Scariest movie of the decade - yeah right.

Rating: 4/10 (21 November 2009)

I really can't understand why this movie is getting so much praise when it is average at best. Yes it's nice to see Sam Raimi returning to the horror genre but watching this just reminded me of how brilliant the Evil Dead is. First of all Drag Me To Hell is not scary. Whoever is calling it the scariest movie of the decade obviously doesn't watch a lot of horror films. There is not one moment that made me jump or had me on the edge of my seat and I can't imagine anyone being scared of it unless you are frightened by lots of CGI effects. I'm not a big fan of CGI but when used in the right way it can look great. Unfortunately in this movie it is very overdone. To be honest the emotion I felt throughout most of the film was boredom. A lot of stuff does happen in a short space of time but none of it is really that interesting and a lot of it involves the heroine having hallucinations or dreaming. There is no blood or gore. Of course you don't need gore to make a good horror film but sometimes a decent gore effect or death scene can elevate a movie and grab your interest but we don't get that here. We get a few moments which some people would probably find gross but it takes a bit more than someone's eyeballs flying out of their head using bad CGI to get me feeling sick I'm afraid. So are there any good points? Well the acting is OK although the characters are unsympathetic and I liked the ending. The movie gets an extra point for the part where they are trying to summon the Lamia and it possesses a goat. The goat's face then turns evil (using CGI of course) and it starts talking. I nearly fell off my seat with laughter and it made sitting through the rest of the film worth it. In fact I liked that part so much I went back and watched it a couple more times! But sadly for me that was the only decent part in the entire film. I realise I am going to sound like a horror movie snob now and I apologise for that but Drag Me To Hell is a horror film for people who don't really like horror. It's not scary, it's not gruesome, it's not suspenseful and aside from the goat has no memorable moments. But hey I seem to be in the minority so by all means give it a watch but I wouldn't waste my time seeing it again.