Director Sam Raimi goes back to his horror roots after many successful years in the superhero genre with this rollicking comedy chiller. Christine (Alison Lohman) is a country girl who has moved to the big city and found a nice job at a bank and a nice professor boyfriend (Justin Long). One day she refuses an old lady’s plea and repossesses her house, so the old lady curses her. First she will be tormented by evil spirits, and after three days she will be swallowed up into the fiery pit of hell.
This is a horror film that harks back to both the 70s devilish horror films (The Exorcist and The Omen) and 80s tongue-in-cheek splatterfests, an age before Ringu brought the Japanese style of horror to the West, with its crawling, twisted emaciated spirits, washed out colours and haunted technology. The old gypsy lady (Lorna Raver) is a one-woman splatterfest herself, secreting all manner of nasty things into her handkerchief. The fight between her and Christine in a car is a brutal and hysterical highlight.
Another highlight is Lohman. Female leads in horror films are usually just there to wear tight clothes, and while I wouldn’t say her outfits were loose, Lohman has produced a real character. Christine does some desperate things to try to get rid of the curse, so isn’t all sweetness and screams as you may expect. She exerts a real charm, and seems to be a star in the making.
Raimi has managed to get the tone right throughout, creating a really creepy, funny and satisfying film that feels oven fresh after the stale likes of The Unborn. This is jolly good fun, but be warned: it may leave you with a fear of buttons.
No comments:
Post a Comment