Film review: Drag Me To Hell

Published on Friday 29 May 2009 13:08

ANYONE under the cosh of the recession may find Drag Me To Hell to be the feelgood horror flick of the year.

For the rest of us, it's a better-than-average wallow in gore and goo, especially goo.

Spider-Man director Sam Raimi returns to the cheeky schlocky part of himself that's been dormant for more than a decade with a story of an ambitious bank loan officer (Alison Lohman) who is begged for another extension on an overdue mortgage by Lorna Raver's gummy, phlegmy old crone, above (the goo starts there).

To impress her boss into giving her a promotion, she denies the loan and puts the biddy out on the streets. That evening, she is attacked by the surprisingly supple old woman and earns herself a vicious curse that sticks a demon on her tail.

Unless the spell is broken in three days, it will stalk her for three days before dragging her somewhere uncomfortable and hot for all eternity.

Raimi, who wrote the script with brother Ivan, enjoys himself hugely by winking at the conventions he gets to play with; at one point our heroine is terrorised by nothing less than a demonically infused hankie. Other torments include rattling her pots and pans, and spiking her pudding with eyeballs.

At times, it's like being in purgatory with a really mean girl. At others, it's like being dipped in a vat of snot, and perhaps Drag Me To Hell relies on gross body fluids and things jumping into shot and yelling "Boo" a little too often.

Even so, it's robustly raucous, and should make you laugh as often as you squirm. Above all, it's good to have at least one horror picture that is gruesome not gruelling this summer.

On general release from Friday