Quick-hit review: Drag Me To Hell

I saw this with Barb last night. First off all, yes it is a horror movie, but it is rated PG-13 so it's not hard core by any means. Second, it's directed by Sam Raimi, who is best known for the Spiderman movies. But before that he made his name with a couple of cheap horror movies, The Evil Dead series. Now the first Evil Dead movie was made on a shoestring budget and it shows. It has a lot of cheesy effects. It's also one of the scariest horror movies I remember seeing as a teenager. I still enjoy it - great stuff. Raimi then made Evil Dead 2 and with that movie he incorporated a lot of humor into the horror. And that is where Drag Me To Hell comes in.

The movie has some very creepy moments and a couple of jump-out-of-your-seat shockers, but there is a sense of humor prevalent throughout and that really kind of tames the horror aspect of it. A lot of the humor is of the gross-out or slapstick variety. I mean, you can only see the heroine vomited upon so many times before you start to realize it's a running gag and the movie isn't taking itself very seriously. For my wife, who is a serious horror movie fan, the changing tones didn't work at all. She didn't like the film. I thought it was a lot of fun as long as you realized it wasn't going to be straight-up horror film. I can certainly understand my wife not getting into it. And we both agreed that it was very predictable, especially the finale. Which leads me to another point, and I guess I better use a spoiler warning so that I don't ruin the film for anyone.

***SPOILER***
DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE!!!

Why is it that all horror movies have to have bad endings where evil always triumphs? I guess it is so the audience can leave the theater with an extra goose bump, knowing that "the danger is still out there" but it has become so overdone and so routine that it takes absolutely all of the surprise out of the ending. Every single horror flick I have seen over the last few years gives the viewer a false happy ending and then right before the credits, evil triumphs and the protagonist is killed or dragged to hell or whatever. Memo to horror movie makers: You have taken all of the suspense out of horror movies because we all know how it is going to end - evil is going to triumph. It's not a surprise anymore and it no longer resonates. Someone out there, please start mixing things up. Thank you.

***END OF SPOILER WARNING***

Okay, so I thought the movie was fun but predictable. I would definitely recommend waiting for it to come out on DVD rather than seeing it in the theater. If I had to give a grade, it would be somewhere between a B- and a C+. How's that for waffling?