Drag Me To Hell

I have to admit to being disappointed in this film, but I think this might be because of false advertising, rather than any particular failings. I was led to believe it was one of the most terrifying movies ever made, but found it actually more funny than frightening. There were a fair few jumpy moments, but nothing out of the ordinary. Instead, this film succeeds as a small-scale, classic horror, with a good premise well executed. Although the initial insult and curse didn't convince me enough, and I would've liked to see more definition in the progression of the curse itself, this is still great fun. Apparently Sam Raimi planned this film more than ten years ago (before Spider-Man). Could he have been influenced by The Ring? There are a lot of similarities, and that remains the better film. Some of the plot turns here just aren't worked out well enough. Although I believe in subtlety, we need clearer signals in a film like this. Conversely, you can see the final twist of the film coming a mile off. This makes about ten minutes of the movie pretty redundant, which is a shame. It's a movie that is just slight off being very good. Perhaps the production was rushed, or perhaps it was pushed through too quickly due to Raimi's success with Spider-Man. Would a less influential director have worked harder to make sure every element of this film worked? As an interesting comparison, tomorrow I review Moon.