Drag Me to Hell

When Sam Raimi jumped from low-budget action-horror-comedy ("Darkman," "Army of Darkness") toward first quiet respectability (with the great, underrated "A Simple Plan" and "For Love of the Game") and then megabuck profitability (with the "Spider-Man" films), it was great to see a real American talent succeed. It was also a little sad, like when you run into your old college drinking buddy and he has a minivan and kids and a proper haircut. You're glad he's doing well, and he sure looks happy, but you can't help but miss the loose, goofy, wild party pal you used to have.

Well, with "Drag Me to Hell," Raimi's ditched the minivan and he's in front of your house doing doughnuts in a beat-up Dodge, revving the engine and cranking the stereo and yelling at you to come out and have some fun at a midnight movie. And you should get in the car with him, because "Drag Me to Hell" is a big blast of fun, and so snappy and lively you might notice how good it is only after the giddy shrieks and nervous laughter's died down and you can think again.

Starring Alison Lohman as Christine Brown, a can-do bank loan officer working for a promotion, "Drag Me to Hell" sees our protagonist deny Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver, milking the part for everything, with a milky-eyed stare and wonderfully horrible teeth) an extension on her overdue mortgage. Lohman's just trying to prove her management-worthiness to her boss Mr. Jacks (David Paymer), but Ganush retaliates first with blows (in a hilarious yet gripping action sequence) and then with ... a curse. Christine will be tormented for three days; then, the dark spirit known as the Lamia will, uh, pull her to Hades. Haul her to the netherworld. You get the gist.

As for plot, that's all you got: Christine tries to ditch the witch with the help of her loving boyfriend Clay (Justin Long), spiritualist Rham Jass (Dileep Rao, silky-voiced and perfectly cast) and medium Shaun San Dena (Adriana Barraza). But the one thing Sam and Ivan Raimi's smart, snappy script slips under the radar is how Christine's had to fight for everything she's ever had, and fight to keep it, and she'll take charge to fight to stay on this plane, too, thank you very much.

Lohman stepped into Ellen Page's shoes for the part after "scheduling conflicts" made Page unable to take the lead, and thank the movie gods she did. Lohman has a vulnerability to her that still has an iron core, and a retro-ish feel that works with the old-fashioned morality play Raimi's put together here. "Drag Me to Hell" has the playfully punishing, macabre-but-moral feel of an old '50s horror comic book where The Cryptkeeper doused a story about the golden rule in crimson blood. As Raimi said in a press conference of the film at Cannes, "It's the story of a person who wants to be a good person but makes a sinful choice out of greed."

Raimi may or may not agree if Christine deserves what happens to her, but he's more than willing to play judge, jury and hex-ecutioner, putting Christine through beatings, battering and bits of bloody business. "Drag Me to Hell" evokes the crazed-camera antics and goofy good humor of his earlier "Evil Dead" films, but benefits from a much bigger budget and a confidence that comes with a few decades of big-moviemaking skill. The camera work is aces (thanks to cinematographer Peter Deming), and the effects -- whether CGI-specters or animatronic animals in the grip of pure evil -- are not only well-done but well-used, a bit here and there to whet our appetites while Raimi makes Christine's plight the main course.

Considering how many modern horror films are gory drudges -- you feel like you're walking waist-deep in blood as you slog toward the finish -- a film as lively and light and playful as "Drag Me to Hell" that's still gory and scary comes as a welcome change and a true pleasure. Raimi's made this "Drag" a race, designed to chill you, thrill you and give you an excuse to clutch your date's arm with each of the many jolts and jumps it delivers as it twists and turns to the finish line. Raimi drags his heroine closer and closer to hell, yes, but each stop on the way down gets us closer and closer to B-movie heaven.

Also:

Cinematic Curses! A Roundup of the Worst Curses on Film

To 'Hell' and Back With Director Sam Raimi