Drag Me to Hell (2009)

In Drag Me to Hell, Sam Raimi returns to his roots (along with brother Ivan, who co-wrote it along with Army of Darkness (1992)). The Raimis completed the script soon after Army of Darkness, but were sidetracked by other projects. I’m glad they finally got around to it.

Christine (Alison Lohman) has a mundane existence as a loan officer until she causes an old Gypsy, Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) to be evicted. Mrs. Ganush, perhaps overreacting slightly, puts the curse of the Lamia, the “black goat” on Christine, vowing that she will be sent to Hell in three days.

Disbelieving at first, Christine is forced to acknowledge the seriousness of her situation as the Lamia begins to torment her, the demon’s manifestations increasing as the deadline approaches. Can Christine negate the curse with the aid of the mystic Rham Jas (Dileep Rao) and her boyfriend Clay (Justin Long)? Or will the Lamia succeed in dragging her to Hell?

In Drag Me to Hell, Raimi has returned to his element. Shades of the Evil Dead movies are everywhere. The fear of old people is once again used to good effect (the vengeful Mrs. Ganush echoes the farmer’s wife in the basement from Evil Dead). There is a sly mention of a cabin in the woods, and Raimi’s yellow 1973 Oldsmobile even makes an appearance as it has in many of his films. His inventive camera work has not flagged, nor has his penchant for grue. Watching Mrs. Ganush try to gum Christine to death when she loses her false teeth is particularly disturbing.

What has improved from the Evil Dead movies is the characterization and acting (no offense to Bruce Campbell). Christine is a more fleshed out character than many a horror movie damsel in distress, trying to escape from her accent and roots as a farm girl and former pork queen as well as from the curse. Raimi skillfully adds her anxiety to impress her boyfriend’s parents and get a promotion to the rest of the dread, and Alison Lohman does an excellent job in the part. Justin Long gives a very natural performance as Christine’s sweet, geeky boyfriend, and Lorna Raver, veteran of wide range of TV shows, seems to delight in the leering and snapping that the role of Mrs. Ganush demands.

Drag Me to Hell is much better than any recent horror movie I’ve seen- the Raimi humor is still strong, the story and script are good, sets, lighting, and special effects are all masterfully done, there are Gypsy curses, flies, gore, foreclosures, obnoxious bosses, scheming coworkers, and other demons. The only (slight) flaw is an over-reliance on Mrs. Ganush jumping out at Christine throughout the film. I kept wondering “Where will she pop out next?” and “Can I make a drinking game out of this?” Still, it’s highly enjoyable, especially when Raimi lets out all the stops for an over-the-top séance. He hasn’t lost his talent for making you laugh at the same time you’re getting the bejesus scared out of you.

Heart-Shaped Box

I read a review of Heart-Shaped Box when it came out in 2007, thought it sounded interesting, and promptly forgot about it.  I was pleased to find the paperback edition in one of the two used bookstores within driving distance, the one that is so tiny browsing is almost impossible if there are any other customers.

In the novel, an aging rocker with a taste for the macabre and the unlikely stage name of Judas Coyne buys a purported ghost in a box from an online auction site.  He soon realizes that he's being targeted by vengeful relatives of his ex-girlfriend, who committed suicide, and that the ghost is real.  The rest of the novel depicts Coyne, along with his current girlfriend and faithful dogs, attempting to escape the vengeful ghost.

Heart-Shaped Box is an action-packed, inventive novel that is difficult to put down, as the hunted humans travel the south looking for a way to banish their pursuer.  There are some extremely scary sequences, and some of the best are some of the more subtle, such as when the ghost first appears in Coyne's darkened hallway.  Along with the horror, Hill writes with a great deal of humor and poignancy, as Coyne is forced to examine his life and relationships past and present, as he struggles to avoid losing them.  

My only (minor) quibbles are that the frantic pace of the action sometimes takes away from the horror, and that sometimes villains are more frightening when they're portrayed with dimensions, not just evil and crazy.  Still, this is an engrossing, well-written, and scary read.

Tombs of the Blind Dead

This 1971 film is the first installment of Spanish writer-director Amando de Ossorio’s four-part zombie epic. The zombies are withered, wispy-bearded Knights Templars, who have made a pact with the Devil, drinking blood to become immortal. Unfortunately for them, they are also blind (the Devil is like that). ”Don’t let them hear your heart beating!” is the tag line. A young camper (María Elena Arpón) vanishes after wandering into the crumbling castle where the dead lurk, and her friends must solve the mystery of her disappearance. There are some genuinely scary scenes and a nicely grim ending, but this is a ‘70s exploitation film with gratuitous cheesecake and violence towards women, not a classic. Still, where else can you see blind zombie knights on horseback?

The Last Man on Earth

Vincent Price plays the titular protagonist in this 1964 film based on Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend.  Price is the lone survivor of biological warfare which has turned the populace into ghouls.  Although the ghouls are as much vampires as zombies, George Romero was obviously inspired by the plot and particularly by the scenes of shambling undead trying to get into Price's fortified bungalow.  Price does well portraying a lonely, half-crazed man grimly hanging on against the odds, but the film overall is a little slow and lackluster.  The similarities between it and Night of the Living Dead are interesting, but for entertainment, read Matheson's novel instead.  And don't bother with the Will Smith version, either.

The Astro-Zombies

This mind-rotting bit of camp trash from 1968 features John Carradine as a mad NASA scientist creating bizarre, machete-wielding undead for no particular reason and Tura Satana, best known for her role in Russ Meyer's  Faster Pussycat Kill!..kill!, as a secret agent.  It inspired a song by The Misfits, but it won't inspire you to do anything but stop watching.

The Plague of the Zombies

From 1966, this is a rare zombie offering from Hammer Studios.  Animated by voodoo, the dead are used as slave labor in a Cornish tin mine.  Andre Morell gives a strong performance as the indomitable doctor who matches wits with sinister zombie master John Carson.  The film is atmospheric but the zombies are slightly boring, except for one memorable sequence in which undead hands begin to sprout from the grave like pale flowers.

Dead Snow: My First Nazi Zombie Movie

Somehow I've managed to avoid the strange sub-genre of Nazi zombie movies until now.  I'd heard of a few, like Jesus Franco's 1982 Oasis of the Zombies, but I thought they were a thing of the past.  Apparently they never die.

Dead Snow is a 2009 Norwegian horror comedy (or at least, it has some humor), with the standard plot of a group of young people spending time at an isolated cabin with no cell phone reception (in this case, it's in the scenic, snowy mountains).  The male characters are cardboard (self-sufficient outdoorsman, film geek, horny guy, medical student afraid of blood), and the female characters are hardly distinguishable from each other (the one with dreadlocks, the blond one, the other one).  They joke knowingly about the traditional horror film setting they're in, which would have been nice if the script had then eschewed the tropes for something unexpected.

Instead, after the traditional cryptic warning from a random grizzled guy, Nazi zombies erupt from the snow and attack.  The film is visually appealing, the special effects are good (realistic entrails are liberally used), and there are a few humorous and unexpected touches, but overall there's not much novel here and the end result is mediocre.