You don't like horror, if you don't like this movie

Rating: 7/10 (27 September 2009)

It's come to a point where I had forgotten that Sam Raimi was once an important figure to the horror genre. Sure, the "Spider-Man" movies were all nice and entertaining, but what really had made the man a legend was the "Evil Dead" trilogy. When Raimi produced all these awful little horror movies ("Boogeyman" anyone?) I was about to think we had imagined all this time that he ever had any taste. Along comes "Drag Me To Hell", the most entertaining horror movie in a LONG time, to prove me wrong.
Let me just make a list of things that I love the most about this movie:
1) The script is original, i.e. the story is not about a ghostly girl, zombies, vampires, a slasher or a torture chamber in Eastern Europe. No. This is fresh. For once a movie involving curses, séances and demons is GOOD. When has that ever happened before? The pacing is just right, the characters are fleshed out and believable. In a word: perfect.
2) The cast is great. Alison Lohman is adorable as the warm-hearted main character who has so many bad things happening to her. Justin Long does a good job at portraying her loyal boyfriend. Lorna Raver is just creepy. THIS is how icons are being born. You don't just put a killer with a gimmicky mask into a below average horror movie. You need a great story and someone like Raver to create a cult.
3) Raimi's direction is masterful with just the right balance between some signature tricks and very original angles and camera movements. The score is great, too. You don't think too much about it, it just works.
4) Most of all: "Drag Me To Hell" is so much fun without ever being funny. It's almost more like an adventure movie in the vein of "Raiders Of The Lost Ark". Sure there are jumps, sure it's disgusting at times - but "Drag Me To Hell" is really about the adventure, and it never makes any excuses for it. That's just adorable, and few screenwriters/directors can pull something like this off. The ending may be predictable, but it's still a pleasure to watch, especially since you're rooting so much for the heroine.
Now, if there is one thing to complain about it's the CGI. Raimi makes too much use of it and it never looks completely convincing. In fact a lot of the shock sequences look rather silly. If only they could redo these scenes in question and maybe tone down the gross-factor on a few sound effects. At times less would have been more.
Still, "Drag Me To Hell" is everything a horror movie should be, except for maybe scary. That may sound like I'm kidding, but I'm not. The cheap thrills, the good time - it's all here. Please, Mr. Raimi, PLEASE: Keep making movies like this one. In these awfully uncreative, narrow-minded times horror needs you back on board.