Over-hyped, Humorless, Frightless, and Overall Boring

Rating: 2/10 (3 June 2009)

Where should I begin with this steamer? This movie failed on all levels to entertain me. I have never once been more disappointed in a movie than with this. As a life-long horror fan, I would expect far more than this from a horror film. The "scares" used were the simple, cliché, and overused methods that should have been thrown out with yesterday's garbage. There is only so many times that you can try to "shock" a person before it completely loses its effect. Unfortunately, Drag Me to Hell used loud, banging noises and quick cuts ad infinitum through out the entire length of the movie, utilizing it as a crutch. Some will say it's a "tongue-in-cheek" affair, but it fails miserably at trying to be this as well. I really don't understand how gross-out scenes amount to "humor", as it lacks any thought or subtlety that good humor has. There were very few funny scenes in the movie, and the ones that were present were drawn out long past the punch-line. Some would call Raimi "bold" for not ending a scene where others would, I would say he lacks the ability to understand timing and how to effectively run a joke. He can run a joke, but unfortunately he runs it into the ground. Another problem I have with this movie is that Raimi treads old ground. The entire movie seemed like a call-out to the Evil Dead series. Some would say that's the point, I would say it's beating a dead horse. He lacks any kind of innovation with this movie, and one is left with a sense of "been there, done that". The entire movie seemed incredibly pointless considering that one could get the same basic movie, only far better, from watching Evil Dead. However, all of these could be forgiven. Unfortunately, Raimi makes the one major mistake that any movie should not make: Inconsistent pacing and tone. It seems as though that Raimi couldn't decide if he wanted this to be a "serious" movie, or a tongue-in-cheek slapstick movie. You truly can't mix the two, as it completely removes you from the tone of the movie when you switch from a "serious" horror movie to a "funny" horror movie, and then towards the end decide to be "serious". It removed me completely from the movie, and failed completely to draw me into the world.
Other problems are present to, from unlikeable characters, to idiotic plot holes, to terrible acting, to bad dialogue, and many, many more. Giving this movie a 2 is a favor on my part, as I honestly find very little that is likable about it.