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Drag
Me To Hell (originally
posted by Jamie Kelwick at his own site -- www.the-usher.com.)
When
a master of horror returns to the genre, chiller fans rise
from the grave and take notice. When it is Sam Raimi, they
really take notice.
Defining
the great horror movies of the modern cinema age is no easy
job but when it comes to naming a top ten horror flicks
from the 70s onwards, you would be hard pushed to find a
list that didn't include 'The Evil Dead' series.
Back
in 1981 Sam Raimi introduced us to the Book of the Dead
(aka the Necronomicon) and the demons it could
bring into this world and Ash, the only man who could fight
back. The film became a cult hit and its sequels, 'Evil
Dead II' and 'Army of Darkness,' made Bruce Campbell a legend
in the genre. Raimi was rightly honoured as a horror master
who could mix blood, gore and genuine scares with humour
and laughter to redefine a genre that had become filled
with slasher movies with masked killers.
After
defining horror in the 80s and early 90s, however, Raimi
turned his back on the genre and headed for the Wild West
in 'The Quick and the Dead', the baseball diamond 'For Love
of the Game', the family thriller in 'A Simple Plan' and
even to ancient Greece for the hit TV series 'Hercules'
and 'Xena: Warrior Princess.'
Even
when he returned to the genre with 'The Gift' in 2000, it
didn't have the same passion as his Evil Dead exploits,
and then he headed into the 'Spider-Man' universe. Even
the setting up of his 'Ghost House Pictures' production
company to make the remakes of 'The Grudge' series and films
like 'Boogeyman', 'The Messengers' and '30 Days of Night'
didn't really appease the fans. The announcement of 'Drag
Me to Hell' changed all this, however.
Co-writing
and directing, Sam Raimi has rediscovered his passion for
horror/comedy to produce a movie that will have you on the
edge of your seat, then cowering in terror and then rolling
about with laughter. The mixture of tension, fear and hilarity
is a heady mix but as with 'The Evil Dead' series, it works
and it works extremely well.
The
story of an enthusiastic bank loan officer who wants a promotion
to impress the parents of her well-to-do, professor boyfriend
is the tale of not putting your advancement ahead of the
lives of others. When Christine Brown is asked to make a
tough decision and deny an elderly woman another extention
on her mortgage, she never realised that this would be a
life changing decision for her.
Starring Alison Lohman as the cursed Christine
Brown, Justin Long as her boyfriend Clay and Dileep Rao
as mystic Rham Jas, it is Lorna Raver who steals the movie
as the Mrs. Ganush, the elderly Gypsy woman who curses Christine
with the Lamia, a demon that will torment her for three
days before appearing and dragging her soul to Hell. The
character is set to become a classic, iconic horror character
for the 00s and one that will make you jump, tremor and
sometimes laugh but Lorna Raver's Mrs. Ganush is a true
horror great.
'Drag
Me to Hell' is Sam Raimi's ode to the fans that made the
big Hollywood director/writer/producer he is today. A total
horror joy, 'Drag Me to Hell' is an instant cult hit of
the genre and one that shows that horror can be fun as well
as terrifying.
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