Phneri talked about this movie after the theatrical release, but it bears mentioning here in SHOCKtober as it was just released on DVD and BluRay. And what a movie it is! Sam Raimi returns to horror after toiling away in the world of Spiderman (wasn’t 3 terrible? Sheesh…) to bring us a mix of modern horror and the classic Raimi stuff that made the Evil Dead flicks so enjoyable.

Christine Brown works as a loan officer at a bank, working for and with a bunch of assholes. But she’s a nice girl looking for a promotion so she doesn’t stand up for herself when people trample all over her. In order to prove herself to her boss, she makes a tough decision to deny a mortgage extension to an old gypsy woman. As you’d guess, the gypsy lady freaks out and puts a curse on Christine. She now has three days to get the curse lifted or she’s going to hell; yanked down by a demon. Throughout the next couple of days, the demon comes around to terrorize and generally fuck with her life in every way. Her boyfriend (played by Justin Long) does his best to help her, along with a local fortune teller. Raimi brings back bits from his old bag of tricks, including a lot of comical gags and bad ass gore.

Drag Me to Hell almost plays like a continuation of the Evil Dead series, with Alison Lohman playing the Bruce Campbell part, though not nearly as snarky or tongue-in-cheek. The bank takes the place of S-Mart and Justin Long takes the place of Linda. That said, I wasn’t bowled over by this movie like I hoped I would be. It’s definitely entertaining, but I could have used either a lot more scares or a lot more of the Raimi off-the-wall style. Nevertheless, definitely check out Drag Me to Hell. It’s one of the more original horror flicks to be released in the last decade.

How do you feel about Sam Raimi? Not the Spiderman Sam Raimi.  The old school, Bruce Campbell with a chainsaw for a hand, double barreled shotgun, and a fistful of cheesy one-liners and piles of gore and dead zombies.  How does he strike you?

If you answer to that question is a resounding “Hell yes!” then Drag Me to Hell is your movie without question.  From the opening sequence to the final credits, this movie feels just like 1981.  All the fun is here: the slapstick humor, the absurd gross-outs, the cartoonish ultraviolence. Even the weird audio effects and camera angles Raimi uses in earlier ventures reappear here.

The movie uses a variation of the most standard of horror plots, and is absolutely  magnificent because of it.  Instead of groaning at the cliched scares throughout Drag, I found myself grinning and anticipating each cheesy affront.  Because Raimi doesn’t just throw out a cheap half-second scare when the suspense builds, he puts you through an ordeal.  A confrontation in a parking lot becomes a battle royale, with Drag holding the honor of most brutal fight scene to involve an octogenerian in movie history.  Every cliched scare is here, and they’re all so over the top, ridiculous, hilarious, and disgusting you can’t help but want for more.

That’s not to say this is a Hostel-type movie. Raimi’s films come from a far less angry place than those do, and it shows in the film. Everything is overdone to such a degree that you can’t help but imagine the cast cracking up after spraying fountains of horrifying goo all over the actors. Again. This is the film that always made a grindhouse flick appeal to me, not the borderline snuff films that cover the splatterhouse genre.

Like The Passion of the Christ, for instance.

Cliches and fountains of bodily fluids aside, Drag has a smart (despite the predictable nature) plot, actors who seem to legitimately enjoy their parts, and enough suspense to keep you going, even if it’s mostly weird lighting and eerie music.

For the true Raimi fan, this has to be seen in a theater. Not just any theater. You need to find the late-night showing that the cynics, misanthropes, and drunkards hit on a weekend. You know, people like me. As entertaining as this movie is, the grindhouse theater experience makes it that much better. Drag is at home in a theater with people cracking jokes at the screen, shouting out in terror and glee, and laughing their asses off with you. Get your eight bucks out of this one, find a bunch of smart-aleck jackasses and run with it while you jump, groan, and gag through the film. This flick was made to be enjoyed loudly and ironically.

Finally, go see Drag Me to Hell because we haven’t seen a flick like this since Tarantino and Rodriguez got together and made Grindhouse. We haven’t seen a flick that was really like this and not some bizarre, wonderful meta-film since the eighties. And that makes me sad. Horror movies are the bread and butter of fantastic bad movies. And if movies like this can be a success, we can have those back. Not everything has to be some Japanese rewrite or mean-spirited gorefest that takes itself way too seriously. We can still have fun and go see B movies that are just B movies. Let’s try doing that again for a while.