Directed by: Sam Raimi
Starring: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Dileep Rao, Lorna Raver, Adriana Barraza
Other Actors of Note: David Paymer, Chelcie Ross, Ted Raimi
Plot: A loan officer ordered to evict an old woman from her home finds herself the recipient of a supernatural curse, which turns her life into a living hell. Desperate, she turns to a seer to try and save her soul, while evil forces work to push her to a breaking point. Taken from www.imdb.com.
Alison Lohman can totally mud wrestle a dead woman like a proDISCLAIMER: If you are a Sam Raimi fan and you have not gone to see this movie then I kindly ask you to fuck off and die. No seriously, kill yourself, if I hear you whine about no Evil Dead 4 but not support this film because it's PG-13 then go play in traffic. Your use to the world is complete.
I remember an episode of "Batman the Animated Series" where the Joker chastised his clown-faced assitant Harley Quinn saying that if you had to explain the joke then it's not worth telling. I think the same thing applies for Sam Raimi movies. I can explain any of his movies until I'm blue in the face but the simple fact is that if you didn't get them then you never will.
Raimi doesn't make artsy deep pictures, though he's had some very moving and artistic films. He doesn't make "scary" movies, but it's hard to deny that the man has caused some great scares. He doesn't make long drawn out movies with ambiguous plots and endings that you have to watch seven times to understand. Sam Raimi, in his own words, is not an artist but an entertainer. What he has made here is the epitomy of entertainment.
The story goes that Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is our heroine, a sweet but somewhat self-obsessed 20-something with a good job, a boyfriend who is way too good for her, and a desire to distance herself from her fat country bumpkin roots. We find out that Christine is upo for a promotion but faces competetion from the brown-nosing new guy, this is further exacerbated by her overhearing a phone conversation between her boyfriend Clay (Justin Long) and his bitchy mother who keeps insisting that he needs to quit playing with farm girls and find a woman who can help his career and social status: this leaves every person in the audience silently mouthing the word "cunt" and wishing the horrible witch would drop dead of a brain anyuerism.
When Christine gets back to work she meets an old gypsy lady (Lorna Raver) who begs her to give her another extension on her mortgage. She feels for the woman but sees that denying her request will undoubtedly secure her the promotion. So she denies her request and ends up shaming the old gypsy lady in front of the entire bank. It's fair to say that Christine never watched Stephen King's "Thinner."
So the old gypsy woman, as old gypsy women are wont to do, places a curse on Christine. The curse dictates that a horrible demon called a Lamia will come in three days and pull her down to Hell. But first, the Lamia is going to fuck with her like crazy and there's nothing she can do about it.
Christine naturally begins to spiral downward into increasingly more desperate solutions and endures various tortures of the Lamia (which are every one a nice combintion of terrifying, disgusting, and hilarious) naturally all these moments serve to ruin her life and make her look stark raving mad. That's really all I can say without ruining anything.
I didn't know Amy Winehouse was in this movie!Okay, so Alison Lohman is apparently popular. I know this because the annoying tween behind me gasped and went "Alison Lohman is in this!" So somebody apparently knows who she is, but that doesn't matter because I can honestly say that she's brilliant.
Sam Raimi's first choice for the role of Christine was Ellen Page hot off the success of "Juno" but I can honestly say that Ellen (much as I want to make dirty passionate love to her) dropping out was the best thing that could have happened. I don't think she could have brought the character to life quite like Lohman did.
You see, Christine isn't our typical horror heroine, she's not the virginal angelic girl who just happened to be in the giant murderous tard's zip code or accidently dropped her bible inside the haunted house. She's a selfish, mean-spirited, and often despicable character and you'll find yourself periodically rooting for the Lamia. However, as the leading lady, it's important that we don't hate Christine either. Fortunately Lohman manages to play a character that we both care for and feel sympathy toward while at the same time believing that she deserves everything she gets. This is far more complexity of character than the average horror movie even dreams of having which is one of the many things that stops this film from becoming mass-market crap.
Another big surprise is Justin Long as the "straight man boyfriend" role who spends the entire movie going "no honey, you're just imaginging things. The supernatural doesn't exist." If you've ever seen a horror movie ever, you know this character intimately. The good news is Long goes above and beyond the call of duty and adapts Clay into a deep and 3-dimensional character. As the movie progresses you really grow to like Clay more and more and ultimately feel bad for him for what he has to endure for being in love with Christine.
