DRAG ME TO HELL

DRAG ME TO HELL Starring Allison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver

Written and Directed By Sam Raimi Running Time 99 minutes, Rated PG-13

Christine Brown (played beautifully by Allison Lohman) has a good job and a good boyfriend named Clay (Justin Long). Christine works as a bank loan officer, and she is after an assistant manager position at work. One day an old, haggard, gypsy woman named Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) with one bad eye and a nasty hand with long, thick dirty nails asks Christine for a bank loan extension because she doesn’t want to get evicted out of her home. Christine refuses her bank loan extension, Mrs. Ganush gets down on her knees begging Christine for the extension, everybody at the bank starts gawking at Mrs. Ganush. Mrs. Ganush stares around her, as the people are gawking at her, she looks up at Christine and says: “You Shame Me”. Later in the evening Mrs. Ganush waits for Christine in a parking garage. Christine unaware, gets into her car with Mrs. Ganush on the back seat. Mrs. Ganush, a demonic, tough little old cookie tries to strangle Christine, both start battling it out, kicks, scratch, pulling hair, strangling, spitting. Christine kicks the old hag out of the car. The old hag rips a button off Christine’s jacket. Mrs. Ganush with button in hand and a few witchery words (a spell) all heathen hell breaks loose for Christine. Christine and her boyfriend Clay are walking by a psychic advisor, Christine decides to go in to get consulted. The psychic advises Christine that the dark spirit LAMIA is after her. Christine is after Mrs, Ganush to find a way to give her the loan, so the curse could be stopped, but Mrs. Ganush is dead. Christine goes through hell and back trying to get this curse to be stopped.

The film is full of goo, spit, slime, vomit, mucus, some blood (the unrated version), fluids, flies, eyeballs, dirty dentures, demon possessions, talking goat, flying objects, jumps, scares, spooks and slapstick humor. Director Sam Raimi take us back to his old roots of his Evil Dead films (EVIL DEAD, EVIL DEAD 2: DEAD BY DAWN, ARMY OF DARKNESS). Some scenes remind me of EVIL DEAD 2. Christine is the female Ash (the Bruce Campbell roles on the EVIL DEAD films) where she fights down and takes it like if she was a man. The film was written by Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi, both are brothers and they wrote a spectacular creepy, fun little hay ride. The cinematography was very well shot, especially the scene in the cemetery, with Christine and the dead Mrs. Ganush - a very spooky atmosphere. The cast delivered outstanding performances especially Christine (Allison Lohman) and Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) battle sequences. Sam Raimi delivered a great little horror fun ride, I wish he could continue making more horror films, back to his old roots of EVIL DEAD fame.  DRAG ME TO HELL is now on DVD, rent it, buy it.

FOUR STARS.  Excellent piece of work.