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.

Everything you've heard is true! Michael Dougherty's long awaited, studio mishandled Trick R' Treat is the best Halloween Movie to come out in 30 years! How this movie went direct to DVD and is not in theatres right now scaring the crap out of huge audiences is still a mystery. Did the studio really not no how to market this Halloween gem or was there another reason? I doubt we'll find out anytime soon. But what is clear is that they mishandled one of the most original horror films I've seen in years.

By now you probably know that Trick R' Treat is a horror anthology like Creepshow or Tales from the Crypt by way of Pulp Fiction. Its a simplistic way of describing it but is somewhat accurate. There are 4 intertwining stories here featuring serial killers, monsters, urban legends, and even people with no Halloween spirit who get their comeuppance. All the stories have the common thread of being in the same small Ohio town on Halloween night with each story affecting the other in some way. Then of course there's the child like character of "Sam" that makes its appearance in each story as if directing the action.

A lot has already been written about the stories of Trick R' Treat so I won't go too far into talking about them other than to say that they all work and work well. Dougherty has crafted a very polished story that gives a fresh take on a horror anthology. The character of Sam that makes an appearance in all the stories is the closest thing the film has to a host but he has his own story where he is the main character as well. The stories themselves look at Halloween from several different age perspectives. There's the spooky Halloween legend that brings together 5 young trick or treaters, the sexually charged Halloween tale of 4 college girls looking for dates, the middle aged man passing the traditions onto his son and finally the old man who hates Halloween and the demon that comes to torment him.

Trick R' Treat is a Halloween movie where Halloween is the focus, not something happening in the background while a slasher kills teenagers. The stories all involve the rules of Halloween or the legends surrounding the holiday. I was reminded of being a kid at Halloween and tramping through darkened streets begging for candy dressed as a zombie or ghoul of some kind. There's something that's almost magical about Halloween when your a kid and Trick R' Treat captures it better than any film I've ever seen. However don't be fooled into thinking this is a kids movie because its not! It has violence, buckets of blood, dead kids, and even nudity.

Michael Dougherty, a fellow Ohio native, has created what will become, a Halloween masterpiece! Beautifully shot and directed by someone who truly loves the holiday, Trick r' Treat is a Halloween fans wet dream! I suggest instead of going out and seeing another horrible installment of the Saw series this Halloween you stay home and watch a true holiday horror film that will live on long after people have forgotten the saw movies.

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