Darkmatters Review - Drag Me To Hell

Drag Me To Hell (15)

Dir. Sam Raimi (Evil Dead and Spiderman films, Darkman - man I love that film).

Reviewed by Matt Adcock (in Luton amongst a screaming Friday night crowd)

ONE WORD SUMMATION: Splatter!!

Meet Christine Brown, she has a good job as a loan arranger at a bank, a great supportive boyfriend, and a bright future. But in three days, she's going to hell – literally – and you’re invited along!
In this gleefully grim horror-comedy movie from Sam ‘Spiderman’ Raimi even nice people can go to hell. What I can assure you is that if you sign up for this movie, you’re in for one wild ride… Think ‘next generation Evil Dead’ and you’ll be in the right area for some serious scares and gruesome gags – spruced up with some effective special effects that are guaranteed to turn your stomach.

This is the not so happy tale of Christine (Alison ‘Beowulf’ Lohman) who wants to bag a promotion at work and is told that she needs to start proving she can make tough decisions. Step up one difficult customer, a Mrs. Ganush (Lorna ‘might have seen her in CSI on TV’ Raver) a down on her luck elderly gypsy who is in need of a loan extension. Christine denies Mrs. Ganush's mortgage which doesn’t go down well and results in the old woman placing a curse on Christine. This isn’t some petty fair ground curse either; we’re talking a heavy duty goat shaped demon on a mission to drag the cursed person’s soul to hell after tormenting them for three days. Bad times…

From the moment the curse is made, the film becomes a ticking time bomb of nervous tension punctuated by quality jump-out-of-your-seat moments, comic book violence – look out for that anvil!? and vomit inducing sights such as Mrs. Ganush gushing maggots mouth to mouth with Christine in one very disturbing dream sequence. Drag Me To Hell is pure horror film nirvana for anyone who hasn’t enjoyed the recent rash of torture obsessed fright flicks. This is old school shock and awe, cleverly ratchetting up the stakes as the demon (named Lamia) wreaks pain shaped mischief on Christine both physically and psychologically.

In desperation Christine turns to a mystic named Rham Jas (Dileep ‘soon to be in James Cameron’s Avatar’ Rao) who counsels various potential courses of action that might buy off the vengeful demon. This isn’t good news for Christine’s cute little kitten (animal sacrifice is just one of the ghoulish attempts to escape the titular dragging to hell)…

This trip is not for those of a nervous disposition but for anyone looking for a thrill-em-up scare fest that delivers as many laughs as shocks – Drag Me To Hell is potentially the horror comedy of the year. Let’s just hope Raimi can channel some of the invention he shows here into Spiderman 4…


"grave danger is fun to watch"

Arbitrary Darkmatters final rating of: ööööööööö (9 - Evil Dead-lite 'more please')

Darkmatters quick reference guide:
Action 8
Style 7
Babes 7
Comedy 8
Horror 9
Spiritual Enlightenment 5

Not convinced? check out this review of the film over at Empire Magazine:

“An extended scrap in Lohman’s car, it starts with a terrific twist on the ‘there’s someone in the back seat’ chestnut, before exploding into a relentless audio-visual onslaught punched through with Raimi’s pitch-black sense of humour, as Ganush loses her rotting dentures, and turns an intended bite into a slobbery, gruesome parody of a kiss."