Fans of Sam Raimi or the horror genre in general should be in for a real treat.

Rating: 9/10 (30 May 2009)

After Sam Raimi's last film, Spiderman 3, which can be considered by many to be a disappointment to Spiderman fans, Raimi decides to direct something completely different. Going back to his roots in horror, Raimi directs this film with the precision of the Evil Dead films, only this is much scarier than either of those films. And, to top that off, Sam Raimi uses his typical tongue in cheek style, that was largely missing from the first two Spiderman films, but all too present in the third, and he uses just the right amount here, never going extremely over the top, but reaching close many times. Really, this is the best horror film that's been released in years.
Christine Brown (Allison Lohman) is a loan officer who really wants that new promotion from her boss, Mr. Jacks (David Paymer). But her competition for the promotion is the new guy, a notorious kiss-up, Stu (Reggie Lee). In order to curry her bosses favor, she turns down an old woman, Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver), on her third mortgage for her home. Ganush ends up putting a gypsy curse on her that causes her to see a shadowy figure that beats her up and shakes up all the pots and pans and such. After going to a psychic, Rham Jas (Dileep Rao), she finds that she has a curse that will drag her to hell in three days. Chaos ensues as she tries to beat this thing, and as her educated boyfriend Clay (Justin Long) begins to see her mentally deteriorating.
This movie has more jump scenes than most horror films do, but these one's actually catch you off guard. In a few scenes, Raimi tries to build the tension, and you know a scare is coming, but in many other scenes there is no way of knowing when something will strike the screen and your heart will start racing. Knowing that horror is better with a pinch of salt, Raimi adds humor throughout the film. The scares are genuine, but the action scenes are usually very funny. This includes random blood squirting, mucus jokes, and a running joke of gumming to the face. And to add to the humorous horror, there is funny dialogue also. It's really an excellent mixture.
The performances were spot on. Allison Lohman plays her performance as a nice girl well, but also manages to portray the characters dark sides. Justin Long is convincing as the boyfriend who is losing faith, but constantly convincing himself that his girlfriend isn't crazy. Dileep Rao as the psychic is great. An actor who was surprisingly amusing was Reggie Lee as the kiss-up co-worker, and he really provides quite a few laughs, despite an over the top performance.
The final touch on the film is the musical score. This had a really pretty score by Christopher Young. It's probably supposed to sound like gypsy music, led by a violin, and as a stand alone score it's still good for a listen.
Overall, this is an effective, oftentimes funny and scary horror film, and an impressive return from Raimi to the genre.
My rating: *** 1/2 out of ****. 99 mins. PG-13 for some bloody violence.