Classic Raimi

Rating: 8/10 (1 November 2015)

The young Sam Raimi became famous with the Evil Dead trilogy and Darkman, and then went to do the Spider-Man trilogy. After the middling response to the third Spider-Man, Raimi went back to his roots, and this Drag Me To Hell is the result.
And it is a very good horror-comedy movie. As this genre is not for everyone, some people may not like it, but Raimi walks the fine line between both genres and delivers.
The story is simple enough. Christine works at a bank and is hoping for a promotion, working as hard as possible but seeing that a male partner may get that promotion, even though he just recently joined the bank. She also has a boyfriend, son of a very posh family, whose mother wants to introduce a prospective girlfriend to him as she sees Christine no more than a fleeting relationship for her son. So when Mrs. Ganush, an old woman, goes to the bank asking for an extension on her loan, she tells her than no, she can't have it, thinking more about her promotion than about Mrs. Ganush plea. The old woman gets on her knees, Christine calls for security, Mrs. Ganush tells her "You have shamed me", and from that moment we get what we could expect from Mr. Raimi: lots of fun, horror, and amazing camera shots. It's possible to recognize many of the tricks that he used in his first works, polished with the new technology available nowadays. All the actors do an excellent job, overacting a little bit, as should be expected of this kind of movies, to add to the fun. And Raimi does a perfect job of playing with the conventions and twists of the genre, winking his eye at every plot development.
An excellent time at the movies. Just leave your brain at the door and enjoy Raimi's trademark craziness.