Drag Me To Hell: B-movie bliss

It's been awhile since I've viewed an honest to goodness horror movie. My general response to horror movies is that they're all the same and aren't necessarily very entertaining. Not to mention the acting is usually terrible. However my lone exception to this rule has been zombie movies and the Evil Dead series by Sam Raimi and company. Though most of you might know Mr. Raimi as the man behind the Spiderman movies he got his start making a series of indie films starring the legendary Bruce Campbell and his equally legendary chin. The movies though frightening also have their own weird sense of humor including gore to max for comedic effect rather than a gross out effect. Oddly enough when this movies featuring Sam Raimi in the directors chair of a horror movie with a comic side I wasn't intrigued but somehow my family agreed to watch it together so here goes.

The movie follows Christine Brown a sweet girl with lofty ambitions and the average frustrations of her everyday life. Her main frustration is that it looks like an assistant manager position might go to a real tool and so she wants to impress her boss by any means necessary. Unfortunately for her that means turning down a gypsy woman who has no means to pay off the loan leaving her without a house. It becomes abundantly clear that something isn't right with the gypsy woman and now Christine has a limited amount of time to stave off the damnation of her soul.

We'll start with what I did like about this movie.

1.It knows what it is. Raimi here is clearly not trying to make an arty horror film or to go against the style he does best. Sure the plot is ridiculous and the acting from Miss Lohman could use some work, but the movie keeps you on the edge of your seat without resorting to the same gimmick over and over again. Most horror movies that I catch a glimpse of usually try so hard to shock their audience that they forget they're supposed to entertain them or they're trying to be arty. This is B-movie magic and it's finest and what else would you ask for?

2.The PG-13 rating isn't a detriment. Typically today's definition of horror is someone cursing up a storm while someone takes a chainsaw to their face as the audience grimaces from all the lunching loosing details. Those of course typically garner the R-rating but PG-13 movies suffer more from what I will call the surprise/death moments. These moments are when the soundtrack tells you when you're supposed to scream rather than the action on-screen. Here every scary moment has sufficient build to it or comes out of left field so you're never sure what's coming next. This means that the film doesn't need to be too gory to get your attention and it makes the movie much better as a result.

3.It's fun. I normally sit through a horror movie and then don't want to turn the lights off because I'm afraid of something breaking through my door while I'm asleep or even worse awake. Here the plot is so absurd and the threat is so personalized to one person you're not afraid of something coming for you because as of this moment you've done nothing wrong. You can joke about it all you want but for anyone who saw The Ring in theaters try to tell me that you didn't count for a week and then breath a sigh of relief. The actors also get to have some fun too as Justin Long gets to joke around and Alison Lohman gets to deliver a bunch of crowd pleasing curses at her assailants.

Things I Didn't Like About This Movie

1. Gross out factor. This is pretty standard for horror films but here the gross out is stuff like someone's face being consumed by bodily fluids (and not good ones). I will admit I've learned to handle these moments better after a couple of zombie movies but it still doesn't change the fact that whatever I just saw was gross.

2.The hero is the dumbest person in the room. I know dumb heroine's is also nothing new to the horror genre but here it still has enough presence to bug me. Mainly because she's supposed to be someone intelligent. For instance she has about four chances to give the gypsy woman what she wants but denies her when it seems very clear that bad things could happen otherwise. The second moment made me sad on the inside and I won't get into more details but at one point there is an animal sacrifice and instead of going to get something more appropriate our heroine looks to something more innocent that she probably has a personal connection with.

But my complaints are tiny amongst the generally positive viewing experience. Not to mention the two complaints are there because well this is a B-movie. It's not supposed to be well characterized or make you think or make you worry about your loved ones. This movie is supposed to scare you, shock you, gross you out to the point of laughter and then get you home in less than two hours. So if all of that sounds fun pick this new release up for at least a rent (I'd watch it before buying it)