A Horror Tea-Party, Not Spiced

Rating: Null/10 (16 September 2009)

If you are mature enough to remember with fondness Jacques Tourneur's NIGHT OF THE DEMON and Terence Fisher's THE DEVIL RIDES OUT, you will laugh at this. But that's not the whole truth, because you will only laugh when the fiendish Miss Ganush is off screen. When she is in sight, beware! You'll admire one of the best designed, weirdest creatures in supernatural cinema today. With her old age, one glass eye, rotten teeth and long, yellow nails (at just one hand, the right one), Eastern European hag Miss Ganush gives you the creeps by simply existing. This is how far our culture ventured in despising old age and demonizing older women in particular, true, but can't it be that every now and then one of them is really a witch? Black magic and witchcraft are, indeed, the source of DRAG ME TO HELL, with a touch of Le Fanuism in the idea that if you are accursed by a demon called Lamia - the vengeful spirit of all women ugly and abused - you'll be properly drawn to Hell to burn in peace. Cheers to Sam Raimi for having invented Miss Ganush, and cheers more than everybody else to Lorna Raver, the Hollywood actress that so beautifully played her as to making us ask for an immediate second course... er, curse.