Drag Me To Hell

Drag Me To Hell is the best kind of nostalgia. See, back when I was young and impressionable, I saw a movie called Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn. The flick is extremely, gut-wrenchingly violent; chock full of rotting flesh, blood, boils and even a dismembered hand. It’s also one of the funniest films ever made. The thing is, while director Sam Raimi saw the sheer terror involved in calling up the spirits of the dead, he also saw the absolute absurdity of the situation. Mr. Raimi brings this same whimsically horrifying feel to his newest film, Drag Me To Hell.

Drag Me To Hell follows the story of Christine (Allison Lohman), a loan officer at a small California bank. When Christine refuses to grant an old gypsy woman an extension on her mortgage, the woman places a curse on Christine. Christine has three days before a demon drags her, body and soul, into the pits of Hell. The plot is that of many a Hammer or Universal horror movie that cam before, but Mr. Raimi, aided by a well-rounded cast, play all the beats just right. There’s a fight scene in a parking garage between Christine and the old gypsy woman that is both terrifying and hysterical. The scene is a masterpiece of macabre absurdity.

In a summer of remakes and rehashes capitalizing on your childhood memories (I’m looking at you McG and Michael Bay), I urge you to check this flick out.

Be seeing you,

Ian Gonzales