The Return of the King!

Rating: 8/10 (2 June 2009)

It's always a joy when iconic filmmakers rediscover their mojo and make the kind of movies that fans want to see. George A.Romero went back to basics with 'Diary of the Dead', admittedly with mixed results but at least there was an honesty to its execution, whilst Wes Craven and David Cronenberg have both contributed to movies that bear the trademarks of their talents. Sam Raimi has been a favourite with genre fans since 'The Evil Dead' first terrified and amused audiences at the dawn of the video nasty boom of the early eighties, and even though he has gone on to bigger blockbuster action with the 'Spiderman' franchise, he has frequently returned to more spooky fare with production credits on 'The Grudge', 'The Grudge 2', '30 Days of Night' and 'The Messengers'. With 'Drag Me to Hell', though, the inventive director has come full circle and made a movie that easily stands up against his original 'Evil Dead' trilogy.
The story centres around Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), a loan officer in a bank who is a potential candidate for a promotion, if only she could convince her boss (David Paymer) that she can make tough decisions. She is visited at work by an elderly Hungarian gypsy, Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver), who is requesting a third extension on her mortgage. After trying to convince her boss to grant the extension, he leaves the decision in Christine's hands, as a way of testing her credentials. After telling Mrs. Ganush that the bank cannot extend her mortgage, the upset pensioner then gets on her knees and begs. Christine calls security to remove her from the building, but Mrs.Ganush takes this as an insult and tries to attack Christine, insisting that Christine has shamed her. When Christine leaves work that evening, she is attacked by Mrs. Ganush (in one of the best scenes of the movie), who takes a button from Christine's coat, places a curse on it and gives it back. Still traumatized, Christine and her boyfriend Clay (Justin Long) pay a visit to Rham Jas (Dileep Rao), a local spiritualist, who tells Christine she has been cursed by a demon called The Lamia, who will torment her for three days before coming to claim her soul and take her to Hell.
So there's your plot. The first thing to say about this movie is how refreshing it is to see this sort of shocker made by somebody who really knows their stuff. The gore is kept to a minimum, but that's because there's no need for it. Raimi has always been able to shock audiences without resorting to gratuitous tactics - 'The Evil Dead' may have had bucketloads of goo, but as those movies went on there was less and less of it, forcing the viewer to invest more in the story. Although the comparisons to the 'Evil Dead' movies are obvious, as well as the shocks and the 'Three Stooges'-esquire slapstick, it is the overall style that Raimi has developed over the years that shines through here, and other earlier works such as 'Darkman' and 'The Quick and the Dead' would prove to be useful reference points - the quick editing, the camera angles, narrative flow and cinematic scope that are present in both of those movies is here, as is Raimi's 'shaky-cam' style of filming. It's also a very loud movie with loads of bangs crashes and subliminal noises that add to the overall atmosphere.
As with almost all of Raimi's movies, the characters are strong and likable - even Mrs. Ganush to start with - and this familiarity with type adds to the action. Lorna Raver's depiction of the scorned gypsy is the very definition of creepy and if there was ever a category for Best Villain at the Oscars then Mrs. Ganush should win hands down. Without trying to give anything away, even in the later scenes when her physical being isn't doing much, she still exudes an air of ghoulish menace. Alison Lohman is a pretty strong lead, and seems to have a good chemistry with Justin Long, even if he comes across as a bit wet. Christine's rival for the promotion at the bank, Stu (ReggieLee), is also a great character who was used well and came across as pretty detestable.
As a whole, 'DMTH' is an absolute triumph of a movie. There are a few slight issues - some dodgy CGI effects, one or two lapses in the script - but no movie is perfect, and as far as this movie is concerned, it's about as close as you're going to get from one of the genres most consistently inventive talents. The only thing that was missing was an appearance from a certain Mr. Campbell, maybe in the role of Milos, the medium's assistant. Considering how the scene involving him plays out, it would have been a great cameo. Overall, though, this is an excercise from a master in how to shock and have fun in equal measure, and although Raimi made the fatal error of making his first movie a classic against which everything he does is measured, this is certainly the best movie he has made since 1982.