Raimi's Revival of Horror Comedy

Raimi's Revival of Horror Comedy

Raimi's Revival of Horror Comedy

Sam Raimi's 2009 horror extravaganza Drag Me to Hell garnered many mixed reviews, and it's not hard to see why. If you don't look past the carefully employed horror clichs, there isn't really that much to the movie - but, for any fan of the diabolical director's previous work on the Evil Dead Trilogy, Drag Me to Hell is a rollicking journey to the 80s and back - with several delicious up-to-date twists.

In the film, Alison Lohman stars as Christine Brown, a loan officer with her own interests at heart. When a gypsy women by the name of Ganush (played by Lorna Raver) asks her for an extension on her mortgage, Christine refuses her because an agreement would cost her a promotion she sorely wants. By sacrificing her human sympathy and kindness in order to simply earn an extra buck, Christine has brought on the wrath of the gypsy woman, who curses her to three days of terror before the demons will come and physically drag her into the very depths of hell.

What follows is just that: Christine spends her next few days experiencing increasingly terrifying events, such as hideous nightmares, spectral attacks by Ganush herself and horrifying visions and hauntings by shadows that the viewer is only too glad not to catch a glimpse of. Pushed over the edge, she visits a fortune teller who agrees to help her remove the curse - for a price. We are then subjected to Christine's various efforts at removing the curse, which range from going to visit the gypsy to plead for forgiveness - only to discover that she has died - to visiting the site of her grave for one of the film's most bizarre and hilarious scenes.

Drag Me to Hell is by no means an innovation in terms of plot, but its leading character Christine is a fascinating protagonist as there is no real point at which we are led to believe she is a particularly nice person. In fact, she is shown to be greedy, shallow, selfish and egotistical - which is hardly your typical leading character in a horror movie. However, her shortcomings make the horror only all the more humorous as the audience gleefully watches poor Christine get subjected to all kinds of terror, with Raimi displaying a particular relish for 'gross stuff' getting spewed into Christine's eyes and mouth at every opportunity - bleuch!

The movie calls back to the Evil Dead movies on more than one occasion and it's easy to compare Christine with the Evil Dead's Ash in some of her more manic moments - so check out your Sky movies package for when this flick is scheduled and get ready for the horror comedy of the decade.

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