Shock...Another Shock...Another Shock...Another Shock...Get the picture?

Rating: 5/10 (1 June 2009)

In the past, the concept of a PG-13 horror movie was laughable. Now, it's pretty much all we get. I went into "Drag Me to Hell" with trepidation because aside from the spooky "The Ring," all horror movies with the PG-13 have been universally reviled as complete crap. Then again, this is from Sam Raimi, the creator of the cult classic "Evil Dead" trilogy, so it should reverse the trend, right? Not really.
Although I didn't actively hate it, I didn't like it either. Because the PG-13 rating eliminates most of the trademarks of the genre (extreme violence, sex, gore), the only thing Raimi can rely on is shocks and special effects. There is an overload of the former (even though they "work", and they get boring after a while, and the special effects are sub-par.
Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is a loan officer at a bank. Because she wants a promotion, she decides not to give an old lady named Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) an extension on her mortgage, as this will save the company money. While being a jerk in this case would have had some benefits, it was probably unwise to do it to poor old Mrs. Ganush. Boy can she hold a grudge
The problem of this movie is that I just didn't care. The acting was okay (though Justin Long was really miscast). I was only interested (a word I use with caution) in the story because I wondered where the story was going. And the special effects looked cheap; with a big budget movie like this, I expected better.
About the concept of PG-13 horror movies...as I am not a fan of the genre, I can't really give my opinion. However, I can say that I am against neutering movies to fit the PG-13 rating. In this case, I probably wouldn't have been so annoyed if this wasn't the case with every movie. Based on the past and this movie, I'm guessing that a PG-13 horror movie probably has no real merit, only marketing capabilities. And, unfortunately, the latter is the only thing that matters.