Film Review: Drag Me To Hell

Sam Raimi returns to his roots with this horror film chocked full of typical Raimi style. The plot is nice and simple, Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) refuses an extension on a bank loan to an old woman. The old woman doesn’t take to kindly to this and curses her with a gypsy curse. This sees Christine haunted by both visions of the old woman and a dark spirit called a Llamia. If she isn’t able to overturn the curse, the Llamia (a soul collector) will drag her to hell on the third day.

As with the Evil Dead series, we’re treated here to a comedy horror. Raimi has a black little comedy streak that finds its way into his films and Drag Me To Hell is certainly no exception. There is plenty of slime and goo and silly little B movie moments to make this film nothing like your normal Hollywood (ie. stale) horror fare. There are plenty of gross out moments and people with a weak stomach may end up gagging! There are also plenty of jumps and shock moments. As with any good horror and something most horror directors don’t get these days, it is the things in the shadows, the sound work and the camera work that make things scary. You’ll be gripping your chair arm one second and laughing the next during the film.

Casting is strong. Lohman does a very good job with her character, displaying a good range of emotions and can do a good freaked out character. She carries the bulk of the film without any problem at all. Supporting cast including Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao and David Paymer are also solid in their respective roles. I do love the attention to detail in Raimi’s films. As with Evil Dead, we have mythology, books created to link into it all etc.. it makes it feel much more authentic. Any film that goes that extra little mile will always work that little better. Sound editing is by far the films strongest point. A haunting score, great use of sound effects to build tension and make you jump. Directing is also strong, Raimi knows how to shoot horror, which angles to use and how to light a scene. My favourite had to be a scene in a graveyard nearing the end of the film, typical Raimi.

So, Drag Me To Hell could well be the little gem of the summer. Not one of the mentioned big boys that are hitting the screens over the past and coming few weeks, but this is a very strong film. If you like the Evil Dead films, you’ll get a kick out of this. If you like horror, go see how a master director makes a horror film. Funny, tense and scary. What more do you want!

RATING = 4.5/5

Supernatural 4×22 “Lucifer Rising” (spoilers)

21 episodes of pure excellence and we finally get to the season finale of Supernatural. This is a show that really has gone from a pretty decent monster of the week format to a heavily arced plot and character heavy show. Will they or won’t they have Sam and Dean up against each other? Will they or won’t they release Lucifer from his prison? After the way season 3 went, where most people didn’t expect them to actually send Dean to hell, I think most people had this time guessed that they may play through with this scenario. The finale gave us exactly what we expected …

Now that probably sounds like a criticism. Far from it. The episode was a strong one. We get plenty of fantastic character moments, a bag full more backstory, betrayals and conflicts, everything we come to expect from the show. After such a strong season though and after the fact they did go that extra step in season 3, they were not going to top it this time. So, what do we find out …

UK release dates .. a rant

It’s been said before by many, but I’m going to have to say it again. When will film studios learn that releasing films concurrently in countries will cut down on piracy. Terminator Salvation out now in the US. 2 weeks to wait for the UK. Pixar’s next (trailer below) out next weekend in the US. So, a nice mid June release for the UK? Nope. 16th October!!!! WHAT. Infact it appears the UK is more or less the last country getting it, it appears to be getting released in places that don’t even know what a film and cinema is before the UK. I expect it’ll be on home entertainment release in the US before I even get to see this in the cinema. TV finally caught on and we now get programs within a week of the US broadcast. Lucas caught on about worldwide releases after The Phantom Menace. Why are there still major films from major film studios not being released concurrently around the globe?

Lost Season 5 & 5×16/17 “The Incident”

So, Lost season 5 draws to a close with a mind boggling, blow you out of the water episode. The wait until January 2010 is going to be painful as we’re left to ponder of the events of the season and the finale. Continue on to spoilers ….

Film Review: Coraline

From the book by Neil Gaiman and the visual animation by Henry Selik (Nightmare Before Christmas), Coraline was always going to be a number of things. Gaiman has a gift for creating great fantasy worlds on the pages of a novel, full of mythology and fairy tale elements plus a darker side. Selik has a distinctive visual flair and a bit of a darker side. Coraline should be both visually wonderful and darkly disturbing and it doesn’t disappoint.

Unlike most animation, specifically that from the Disney stable, this isn’t your happy go lucky fairy tale with songs that’ll have the kids laughing. This is a dark fairy tale, yes it has songs, but they’re both weird and wonderful. It has all the normal fairy tale stables but in a bit of a twisted way. The colour and the fun is certainly there but the kids will be creeped out and scared by this wonderful little tale.

Film Review: Star Trek

So, Star Trek, a franchise that really had died a death. The TV shows were dull, the movies were dull. Shows such as Stargate were doing Star Trek better than Star Trek. It needed a rest, everyone seemed to agree, a long rest. But then along came JJ Abrams, presently one of Hollywoods Golden Boys and Star Trek was back on the table again at Paramount. However, this movie had to work or Trek could well have been buried for a long time. Not just work with the fanbase, work with the general public. With a budget of £150million it was going to have to do a lot, lot better than any Trek film before it to even recoup the outlay.

Just to mention now I’m writing this as a Trekkie, I’ve seen everything baring the animated series (though my memories of the Original Series are hazy, I’ve not seen that in quite a while). I’m also a sci-fi fan and a movie fan. So I’m one of those people Abrams has to satisfy as both a fan of the show and a fan of films.

After initially being sceptical, my interest was certainly increased when I heard some of the casting news. Then the first teasers and trailers leaked and it certainly looked good. But trailers can be very misleading. Then the final trailer came out and by this time I was hyped. So then, what is the film like? Star Trek is a BLAST! Abrams and his writing team of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have got Trek. They’ve breathed fresh life into the franchise. This film is fun, it has humour, it has some great action, it has stunning visual effects. This is the best summer movie I’ve seen for a while in the fact you leave the cinema feeling great.

So, SPOILERS BEWARE …..

Heroes, Trek, Terminator & District 9

It appears NBC may be dropping Heroes season 4 down to only 18-20 episodes according to reports. Whether less episodes will improve the quality of a show that has gone so far downhill you wouldn’t believe season 1 is in the same stable as the rest of it!

I’ll be off to see the new Trek tonight and can’t wait! After managing to miss all the local advance previews …. Hopefully it’ll live up to what everyone else is saying about it, that last trailer was one of the best trailers I’ve seen in a long time.

Apple have posted a new 4 minute clip from Terminator Salvation.

And finally, check out the poster for District 9, due out later this year.

District 9 poster

Review: X-Men Origins – Wolverine

Three Xmen films that took a good box office and gave us some popular characters, especially Wolverine, was always going to lead to a spin off. Unfortunately the franchise seems to have peaked with the excellent X2 and the Wolverine film continues the downward trend started by X3, which has many of the same flaws.

Was an origin film for Wolverine really needed? X2 gave a chunk of the story that didn’t need to be redone (in a far inferior way) here. This film could and should have jumped straight into that ’2nd film’ territory. For those a bit unfamiliar with the material, most of this film could have been summed up within the opening montage, which is the high point of the film. Do we even really need to know any of the backstory anyway, it doesn’t particularly add to the character, infact, as I say later, Wolverine was so good in the first 2 films because we didn’t know anything much about him.

New Trailers: Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen & District 9

Two new trailers. First up, one of the biggies of the summer in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen which is available at Yahoo Movies. Next up is a trailer for District 9, which I think could be very interesting. It’s based on the short film below (well worth a watch)