Directed by Sam Raimi. Starring Alison Lohman, Justin Long and Lorna Raver. USA. Horror. 99 minutes

When a small-town girl turned big-city loan officer turns down an old woman’s loan extension, she finds herself placed under an ancient Gypsy curse.  She has three days to find a way to release herself, otherwise she will have her soul feasted on for all eternity.

Formerly fat, farm-girl Christine [Lohman] is enjoying her new life in the city: house, boyfriend, up for a promotion from her position as a loan officer at her local bank. Until Sylvia Ganush [Raver] comes into the bank. Under pressure, because the mother of her boyfriend Clay [Long] doesn’t believe she’ll help his career, Christine refuses the old woman application to have her loan extended, in order to put her ahead in the race for promotion.  Ganush – a hilariously clichéd, old Gypsy woman – attacks Christine, toothlessly sucks her face and curses her to hell. Suddenly everything has changed, bangs, scratches, shadows and malevolent spirits dog Christine’s every move.  The only option now is a visit to a medium, who tells Christine she is being stalked by an age-old demon determined to drag her to hell in three days time. Cue blackly humourous animal sacrifice and side-splitting talking goats at over-blown séances, all in an effort to release the curse.  All the time Christine is tracked by a vengeful Ganush, ready to leap – claws outstretched and false teeth bared – from any dark nook, or mobile phone screen. Raimi mixes the dark: demonic attack, sacrifice and séances; with the light of superb comic timing in a way last truly seen in his own Evil Dead films – something that all fans were hoping for, I’m sure. Everything in the film is over-the-top: the horror, the violence and the comedy, but it works in a way that few directors could manage.  One minute you’ll jump from your seat in terror, the next minute double over in laughter at a ridiculous anvil-dropping.

Too many comedy/horror films fail to bring the horror, most fail to bring the comedy either. Drag Me to Hell brings both, in bucketfuls. Only Raimi, now with the years of experience making top-quality, big-budget movies, could pull this off in such a nuanced way.  Quite simply one of the most enjoyable hours and a half any movie fan could spend – doubly so if your chosen genre is horror.

Denise Morrisroe & David G Bennett

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GORE IN THE STORE
5 STAR FAB - 1 STAR RUBBISH

Antichrist
Wrong Turn 3
Coffin Rock
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Drag Me to Hell