Sam Raimi is a director whom I've clearly missed the boat on. Everyone saw Spider-Man 1, 2 and 3. But to say you know this particular directors body of work based on those films is to say you know how to cook a turkey because you know how to make a grilled cheese. Raimi's forte is, and always will be, Horror. It's where his bread is buttered and that isCLEARLY demonstrated in Drag Me to Hell, his latest directorial offering.
Drag Me to Hell is the story of Christine Brown, a bank loan officer who is met one day by an elderly woman who is missing an eye and needs a loan for her houses mortgage. When Christine denies the loan in attempts to gain a promotion, the woman puts a curse on her which would further the plot for the rest of the film. With the help of a seer, Christine attempts to void the curse's promise of bringing her to hell using means like a medium and sacrificial offerings.
The plot is fairly simplistic. Girl gets cursed, girl tries to stop inevitable damnation. But it works entirely. All the horror is in Raimi's capable hands. He creates one of the most terrifying tones for a movie in recent memory. The orchestral score is perfect. Yes. Perfect. It does what a score should do determines the emotions for the viewer, and it does that in an indescribable way.
The campy-ness that Raimi is know for is here too. The movie is, in a word, gross. Not gross like Saw or Hostel. No this is not the torture porn that audiences have now grown accustom. This is merely gross like a 3rd grader would imagine it. Like pooping on someone or when people get slimed at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards. Several sequences make you cringe and want to close your eyes, but you continue watching to see Christine take an eyeball to the face, or get an old woman's mouth puss on her (I gagged just as I wrote that).
But the horror really lies in the way Raimi conducts the camera. He'll show you the entire room, let you know everything that's there, and in someway make something horrible appear. In one scene we see Christine lie in bed, look around her room, and somehow the creepy elderly woman appears in a manner we don't expect.
Drag Me To Hell is the best experience I've had in the cinema all year. It's ironic, campy, gross, funny, creepy, and damn right terrifying all at the same time and works on so many different levels I can't urge you to go out and see it now. However, to not go see this movie at night with a full audience is to do yourself a disservice. This movie thrives on audience atmosphere as much as any other summer blockbuster does. Just go see it immediately and see what I'm talking about. Grade - A
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