Only last night I watched a possessed old lady spew maggots into a young girl's open mouth!!! That's right I am of course talking about the latest offering from
Sam Raimi:
Drag Me To Hell. There are good points and bad points but if I'm honest there's not many of the latter. This is horror almost at it's purest form. It makes you laugh, it makes you jump and it makes you deeply uneasy. The story is simple but effective, thanks to Sam and his brother Ivan and pretty much hits the ground running. From the off you know that this will not be an easy ride.
Without giving too much away we follow a young loans officer, Christina Brown, as she works her 9-5 with sights set firmly on a promotion. Her life gets a little more complicated after she denies an old Gypsie lady an extension on her mortgage. The elderly woman places a curse on her which sees our young heroine being stalked by a malevolent Demon that torments it's victims for three days before, you guessed it, dragging them to hell.
So far so simple. But it's not the story alone that sets this film apart, it's the innovative devices that Raimi uses, and uses so well. From possessed hankies to shifting shadows and flash imagery it soon becomes apparent that there will be a jump at every turn. This is back to grass roots Raimi that we haven't seen since a certain heroic chinned Ash waved his boomstick about. Sure we sure a glimpse of Raimi being let off of his leash somewhat in the hospital scene in
Spiderman 2 but not until now has he been given the freedom to really let rip. And boy does he let rip. If I can urge you to see one film this year It would be this amazingly fun and pulpy offering from a master of his genre.
Right, the bad points. Or should that be point? Basically there are only a few moments where CG is favored over more organic effects, effects that Raimi has proved that he can do in his sleep. So why opt for the almost cartoonist use of, if I'm honest, poorly executed CG? This is the director after all, who convinced us that a man could swing with ease around the skyscrapers of New York. It seems a shame then that whilst watching DMTH there seemed to be areas of "special" effects wizardry that were anything but. However, this I feel is largely me being overly picky about a truly great film which is already destined to become a cult classic...
