Sam Raimi's career is nothing if not wildly dichotomous. The cult Michigan director started in the late 1970s with his underground classic short Within the Woods which led to his first feature, Evil Dead, in 1981. That film was renowned for its unrelenting violence, fast cutting, shaky camera, and no-holds-barred approach to horror. Coming after groundbreakers in low-budget slashers such as Halloween and Friday the 13th, Evil Dead went further with a slightly campier comic eye towards the genre.
Raimi's long-awaited sequel, released six years later, Evil Dead II, had more money and effects work to its name but held onto the same traditions as its predecessor, taking many of the advents of that film to a different higher level of cult comic-horror genius. Then, somehow, Raimi lost his way. Darkman, his attempt at creating an original horror hero in the vein of The Phantom of the Opera, sputtered in its methods, as did a third "dead" film, Army of Darkness, once called Medieval Dead, which lost the edge of the first two Bruce Campbell starrers.
In the 1990s, Raimi made a string of films as director, producer, and, ahem, actor, many of which took him away from his métier. The best of these was his stylistic take on the Western, The Quick and the Dead (1995) which starred a slick Sharon Stone (hot off of her Basic Instinct fame) but cleverly cast a pre-famous Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe in crucial roles, proving that Raimi could direct actors just as well as action.
By this current decade, Raimi's career was questionable at best. He had worked with genuine Hollywood A-listers like Kevin Costner, but wasn't considered bankable, and had long since given up directing in the sci-fi, horror and fantasy genre. That all changed with Spider-Man, which he reportedly had to beg studio executives to direct. That first smash hit and its two sequels vaulted Raimi into the upper echelon of A-list studio directors who could have their pick of projects.
All of which makes his current choice even more unthinkable, though refreshing. After the $1 billion + grosses of the Spider-Man films, Raimi could have done whatever he wanted for his next film, but he chose to make a movie that is a kindred spirit to his first two Evil Dead films. Drag Me to Hell has all of the hallmarks of those early films. Raimi's approach to horror in this Alison Lohman vehicle has the assured storytelling of his Spider-Man flicks with the intensity and uninhibited approach to horror of Evil Dead and Evil Dead II in many extractions. Raimi smash cuts, high-decibel sound effects, and a point-of-view villainous camera pursuing its victims are all in wide display for this new audience, for many of whom the Evil Dead films are by now a fading memory.
As with his young Spider-Man stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, Raimi coaxed a balanced performance out of Lohman, who carries this film along with her diverse costars, including Justin Long as her slowly embroiled boyfriend. Leaving plot details alone, Drag Me to Hell's unsubtle title gives you all the information you need to enjoy this fairly straightforward horror experience. That, and the fact that Sam Raimi is back on the familiar ground that made him a genre star now more than 20 years ago.
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