Better than most PG-13 horror films...but that's faint praise

Rating: 6/10 (29 May 2009)

Bank loan office Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is forced to evict old Mrs. Ganuch (Lorna Raver) from her house. Mrs. Ganuch places a curse on her and Christine's life becomes a living hell.
This has been overpraised by some critics. Yes--it's well-directed. Yes--I jumped a few times (but that was from the loud noises on the soundtrack). Yes--it WAS funny. But was it scary? No. Did it make much sense? No. Director and co-writer Sam Raimi made "Evil Dead" and "Evil Dead 2". They were VERY gory (and both unrated) and full of pitch black humor and were genuinely scary. Unfortunately Raimi here seems to be held back by that all-important PG-13 rating. The scenes are somewhat gross and funny--but never scary. I kept getting the feeling that Raimi was forced to pull back because of the rating. The minimal gore should have been more extreme and the humor darker--but it never was. The only sequence which went full out was a truly funny and somewhat scary exorcism at the end. THAT one sequence managed to be more chilling than anything else in the movie. This isn't terrible by any means but I couldn't stop thinking of how much better it might have been if Raimi had been given complete creative control.
Acting isn't really important in this but Justin Long (as Christine's boyfriend) and Raver were pretty good. Lohman is just OK but she deserves credit for taking on which must have been a VERY exhausting role. I can honestly only give this a 6--and most of that is for the direction and special effects (wait till you see the goat at the exorcism!).