Drag Me To Hell

After all the studio interference and skank-me-ups that plagued Spider-Man 3, it's obvious that director Sam Raimi relished cutting loose and making a goofy horror movie exactly how he wanted. No worries about crow-barring umpteen different villains into a cohesive storyline here - just a tale about a sweet girl getting cursed by a disgusting, mucus filled old gypsy hag. Nice. It's a proper nasty curse too - she's really made to suffer! Vomit, blood, buzzing fly up her nose, chucked round the room, hair pulled, sloshing in muddy grave, rancid innards over her face. Raimi gleefully puts her through the mill and as a spectacle it's almost like a Tom & Jerry cartoon on acid blended with The Exorcist. I loved it and laughed almost constantly. Call me a twisted old sod if you like but I reckon this was one of the funniest films I've seen in ages. It should have been called 'Laugh Me To Hell'.

Some of the JUMPY stuff is a bit too signposted and I can't see how anyone could say it's the 'scariest movie of the decade' as quoted from some fleet street hack on the DVD cover. It's too silly for that (in a good way).  It's certainly creepy in parts though and particularly inventive in the way some of the ghoulish attacks happen in broad daylight rather than the usual old thunder and lightning nonsense. Bonus points for that. Speaking of which I also claim my bonus geek points for spotting Sam Raimi's car.

After the hugely brilliant ending I was left with a big grin on my stupid face. Intensely funny or funnily intense is the rather confusing way I'd describe this film. See that's why I'll never get a quote on a DVD cover.