QUICK NOTES: Drag Me To Hell, d. Sam Raimi

I'm trying to up the ante in terms of the films I watch in general right now and as much as I'd love to write huge, Sanders-sized reviews about each and all, well I just can't. Thus, I'm retooling Quick Notes in to just exactly what their moniker begs: quick reviews of all the films I'm watching. I'll be doing my full reviews of new movies, and films that I love still, I just want to write about as much film as possible and this seems the very best way.

Think we can all handle that?

Lets get started then.

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The Film: Drag Me To Hell

The Director: Sam Raimi

The Hype:

You know, everyone's been saying that this is Sam Raimi's return to form. That the abysmal (literally terrible) Spider-Man 3 freed Raimi from his long lease on shittiness, and that Drag Me To Hell was his re-immersion in to the gooey gore of his beloved Evil Dead series.

The Truth:

I blame Allison Lohman for all of my dislike for this film. It's a pretty decent little adventure-horror flick. Christine Brown (Allison Lohman) gets cursed by a gypsy and she has three days to figure out how to expel the curse or the Lamia will, ahem, drag her to Hell. There's a lot of upchucked liquids in the film, a lot of creepy practical effects, and pretty healthy dosage of Allison Lohman getting smashed in to things, which all allude to a Sam Raimi film, but something is certainly lacking.

I've never been able to understand why people are so obsessed with Allison Lohman. I find her extremely one-note, and that one note is typically a sort of bland, naivete. In Drag Me To Hell she's cardboard, flat and unemotional and this is a film about campy-emotions. Big chills and big thrills and with Lohman in the driving seat, they just don't work.

Final Thoughts:

I'm hoping this is Raimi ramping up, recovering even, from the big studio pie-fingering of the Spider-Man films. That this is just a taste of what's to come and in the years to follow we'll be seeing some truly classic horror films from Mr. Raimi.