[Drag Me To Hell]
Plot:Director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man trilogy, Evil Dead series) returns to the horror genre with Drag Me To Hell, an original tale of a young woman's desperate quest to break an evil curse.

Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is an ambitious L.A. loan officer with a charming boyfriend, professor Clay Dalton (Justin Long). Life is good until the mysterious Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) arrives at the bank to beg for an extension on her home loan. Should Christine follow her instincts and give the old woman a break? Or should she deny the extension to impress her boss, Mr. Jacks (David Paymer), and get a leg-up on a promotion? Christine fatefully chooses the latter, shaming Mrs. Ganush and dispossessing her of her home.

In retaliation, the old woman places the powerful curse of the Lamia on Christine, transforming her life into a living hell. Haunted by an evil spirit and misunderstood by a skeptical boyfriend, she seeks the aid of seer Rham Jas (Dileep Rao) to save her soul from eternal damnation. To help the shattered Christine return her life to normal, the psychic sets her on a frantic course to reverse the spell. As evil forces close in, Christine must face the unthinkable: how far will she go to break free of the curse?

Cast:Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Jessica Lucas, Lorna Raver, David Paymer, Fernanda Romero, Reggie Lee, Alex Veadov, Bojana Novakovic, Bill E. Rogers, Dileep Rao, Adriana Barraza.

My Thoughts:Typical Raimi.

Review:"Drag Me To Hell" is the genres latest attempt to make the supernatural subgenre into something to be proud of. After "The Unborn", that's a difficult task. But Sam Raimi's "Drag Me To Hell" does it easily, and then some. The film follows a loan officer named Christine Brown. She is hoping to get promoted to a manger position, and is looking for any way to throw herself up a few notches in her bosses eyes. So she can get the position, and beat out a very ambitious co-worker who wants the title as well.

Enter Mrs. Ganush, an old, crickety, and quite vile-looking old woman. A gypsy by trade. She comes asking for an extension on her mortgage payments, and Christine contemplates giving it to her. That is until she talks to her boss, and gets the idea that being stern with Mrs. Ganush will curry favor with him. Thus, she refuses to give Mrs. Ganush an extention. Mrs. Ganush even throws herself at Christine's feet, begging, and pleading for her to change her mind.

But Christine doesn't give in. Instead, she accidentally shames Mrs. Ganush. Throwing the old woman into a vengeful tyraid, a tyraid which comes to a head when Mrs. Ganush confronts Christine in the parking lot after work, and curses her with the spirit of a powerful demon. Which will come for her in three days, and drag her to hell. A plot point explored in the films pretty exciting opening scene where a medium confronts the spirit. Now Christine has three days to figure out what's after her, and how she can appease it before it's too late.

One thing I personally was concerned with when it came to "Drag Me To Hell'' was Alison Lohman carrying the movie. I'd never really heard of her before this movie, and although she is pretty good-looking, most of the time when a mainstream genre pic throws a not-that-well-known actress into the lead role, it doesn't go very well. Then again, the other way around hasn't exactly been a sight to behold either. As of late anyways.

But Lohman plays Christine Brown very well, and you really feel for her at many points in the movie, with the horrific situation she is thrust into, simply because she did her job. "Drag Me To Hell" has Raimi's fingerprints all over it. From the films look, effects, humor, scenes, and overall story. There's a lot of gross stuff in this movie. Flying dentures, slime, icky phlegm, flying eyeballs, gore, pus, etc. Total Raimi, as this is the guy who gave us "The Evil Dead" and "The Evil Dead 2" and of course "Army Of Darkness".

This film felt like an "Evil Dead" movie, with it's persistent villain (Mrs. Ganush), and her terrified target (Christine). The two always meeting at the most unexpected times, with Mrs. Ganush popping out of all sorts of places and scaring the crap out of Christine. This curse on Christine not only begins to affect her psyche, but it also affects her relationship with her boyfriend Clay (Justin Long), who she loves very much, but his parents, his mom in particular, ar enot too crazy about Christine.

At this point in her life, she has to prove to him she's the one, but the curse really screws that up. And furthermore, with her being under the curse, she sees Mrs. Ganush everywhere, but is the only one who can see her. Thus, her work life begins to be affected by this curse as well when her boss things she's flipped out mentally. The film really gives the viewer a great story to work with, and Lorna Raver as Mrs. Ganush is an excellent, effective, and terrifying villain.

She has the look of evil, the eyes of evil, and the gypsy accent is very well done. The story, pitting this normal working girl, against a curse which threatens her very existence, is a very intriguing one with many twists and turns, which come in the form of a fortune teller named Rham Jas (Dileep Roa), who Christine goes to for help, and also a very evil act which Christine is forced to commit in the middle of the movie, in an attempt to free herself of the curse.

The movie has a lot of "ooh" and "ahh" moments, many thrilling jump scares, and overall is very effective in being a fun, interesting, entertaining, and slick horror movie. Definitely in the vein of Raimi's style of writing and directing. There are many moments the audience is sure to enjoy, mainly the initial confrontation between Mrs. Ganush and Christine in the parking lot, a fantastic scene.

"Drag Me To Hell" shines at the end also, it's not a movie that gives you many thrills, and ends on a weak note. Although the ending is somewhat predictable, it still works from a shock value standpoint. "Drag Me To Hell" is a film I'd recommend for horror fans. It's fun, gross, unique, and vintage Raimi. All in all, it's a good time.

Positives:Alison Lohman does well in the lead, Justin Long is okay, the gross out scenes, attack scenes, and scare moments are all awesome. The entertainment factor is very high, and the ending is exciting and works well in the realm of the films story.

Negatives:The overall conclusion is slightly predictable.

Overall:Four out of four stars.





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