I beat you, you old bitch!

Review

Drag Me to Hell

(2009)

It's a shame this seems to have gone down like a cinematic damp squib, because the Raimi/Dante approach to horror (a laugh for every shock) is by far my preferred way of experiencing the genre.

Raimi puts Alison Lohmann through every discomfort he ever inflicted upon Bruce Campbell, but in addition to this his camera absolutely adores her (or maybe it was just me, but she's transfixing throughout).

There are some hilarious sequences; highlights included a talking goat at a séance and an extended fight in an underground car park that delivers on the dentures front. It's a film largely without gore or blood, but dripping with snot, bile and slime. And it takes a delirious joy in setting up jokes/shocks.

Justin Long is okay as the boyfriend, although it’s such a straight part that it's not really playing to his strengths. This is Raimi at his most visually unleashed since The Quick and the Dead and if justice was served it would elevate Lohmann to the first rank of actresses.

****

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