Drag Me To Heck

[Remo D]

"The return of REAL horror--from the director of the EVIL DEAD trilogy. DRAG ME TO HELL. Rated PG-13."

Wow. I had to remind myself many times that I've actually seen quite a few good PG-13 horror films. THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE even got the number one spot from me a few years back. CRY WOLF was pretty good. And 1408 was more than pretty good. It CAN be done. And Raimi's made a few well-known PG-13 films already, right? Thing is, they weren't advertised as his return to "real" horror! So for all my openmindedness, my jaw still hit the floor and my expectations were instantly lowered the second I saw that rating.

Nevertheless, I attended. I still like Raimi's films, right?

Good news: DRAG ME TO HELL isn't the sort of film that would have been "saved" by an R rating or oodles of graphic gore. I had no problem with its lack of explicitness (compared to the EVIL DEAD films, of course). It's not a body count movie, and what the film lacks in gore, it makes up for with plenty of energetic, enthusiastic "gross-out" gags involving bodily fluids (both living and dead), foreign objects and even a big faceful of Fulci maggots. So the film has its heart in the right place, and Raimi still knows how to stage some wonderful scenes (such as the parking garage attack in the early going... hey, you saw the trailer so you DO know the plot, right?). Nothing to complain about in the acting department, either--Alison Lohman is just fine... though something her character does at the halfway point caused me to lose plenty of sympathy for her.

Okay--the not so good news. Since the lightning pace can't be maintained, since the characters have to slow down every once in a while to tell the story, there's an unfortunate over-reliance on forcing "jumps" out of the audience with the old standby of the "nuclear cannon" sound effect (whether the source of the noise is an actual threat or not). So eventually and inevitably, we hit the point where it simply stops working (for me, it was the umpteenth time the old lady popped out of nowhere and went "BLAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!"). And it's too bad that the film wears off before the would-be-showstopper of the "seance" sequence (though you're still quite likely to enjoy the bit with the goat)--this is where Raimi really tries to recapture the madcap E.D. magic, but by that point, it had mostly worn off on me.

And THAT leaves us with the "plot resolution" device of the final fifteen minutes. Good news: Raimi respectfully serves up a bonafide tribute to NIGHT OF THE DEMON (or do you say CURSE?), though "subtlety" obviously ain't on his mind. Not-so-good news: you can see the punchline before they even set it up!

Energy meets predictability, overstimulation meets the mundane. Hey, nobody would be happier than me to trumpet the return of "real" horror... or even the return of full-bore Sam Raimi horror. But while this film will undoutedly earn its share of good reviews, it wound up as nothing more than a decent diversion for this old man... sorry!

[Irrylath]

I will wait for DVD. thanks sweets!