Makes Army of Darkness look like a scary, scary film
Image Courtesy of IMPawards.com
Director: Sam Raimi
Notable Cast: Justin Long, Allison Lohman
Sam Raimi has always been an interesting director. Establishing himself with the Evil Dead trilogy, he’s dabbled in crime films and thrillers before settling into the man behind the most profitable superhero franchise of them all in Spider-Man. With some between films in that film series, Raimi has returned to his horror roots with Drag Me to Hell. And whereas the Dead trilogy went from being true horror to more slapstick comedy with fantasy elements, Drag Me to Hell is perhaps the funniest horror film to come out in years. But it’s a problem since it’s not intended as a farce.
The film has a pretty simple premise. Christine Brown (Allison Lohman) is a loan officer at a bank competing for a vacant Assistant Manager position. When her boss pressures her to make a “tough” decision to kick an old gypsy out of her home, she gets more than she bargained for when the old woman unleashes a spirit designed to steal her soul. And what should be a violent, bloody good time gets hampered by a PG-13 rating that turns what could be a scary film into perhaps the best unintentional comedy of the year.
That PG-13 rating has a bit to do with the film’s stunning lack of scare to it; everything has been tapered down that it turns into more of a series of “jump” moments than anything truly scary. Even some of the film’s moments with blood aren’t very graphic. This is a film that either has been tampered down to get the rating required for a larger audience or is hinging on a terrific story filled with psychological scares to keep up the intensity. The latter isn’t available, leaving the former to fall fairly flat.
The film’s story, if you can call it that, leaves something to be desired. While Lohman looks the part of the woman in distress required for a film like this, she isn’t given much to work with for a character. Christine is pretty bland and Lohman doesn’t add much back to her; one doubts whether any actress could given the one dimension style the character inhabits. Christine also commits several acts, including one against an animal, that limit any sympathy one has for her in this particular situation. Raimi’s big twist ending feels like just deserts as opposed to an unusual twist of fate.
It’s this particular twist of fate that undermines the entire film. Coming out of left field, the film’s anticlimactic finale is easy to guess if you pay attention to events in the first half of the film. It feels tacked on, as if Raimi felt the urge to shock his audience as opposed to go with the outcome most desired, and any good will the film engenders is tossed away in this final moment. If this was 1985 it’d be unique and powerful, but we’ve seen it so often that it’s almost expected.
Raimi made quite the commotion in certain areas when he endeavored to make a horror film after leaving the genre seemingly for good. Drag Me to Hell shows why he did, as it’s a film that’s so insipid and uninspired that it becomes ridiculously hilarious.
FINAL RATING (ON A SCALE OF 1-5 BUCKETS):
