Drag Me To Hell - Mission Accomplished

Having started this journey with Raimi's Evil Dead films, I opted to kick this shit off with his most recent foray into the genre, 2009's Drag Me To Hell. It was a good choice, tinged with his trademark dark humour and chockers with jumpy moments of inspired shock.

The plot in a nutshell - Alison Lohman's Christine works at a bank, and in competition for a promotion, opts to deny an ageing gypsy an extension on her loan. The curse placed on Christine by the old lady in retaliation for her actions essentially sees her haunted by a powerful goat shaped devil intent on relegating her to Satan's clutches in 3 days time. Her boyfriend (Justin Long), her scheming co-worker (Reggie Lee) and her friendly neighbourhood mystic (Dileep Rao) provide complications and/or assistance to punctuate her descent into paranoia and fear.

It's very good. It's surprisingly traditional despite its outlandish and highly creative premise - the film seems to operate in cycles, in which Raimi builds up the audience to a scare, crests the precipice, drops a moment sure to remove viewers from their seats then cools it off with a laugh or two only to begin this process again. The characterisation of Christine as character to root for is pronounced and highly effective, from her past as a fat country kid (I've been there - people can be so cruel...) to her need to suppress her sympathy for customers to impress her boss by making the 'tough calls'. You want her to survive badly, and the roller-coaster of her three day saga contains effective emotional tugs. The acting was impressive, with all members of the cast holding their ends of the deal with respectable effort. Lorna Raver as the stereotypically named gypsy Mrs. Ganush (we can only hope and pray that her first name was Baba) was particularly impressive.

The development of Christine into a Ripley type chick bent on being empowered and beating the curse is a treat to watch, and a scene almost ripped straight from a schlocky B-movie played out in a graveyard is pitch perfect. Though almost constantly tensed for scares when they were building up, I did manage a cheeky leap away from the action once, and it felt so damn right.

Raimi has a knack for digging laughs out of unbelievable moments - myself and my viewing partner were creepily enamoured with the brutal beating of an old woman and the gut-wrenching use of embalming fluid and the accompanying cadaver as rich ore seams mined for humour. It's a welcome reprieve in this film, and gives you license to hope. While there's a sense of foreboding, the ending is a twist true to form and totally a tonal complement to the rest of the action. I cannot bring myself to spoil it, so just watch it for the ending alone - both Lohman and Long's faces at the reveal is wonderful acting and that's all I'll say.

The music was dense and filled with kind of supernatural undertones, the lighting heightened the mood and the achievement of a super intense moment in a fully lit daytime scene (wait for old goat-demon to find her bedroom) was testament to that. Gore was present though quite minimal, so it's absolutely a piece of film for the whole family to enjoy (please note the sarcasm there before treating your kiddies to a viewing). The special effects were very passable. All in all, a technically superior production.

Now a quick word from my very first viewing buddy, who from here on in will be known by his stage name, DJ Cheeky Wingz (the kids got a natural prowess - 'eck his shit out online at http://www.youtube.com/user/namoop21/videos)

DJ Cheeky Wingz's input:
Drag Me To Hell was really quite good. Sometimes I thought I was sitting in a comedy movie but it turned out it was just my friend tickling my feet with his tongue so I laughed quite a lot in this movie.Overall I would not recommend this movie to anyone with a history of epilepsy or with an African background. I must have to warn you though that there is an elderly gypsy woman who acts really quite well, but in some instances she takes the shape of a small lizard. Apart from this spoiler the movie is good if you have nothing much on on on on a Thursday - mid morning and you have just rang your parents to tell them that all the pictures of them in your house are coated in milk and love and that you lick their faces each day.
Friendship.

Raimi set out to drag his viewers along with Christine in her hellish nightmare, and he succeeded absolutely. A well deserved 44 out of 50 pillies. We hope Raimi can return from his upcoming Oz: The Great and Powerful to grace horror with another of his deliciously wicked pieces.

Watch the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUZTybLlWKI