Raimi's Return

After directing nothing but Spider-Man movies for pretty much the last decade, Sam Raimi returns to the genre that gained him millions (okay, maybe thousands) of fans: horror. Would Drag Me to Hell be any good? Would it be scary? Would it be as fun as the Evil Dead movies? And most importantly, would it feature Bruce Campbell? Fortunately, the answer to all these questions (except for one) turned out to be yes.

DMTH offers plenty of elements and tricks we've seen before in dozens of other scary movies, but somehow Raimi makes them work, and the movie feels like a fun, fresh ride instead of the trite, sad affair it could have turned out to be. I mean, there are curses and gypsies and demons and creaking planks and mysterious fortune tellers. Does it sound unoriginal already? It really does, and that is why it's so strange that the whole thing works so well. The weight of the movie rests in Alison Lohman's shoulders, as she plays main character Christine Brown, and she does a very good job of being scared, confused, and at the end of her endurance. I've never been a big fan of the actress, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised.

Something else that came as a surprise was how few special effects were in the film. Raimi likes to give you the chills by means of music, creepy noises, and unsettling camera angles. Still, there's plenty of effects, don't get me wrong, but they're not the flashy kind. Instead, they try to go as unnoticed as possible; except, that is, whenever poor Christine is getting some unlikely item forced into her mouth or down her throat. I don't know if Raimi has some kind of oral fixation, but the variety of outrageous things that happen to find their way into Christine's mouth is nothing short of spectacular and lends itself to all sorts of weird Freudian interpretations.

All in all, DMTH turned out to be lots of fun, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys thrillers or scary movies. The film wasn't really scary, but it certainly had me in its grip from beginning to end, as I was rooting for Christine to fight her way out of her predicament. The only thing missing from this crazy cool movie was a Bruce Campbell cameo. Other than that, it couldn't have been better.