Lorna Ravor plays the "evil" gypsy woman Mrs. Ganush. Similarly to Christine you both feel for and hate her, though as opposed to Christine tipping more toward likeable, Mrs. Ganush tips the other way. It's Mrs. Gansh who serves as the avatar for much of the Lamia's mental torture of Christine. Often appearing as a hallucination and even as a corpse, pulling out her hair, attacking her, and spewing all manner of disgusting liquids all over her. Ravor is the epitomy of the balance between gross, scary, and funny that this movie embraces so beautifully and serves as an instantly memorable villainess.
Everytime I see this picture the only thing that pops into my mind is "ME WANT HONEYCOMB!"Sam Raimi has been out of the horror game for a long time. His last movie of the genre ws 2000's "The Gift" starring Cate Blanchett but that was skirting the genre as was his previous horror effort "Army of Darkness" in 1992, making his last true horror film "Evil Dead 2" released in 1987.
There were many who said after having spent the better part of a decade making "Spider-Man" movies and the better part of 20 years making other types of movies he just didn't have another good horror effort left in him. This was further exacerbated by "Spider-Man 3" a movie that's flawed but much better than everybody says it is. It was another case of studio involvement destroying the meaning behind a Sam Raimi film: the other case being 1985's "Crimewave", a gonzo crime-noir comedy/action film that featured Bruce Campbell and was written by The Coen Brothers. If you're thinking that this movie should be better than sex then you are wrong, because of studio involvement the Coen/Raimi/Campbell trifecta only managed to make it "okay" in the same way that "Spider-Man 3" was okay. The point is that he managed to do phenominal even when he was given a big damn shit sandwich to munch on, but of course "the fans" (an ominious sounding group of outspoken douchebags who aren't fit to lick the sweat Louie Anderson's taint) claimed he'd "lost it" and abandoned him until he proved himself again.
I wrote that being seemingly pointless paragraph to make a point. In the pat when people gave up on him he came through with a little film called "Evil Dead 2" which you can only hate if you're a elitist ass who takes movies too seriously, or squeamish I suppose... pussy. So naturally when Raimi bombed (it should be noted that this "bomb" was the highest grossing movie ever) he had to come through again.
Now if you've seen "Spider-Man 2" you'll remember a little hospital scene that proved to the entire movie-watching world that despite the different direction his career had gone in, the old Sam Raimi still lived. This movie eliminated any doubt of this.
You might as well just think of it as "Evil Dead 3.5" it may not feature deadites or chainsaws or even Bruce Campbell but the spirit is there and there's a possession scene that seems exactly lilke something out of the "Evil Dead" series. The sense of comedy and horror is exactly the same and one even feels that this story takes place in the same world. Anybody who doubts now that Raimi could make "Evil Dead 4" has been put in their place.
As I said earlier this movie is the very definition of entertainment. Throughout the entire movie I found myself laughing or at very least smiling while at the same time having to physically hold myself back from jumping at various scares and the best part is that you didn't know which was coming, whether the movie would scare you or make you laugh, often these moments came near simulataneously. For once I went to a horror movie and felt that same magic I felt as a kid, feeling those same thrills that made me the lover of the genre that I am now.
Escapism aside I don't want it to be percieved that "Drag Me To Hell" is mindless entertainment. Oh sure it has a screwball sense of humor and certainly doesn't take itself very seriously but beneath that exists a movie with a very deep meaningful message.
The title of this film is deeper than people realize. Oh sure, the Lamia is trying to literally drag Christine into hell but it can be said that by abandoning her roots, her identity, her home and alcoholic mother, and by sacrificing her own morals just to get a job, Christine had already lost her soul befoer Mrs. Ganush had the chance to curse her.
As the plot thickens and the likes of Clay, guru Rham Jas (Dileep Rao), and medium Shaun San Dena (Adriana Barraza) try to help her they each sacrifice part of themself to save her soul. In many ways Christine is dragging everyone who helps her down to Hell with her (in a more metaphorical way of course.) Christine is a perfect example of how even a good person can fall to the trappings of greed and selfishness. Even her attempts to make amends come off as just a means of personal gain and you end up pitying those who care for her more than Christine herself.
"Oh my God, I just realized that I'm a corporate tool used by Apple!""Drag Me To Hell" is a well-written, well-acted, and well-directed film. It's a great movie on its own but the theater experience is something that shouldn't be missed out on. It really is something that should be seen as part of an audience at least once. Sam Raimi is back and you don't want to miss it.
I give "Drag Me To Hell" a 5 out of 5. It's still in theaters, go see it now!
No comments:
Post a Comment