Mr. Raimi is back and better than ever!

Rating: 9/10 (13 July 2009)

After the ultimate letdown that was Spider-Man 3, Sam Raimi decided to return to his directing roots, the horror genre, in Drag Me to Hell.
It follows Christine(Alison Lohman), a woman who has a pretty good job and an overall great life. She's also gunning for a promotion as assistant manager at her place of employment, a loan office. It's a close race, but her boss Mr. Jacks(David Paymer) will give the promotion to the person who can "make the tough decisions". Christine does this by declining elderly gypsy Mrs. Ganush(Lorna Raver) a third mortgage extension. Ganush later attacks Christine and gives the curse of the Larmia, in which Christine will be tormented by dark spirits for 3 days before being dragged to the fiery pits of hell. With help from her boyfriend Clay(Justin Long), fortune teller Rham Jas(Dileep Rao), and medium Shaun San Dena(Flor de Maria Chahua), who once and unsuccessfully tried to break the curse years ago, Christine must hurry if she ever wants to save her life. Otherwise, it's hell she'll go.
First, the positives. I enjoyed the dark humor seen throughout the film. I know most say this is a straightforward horror exercise, but I'd classify it as more of a Evil Dead-esquire horror/comedy. It uses splat-stick as its primary humor producer. There's even a scene involving an anvil that reminds me of Wile E. Coyote. Another great scene involving a séance that goes awry both make me laugh and scream. Speaking of screams, the movie also scared the living daylights out of me. I screamed three times and kept holding my hand over my eyes. It kind of uses that sick humor to lull you in a false sense of security and then WAM!, a creepy version of Ganush surrounded by flames pops up. It just plain works. I also liked the performances. Lohman's performance as Christine helps you feel sorry for the girl, even though she screwed up big time. The score by Christopher Young is great, composed mostly of violins. This music also helps out for the easily scared folk, as it hints when a scare is about to happen.
On the negatives, I felt the film was too short(99 minutes). That's been a problem for the Evil Dead series too, with an average clock in at about an hour and a half. I was kinda left wanting more. But other than that, this is pure gold.
Overall I give it a near perfect 9 out of 10. I'm praying for a trilogy. Or at least a sequel.