When I first signed up for Netflix two years ago I was really excited to watch as many movies as I possibly could. Not only for the price that it would cost me to buy one DVD a month I had the potential to view around 12. After two years of watching 6 to 12 DVDs a month I started to feel really desensitized to everything. Horror movies don't scare me. Romance-dramas don't make me bubble. Teen sex comedies no longer get me hard.
Over the summer as the latest from the Evil Dead creator Sam Raimi was putting out his latest, Drag Me To Hell a healthy buzz followed the film. It was a good buzz. A buzz that he left the Spider-Man series behind him and was returning to his horror roots. I think this is where the problem for me begins.
As a fan of film, an ex-film major and an average person in general I like to sit down and be entertained. I want to laugh. I want to cover my eyes and deny it later. Drag Me To Hell had these elements but they just didn't follow through to the big screen.
The major problem plaguing this film was the casting. Although it was a rather small role but Justin Long was never right for this role. I don't imagine him being right for any role. Allison Lohman was great in Matchstick Men. She's not an actress suited for horror.
I certainly enjoyed the plot, letting the story unravel in front of me up until the near the end when the obvious ending was going to happen. Raimi should have known better than to give his audience what they knew to be coming. There was no way getting around that but to suffer horribly waiting for the inevitable to happen.
I read that after working on Spider-Man for all those years with huge inflated budgets he wanted to work on a film with a small budget. I imagine $30 million to be small compared to his last three films. It certainly paid for good CGI and a creepy score that chilled my bones. Raimi certainly had the production value, there was no reason to venture into campy sequences. I know there were small and far in between, but you must agree with me that they had no place there.
Drag Me To Hell is just another check mark along a long list of seemingly disappointing films that overshot it's objective either by overproduction or the film maker's wavering dream.
Haha! I think I have to agree with you on that last point for sure. Never saw Drag Me to Hell, because I heard it wasnt good, didnt know why, didnt really ask, usually people hate horror movies but it's nice to actually give a reason sometimes so thanks for that.
ReplyDeletePersonally not a big fan of horror, not that I dislike it or get "scared" I just dont like when stuff jumps out and I jump and get embarrassed that I jump, but I dont think that has anything to do with anything, just a reason why I didnt see the film.