So yesterday I went and watched the latest Sam Raimi film, Drag Me To Hell, staring the insanely good-looking Alison Lohman as sexy branch-manager-to-be, Christine Brown. This coupled with the equally attractive opening credits sequence of the film had me ready for that unfortunately-all-too-rare feeling of total satisfaction while leaving a cool theater on a hot day. But no. Actually this piece of shit, fell off about half-way through. Seriously, I was so stoked about it for the first half (the nosebleed being the peak of that excitement) but everything that happened after was like a steady downhill ride into…well…hell.

I get that this movie is supposed to be ultra-campy and it succeeded with the gratuitous gore and cheesy dialogue and looks (this I really enjoyed), but the CGI was TERRIBLE. Intentional or not, it was distracting. I really don’t understand why we needed 12 scenes of her fighting the old lady’s haunted scarf! Or the awful anaimation of the beast. Those scurrying demonic shadows looked so much better in their last role: 1990’s Ghost. The entire seance scene was not only a giant visual mess but it could’ve been wrapped up about 5 times over: the demon dancing in mid-air for 2 minutes to carnival music was just a little bit too Hot Topic “creepy” for my taste. And then there’s Justin Long’s face.

The good stuff was pretty great, I just wish there had been more of it: Lohman was a much better horror-movie heroine than pretty much all of her predecessors in that she was tough and beautiful rather than weak and slutty (never did her boyfriend save her from anything), like many of the lead women in most modern horror films (I’m looking at you, Elisha Cuthbert). And like I mentioned earlier, the gross-out were pure throwback in that I laughed while my stomach turned. Lots of coughing stuff into people’s mouths, insects crawling into orifices, etc.

Although I thought this was a better fit for Netflix’s watch instantly and not such a value at $10, I highly recommend it to Mister Saturday and eagerly look forward to his review!