Drag Me To Hell

If you believe the hype, Sam Raimi's Drag Me To Hell is something akin to the second coming, the Spiderman director returning to the horror genre that made his name and knocking it out of the ball park. And while Drag Me To Hell is a hell of lot of fun (pun intended), it's no Evil Dead. Rather it's the kind of comic splatterstick that could fit easily into Raimi's oeuvre between Evil Dead 2 and Army Of Darkness and not feel out of place. Old fashioned scares, several icky, gross out moments, some animal carnage, Allison Lohman channelling Bruce Campbell, a camera that swoops and flies with vertiginous abandon, surprisingly cheesy looking production values, and yet nothing remotely surprising in terms of narrative or plot beats. Having said that, Drag Me To Hell does exactly what it says of the tin (apologies to non-UK readers for that very specific cultural reference). But, personally, I wanted (and even expected) a little more. Then again, I still think A Simple Plan is the best thing Raimi's ever done.

Here's Raimi on his Spiderman regrets.