B-Horror in the Mainstream

A lot of people were probably fooled by the marketing for Sam Raimi's latest horror movie, Drag Me to Hell. What was built up to be another mediocre supernatural teen flick turned out to be a wonderfully fun, compelling, and at times genuinely frightening film. Typically, this is bad for theaters past the first weekend; unless a movie is nominated for an Oscar, quality is an almost guaranteed cash kill. Drag Me to Hell, however, seems to have the right stuff that could possibly put horror-comedy back on the genre map.

Alison Lohman stars as the adorably mild-mannered Christine Brown, a loan officer looking for a promotion from her boss (the always great David Paymer). Her personal goals are stalled by an elderly Gypsy woman (Lorna Raver), who curses Christine for not granting her an extension on her house payments. Luckily for Christine, she has help from her incredibly supportive boyfriend (Justin "I'm a Mac" Long), and a swindeling fortune teller (Rham Jas). If they can't find a way to break the curse in three days, a demon will come to drag her soul to hell. In the meantime, the demon gets to torment and harass her, because that's just what demons do.

For fans of Sam Raimi, this film is an alarming return to the director's trademark styles. Fresh from the Spider-man trilogy, Raimi (The Evil Dead, Army of Darkness) returns to his roots with a bang. There's a lot of cheese, but every moment of it is incredibly delightful, and the rest is as downright scary as it's intended to be. Before the movie even starts, the audience is treated to the old-school Universal logo, a hint that the movie they're about to see borrows heavily from formulas that have been lost over time.

Old Gypsy mouth vs. Alison Lohman

Unlike 2007's horror-comedy gem Grindhouse, Drag Me to Hell is no homage. Raimi's intentions aren't to recreate, satirize or stylize; instead, he wants you to know that this is seriously the movie he wanted to make. Although his trademark Three-Stooges slapstick is ever present, and the plot isn't incredibly new, the film comes across as wholly original. The intentions- and the results- are honest and genuine; it's no more an homage to 70s B-horror than any 70s B-horror film was an homage to itself.

Lohman gracefully balances the mixed genres, playing her character convincingly even when the situation is very silly. What's more, she's able to deliberately go cardboard at just the right time, and never so much that it's distracting. Like all of the actors, she keeps pace with the film moment by moment, which is rare for a movie that challenges genre conventions in such a way.

There are not words to describe the badassery on display here

All considered, Drag Me to Hell is not necessarily a horror-comedy, but is instead a horror movie that does pretty much whatever it wants to. Whether moviegoers are delighted or frightened by pots shaking, low moans, and ominous shadows, the film's freedom of style is guaranteed to work for both the indie crowd and mainstream audiences. If it succeeds financially, it should serve as a breakthrough for Hollywood horror, and a moratorium on the contrived, sycophantic crowd-pleasers that have gained such popularity in the last decade.