Blah!

Rating: 4/10 (1 June 2009)

I know that some Raimi fanatics are going to watch this film no matter what, but I can't see anything outstanding about it. While the dialogue is okay, the movie lacks any other hallmarks of great film work - the characters are unimaginative and the storyline seems like it's just an excuse to show a pretty blonde screaming and running from un-scary demons. I spent the whole film waiting for anything really funny to happen but was disappointed, and all the gratuitous screaming grated on my nerves. I found it took away from scenes that would probably have seemed more camp if they had been acted in a deadpan fashion. Oh, and the 'surprise' ending was so unsurprising, a toddler could have seen it coming. If you're undecided about this film while watching it, then I suggest you turn it off about 15 minutes before the end as you'll probably end up feeling insulted.
If you want to look on the bright side then yes, this is probably one of the better horror movies to come out in the past few years. However, that speaks more to the awful quality of modern horror movies than it does to the high quality of Drag Me To Hell. Personally, I've found foreign horror/comedy films like Snow Dead to be much more engaging and well-rounded than Drag me to Hell, which is interesting because Snow Dead is obviously a low-budget effort. I think that the difference is that Snow Dead's directors did not skimp on details, whereas Sam Raimi has. He appears to think that the 'satire' genre is an excuse for lazy storytelling. Well, there are other, more imaginative horror directors out there who have proved him wrong and will do so again. Too bad none of them are based in the United States!