 Drag Me To Hell
is an overwhelming, visceral experience. Even by the standards of a
genre that exists to get the audience’s collective pulse racing Drag Me To Hell is exceptional, causing terror, disgust and belly laughs; often within seconds of one another. The film tells the Story of Christine (Alison Lohman), a bank loan officer, who forecloses on the house of gypsy woman, Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) and becomes the subject of a gypsy curse. The beauty of this premise is that the only character in danger throughout the movie is Christine. By removing the cannon fodder from the cast Raimi lets us know that, for at least the next eighty minutes or so, Christine will survive, setting us free to enjoy a masochistic pleasure from the creative ways in which he torments his lead. Of course this could have easily backfired. Removing the threat of death from a character often makes it difficult to empathise with them. Drag Me To Hell manages to avoid this by virtue of Lohman’s impeccable performance as Christine. The character is beautifully crafted. Intelligent and ambitious, but without an alienating us with arrogance; while also incredibly vulnerable without being utterly helpless. Lohman was on top form during this movie, and hopefully it will be the breakout performance for one of the most likeable actresses working at the moment. Lohman’s supporting cast were also excellent. Justin Long, a man whose career redefines the phrase ‘hit and miss’, turns in a fine performance as Christine’s boyfriend, while Lorna Raver chews scenery and steals scenes as Mrs. Ganush. It’s also worth mentioning Dileep Rao, who plays medium Rham Jas. It’s difficult to be certain whether Rao was deliberately hamming it up, or is simply a bad actor, but in this part he was perfect, somehow managing to overact and under act in the same performance, often in the same scene. The film benefits from Raimi’s years of experience. The action-esq sequences manage to balance excitement and humour, without getting carried away. The moments of calm play like a well written comedy and the tension is carefully crafted, allowing for some truly shocking moments, while not relying on excessive gore or too many cheap tricks to do so. That said, the film isn’t perfect. There are so many scares early on, that by the last third of the film they lose a lot of their effect. It also starts to sag under it’s own weight during the last ten minutes or so. It would be hard to explain this statement without spoiling the film, but you’ll understand when you see it. All in all though Drag Me To Hell is an incredibly entertaining film that deserves to be seen. It may not be perfect for those who like their horror movies to feature constant discomfort or abject terror, but even they should get something from this well made, well acted work. (SOURCE) |
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