Being a fan of Sam Raimi from the first time I watched Evil Dead I was very excited to find out that he was finally making another horror film. I imagine most of today’s generation know Raimi for his Spiderman films and little else. Of course he started in horror and became a very well known director for his wicked sense of humor and visual style. When Drag Me to Hell hit theatres I quickly started hearing good things from horror fans and confused and negative comments from Spider Man fans. After finally getting the chance to watch the film I’ve found they’re both right.

Drag Me to Hell is about a young woman named Christine who works as a loan officer, has a great boyfriend and she’s holding out hope for a job promotion. However her boss, Played by the great David Paymer, informs her that the assistant managers position is between her and her back stabbing co-worker Stu. In order to show her boss she can make hard choices, Christine denies an extension on the mortgage of an old gypsy lady who in turn puts a curse on Christine. From this point on the film follows Christine as she tries to rid herself of the curse while fighting off evil demons while trying to make a good impression at work and with her boyfriend’s parents.

Drag me to Hell has moments of wicked splatter-stick comedy I expect from a Raimi horror film and moments of outright terror. However the comedy bits often don’t go far enough and feel like Raimi was trying to restrain himself some. For someone who has never seen the Evil Dead series I can see how they would think Drag me to Hell is stupid or silly. The film sometimes feels like it can’t decide whether it should be funny or scary. The attack by the old gypsy goes from being laugh out loud funny to serious in the blink of an eye and this is a common theme throughout.
This is a PG-13 movie and it is pretty light on the gore we’ve come to expect from a Raimi horror film. However he still manages to put his star Alison Lohman through a lot of abuse using, body fluids, mud, and water.

However, even with its sometimes unevenness Drag me to Hell is still a lot of fun which is a lot more than I can say for most horror films this year.