80s camp horror, Drag Me to Hell has the romping B-movie factor that made Raimi a fan favourite nearly 30 years ago, showing that his unique style is able to move with the times and undeniably prove to be a breath of fresh air in the Post-Saw days.

Paired with a surprisingly eerie score from Spidey collaborator Christopher Young and make-up that has a similar look from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer school of special effects, it’s not too hard to welcome back Raimi with open arms to the fold of well-crafted entertaining horror flicks thanks to Drag Me to Hell – another classic under the horror moguls belt.

Amazon: Drag Me to Hell [DVD] [2009]