Grisly Tale has Laughts ; Drag Me to Hell (Cert 15, 95 Mins, Lionsgate Films Home Entertainment (Uk) Ltd, Horror/Comedy/Thriller, Also Available to Buy Dvd Pounds 19.99/Blu-Ray Pounds 24.99). Starring: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao, Adriana Barraza, David Paymer, Reggie Lee.

Evening Chronicle › October 23, 2009

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Summary

CHRISTINE Brown (Lohman) works in a Los Angeles loans office and is keen to impress her boss Mr Jacks (Paymer) and beat sycophantic coworker Stu (Lee) to the vacant assistant manager's position. So when the enigmatic Mrs Ganush (Raver) comes into the bank to beg for a third extension to her home loan, Christine politely but firmly denies the request. Mrs Ganush retaliates by attacking Christine, cursing her with the Lamia, a demon that will claim the young woman's soul three days hence.

With emotional support from her handsome professor boyfriend Clay (Long), Christine solicits spiritual guidance from psychic Rham Jas (Rao) and his seer (Barraza) to break the curse. Evil Dead director Sam Raimi returns to tongue-in-cheek horror with this queasy conflation of gore and dark humour, including a pair of flying eyeballs. You're more likely to cackle or recoil in disgust than scream at Drag Me To Hell because its violence is exaggerated and cartoonish. A centrepiece fight in a car is hysterical when Mrs Ganush launches herself at Christine with the intention of biting chunks out of the young woman's face - only to realise she has lost her dentures during the struggle. Gumming the poor girl to death simply won't work. Lohman screams convincingly while Raver is stomach-churningly repulsive amid the hocus pocus, including a possessed, talking goat. Raimi directs with brio and an impish grin, like the scene with a housefly crawling in and out of the heroine's mouth and nose - and even settling on the camera lens.

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Extract

Grisly Tale has Laughts ; Drag Me to Hell (Cert 15, 95 Mins, Lionsgate Films Home Entertainment (Uk) Ltd, Horror/Comedy/Thriller, Also Available to Buy Dvd Pounds 19.99/Blu-Ray Pounds 24.99). Starring: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao, Adriana Barraza, David Paymer, Reggie Lee.

DVD Extras: 10 production di...

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