Drag Me To Hell

Sam Raimi has long been championed a hero of horror though his horror output has really been limited to The Evil Dead it's sequels and producing some of the most dismal cookie cutter supernatural movies from his Ghost House Pictures outfit. He has proven himself the director of a remarkable thriller A Simple Plan and as the block buster maestro behind Spider Mans juggernaut assault.

Back on the scene with Drag MeTo Hell from its opening old style Universal logo, jarring score that harps back to the days of monster classics and CGI that is used to effect rather than excess Raimi rescends the dull and thought pretictable trailer that surfaced months ago.

There are two words that perhaps should not be used in relation to descibing a horror movie: zany and kookie. And yet those words best articulate Sam Raimi's approach to the genre. With his Evil Dead canon Raimi is practicaly a sub-genre of his own. And here he has pulled a blinder playing down inferences to Evil Dead when the film is jammed full of them. Witness Christina fight a haunted hankerchief which conjures up memories if a battle with a possessed hand or furniture and household items giggle and laugh, then there is the talking goat and a séance/possesion sequence that practically screams "Swallow got soul!"

To miss Drag Me To Hell at the cinema would be a dis-service to the film. The sound becomes unbearably cranked up to 11 at the right moments, jolts and laugjs leave everone with a grin on their face. Drag Me To Hell is mischeivous, malicios and must-see movie entertainent.

Totally erect.