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DRAG ME TO HELL is a gross-out comedy, not a horror film. A higher-minded version of Scary Movie.

It is also awful. Genuinely cringe-inducingly, hilariously bad, like watching a little boy put cockroaches in a little girl's hair. I can't defend this even as comedy https://twitter.com/filmobjective/status/1390553851015614464

First, Lohman has major Pam Beasley energy in this movie and her dumbfoundedly, simplistically surprised face makes the movie way better. She's a person who's never seen a horror film and she has the honesty that matches Raimi at his best (though his best is buried DEEPLY here).

And second, I like the classic camera techniques. Raimi's affinity for crash zooms, the quick match cuts between scenes, and the blocking are all cool - they alone raise the film above a cash-in horror movie.

But the story is AWFUL. It's logically flawed to the core.

One of the film's major annoyances is that while most of the horror is hallucinated, it sometimes ... isn't. In the bank, she spews a gallon of blood from her nose FOR REAL and everyone acts "sorry" like she just threw up. Is that what's funny? It's just inconsistent.

Every new scene in this movie acts like the previous one didn't happen. Maybe THAT'S what's funny?

It's sort of like Tusk - just gross the audience out - except Raimi assumes the audience asked for it and Smith assumes they didn't. This DOES give Raimi more earnestness ...

but you CANNOT pull off a gross-out gore comedy w/o practical effects. The awful CGI in Drag Me to Hell sinks any chance it had of being a gooey comeback for his career. You just can't enjoy or believe in its CRAFT. And the annoyingly illogical ending just seals the pity deal.

I can't believe this has a 92% on RT! But I guess we live in a world where IT (1990) is called a good horror movie, not "so bad it's good." People will genuinely argue w/ you that this is a good film:

So I guess if that's Raimi's competition, sure. Drag Me to Hell has moments.

But The Happening is so funny because M. Night didn't mean for it to be bad. Raimi knows what he's doing. That gives it a feeling of desperation that makes its pleas for relevancy more pitiful.

I mean it's supposed to be so crazy, grotesque, and funny, right? But it's not MANDY.

I think Raimi needed to lend his camera's energy to the 2013 Evil Dead, as well as this crazy female Ash. W/ those practical FX and his charm, I think they'd recreate the core Raimi appeal.

By itself, this is just sad. The movie version of sticking your hand in a jar of goo.

It guarantees I won't finish Raimi's films, at least for now. I like the Spider-Mans and I've been told I should see Evil Dead II, but I can't accept 7 more movies of accidental hilarity if the scripts aren't at least professional. And if I'm not even sure what's an "accident."