Where's Bruce Campbell when you need him?

Rating: 6/10 (8 June 2009)

I suspected as much when I saw "Spider-Man 3", and it's been confirmed with "Drag Me to Hell": Sam Raimi has forgotten how to make fun movies. This is not an easy thing for me to admit, as I have been a Raimi fan ever since I first saw "Darkman" in college at the Texas Union theater.
When I heard from numerous critics and fans that "Drag Me to Hell" was Raimi's return to his early style, I bought my ticket enthusiastically. Unfortunately, that enthusiasm was misplaced. The unabashed silliness that made the "Evil Dead" trilogy and "Darkman" such fun to watch was seriously muted. Instead of the over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek acting styles of Bruce Campbell or Frances McDormand, we get Alison Lohman and Justin Long in the lead roles, both playing it straight. This wouldn't be so bad if they weren't such mediocre actors.
And instead of the comic-book-style dialog that I have come to expect from Raimi's films (especially now that he is best known for the "Spider-Man" trilogy), the movie treats us to stifling discussions about mortgages and bank policies, and a serious debate between a psychology professor (Long) and a fortune teller (Dileep Rao) about the respective merits of Freud vs. Jung.
But the real disappointment is that there was no splatter! When I see a Sam Raimi horror flick, I expect various body parts to be severed and lots and lots of blood. Instead, this movie settles for an off-screen animal sacrifice. The only truly funny part was at the wake for the evil old crone (Lorna Raver as Mrs. Ganush was the only actor to get into the spirit of things). And the only truly scary part was the séance near the end. The rest of the film's horror set-pieces rehash what was done before (and better) in "Poltergeist".
Judging from "A Simple Plan", "The Gift", and the non-FX parts of "Spider-Man 2", I know that Sam Raimi can do serious drama as well as anyone else. But when I see his name attached to a horror flick, I expect ultra-violent, unapologetically goofy fun. And Bruce Campbell! 6 out of 10.