Drag Me to Hell [2009]

Sam Raimi does it again! What a masterpiece! In the sea of mediocre and watered-down movies, he showed how a mainstream horror movie should look like. Drag Me to Hell is exquisitely gory and stylish mixture of action, horror and comedy (mostly slapstick). Another aspect of this movie is CGI and Raimi’s ability to use the latest trends. While the Evil Dead series was centered around practical special effects, here Raimi uses CGI profusely. Sometimes on its own and sometimes in combination with practical effects, but the most important thing is that in both those cases the whole thing works like a charm. And the sound design was also great, they knew where you should ramp-up the tension and when to jump-scare you with sudden screams. However, the most important element of this movie is its lively atmosphere. It sucks you into this strange world and you just go along with stuff, like a ride in an amusement park.

The story follows a loan officer (Alison Lohman) cursed by an elderly gypsy woman for not approving extension on her mortgage. The curse is on, and unless she does anything about it, in three days she is going to hell. There is a perfect amount of quality gore, and some of the scenes were really outrageous, in combination with humor, so you will be scared and yet you will be entertained with humor. Special effects and the whole vibe of the movie is just awesome; it shows how there is still room for innovations in this genre. So get the movie and enjoy, and if you liked it check out earlier Raimi movies like The Evil Dead Trilogy…

Director: Sam Raimi

Cast: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao, David Paymer, Adriana Barraza

Fun Facts: The script was written after Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi completed Army of Darkness (1992), but Sam pursued other projects before returning to this.

Rating:

IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1127180/