Thursday 28 May 2009

#37 Review For ‘Drag Me To Hell’

“Superb”
* * * * *


Director
Sam Raimi
Cast
Alison Lohman
Justin Long
Lorna Raver

Screenplay
Sam Raimi
Ivan Raimi
Certification
15
Running Time
98min

Are you ready to be scared? If your answers is no, then I strongly advise you don’t go and see Drag Me To Hell. I personally didn’t think that it would be a scary film but have some bits that might be the light jump. But the Raimi brothers didn’t disappoint. It was a very scary movie. It got to the point where you could expect it but still literally jump out of your seat. And this being the first horror film I’ve seen in a cinema (not including Let The Right One In), I was so happy that it was Drag Me To Hell.

So the story is about Christine Brown (Lohman) as she fights for a job promotion against co-worker Stu (Lee) for their bosses love. However after Christine tries to look good in front of her boss by evicting an old decrypted gypsy woman from her LA house, Christine finds out that you don’t piss off old gypsy women. Then after being cursed in the parking lot of the Bank, Christine begins to discover that hell is a real place and somewhere she’ll be going unless she can save her soul.

This is a bold statement, but I’m going to go as far as to say this is one of the best if not the best film I’ve seen this year. That partially is because I am a Raimi fan-boy however it exceeded all expectations of myself and my co-cinema going.

As every review is saying: if you’re a Evil Dead fan you’ll obviously enjoy it but that doesn’t cut it. I think that every horror fan needs to see this film, at least twice. That’s why I’m planning on seeing it again. I don’t go to see movies twice in the cinema but I’m really looking forward to seeing it a second time.

So as expected the cinematography is up to scratch for a Raimi film. You can tell it’s a Raimi film by the quick zooms, which is a dying camera trick which works perfectly for horror films and the camera turns as they turn 90 degrees to show the atmosphere and strangeness to the frame. If the film was shot in a static way without the quick zooms when Genush (Raver) jumps on Christine, then the scare factor would go way down.

Now the acting. Alison Lohman was a great choice to play Christine, I felt she inhabited the role excellently then Ellen Page would have (Ellen Page was first asked to fill the role). Justin Long who plays Christine’s loving boyfriend also did an amazing job. I personally didn’t like him before because Jeepers Creepers left a bad taste in my mouth but after this he seems like he can actually do a good film (yes Die Hard 0.4 was terrible and you know it). But the script was written so well that Christine and Clay (Long) seem like the two nicest and normal people in the world so then the horror comes in you generally feel bad and connected to them. And the first time we see Genush I thought she seemed like a lovely old woman. Which leads me onto Lorna Raver. She acted a horrible mean ol’ hag so well she was believable. If I saw her walking down the street I would turn and run for my life. The only thing I was disappointed with was that Bruce Campbell didn’t have a cameo which made me sad but that was it’s only floor.

So after the last film I saw was Synecdoche, New York, it’s really nice to see a film that was made right. Kaufman take notes from Raimi. To be honest I think Raimi shouldn’t work on superhero films anymore and work hard on that Evil Dead 4 script. The mix of horror and humour work so well that it’ll keep incising new audience who might not see it. If you don’t see this flick, Raimi will drag you to hell!


Oliver Hunt

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