Horror and comedy can work together, but this doesn't achieve the balance.

Rating: 3/10 (30 January 2014)

I was initially excited to hear about Sam Raimi's return to the horror genre with this film. So, after 5 years of hype surrounding how excellent a return-to-form this film was for Raimi, I finally sat down to watch.
Frankly, the balance between horror and comedy is WAY off. We're supposed to be menaced by, or afraid of, the gypsy woman. But her entire introduction came across as a terrible attempt at gross-out humor. This continued in the parking garage, where the gypsy woman tries to gum the protagonist's face. These were the wrong decisions, implemented with poor consideration for pacing and tone.
The same applies to the "shooting blood" scene in the bank. It was intended to be humorous, since I can't imagine that Raimi actually thinks blood shoots out like that. But as soon as we get into the sense that it's supposed to be a darkly humorous scene, the tone shifts 180 degrees again, and we're supposed to take it seriously.
This film simply fails to find the right balance, and the right time to attempt striking that balance.