(Not a) Film Review: Drag Me To Hell

T.G.F.B. Edition!*

• Star Alison Lohman was a very game participant through all of the trauma director Sam Raimi put her through.
  

• It should be noted that most if not all of the violence directed towards the heroine is entirely non-sexual. It's not punitive violence for a character expressing her sexuality or having a good time. She does something wrong and she spends the next 90 minutes paying for it.

• This is key, because it takes the movie from making the viewer an accomplice through titillation to allowing the viewer to relax and enjoy the events on display.

• Having said that, the script spends a LOT of time shoving things in its lead actress's mouth or otherwise covering her in fluids.
  

• It's an incredibly loud movie with Raimi cranking things up to somewhere around 11 (15 during the "dinner party" scene). Most times it seems to work, although it can be a little exhausting for the audience.
  

• Nominee for most menacing handkerchief of all time.

• It was weird watching a Sam Raimi film without the on-screen participation of either Ted Raimi or Bruce Campbell. (This is excluding the dramas Raimi has worked on in the past)**
  

• Wow, this was a hard PG-13.
  

• This might be setting back U.S.-Gypsy relations by a few years.

• Small thing but I really loved the text used for the opening and closing title.
  

• It's been noted elsewhere but I'd like to chime in in favor of the use of practical effects. There are a couple of CG moments (but not excessive). I miss the good old days of practical makeup, gags, and gooey effects.
  

• This touched off a note of nostalgia and sent me back to watch my copy of Army of Darkness. Yeah, I still love it.

• I need for Amy Adams, Isla Fischer, and Alison Lohman to never star in a movie together. For some reason I confuse them all visually in what I like to call the "Tom Jane/Aaron Eckhart Effect."

• I didn't really have much use for Justin Long until the closing moments of the film. He essentially embodied "boring boyfriend" for most of the movie.
  

*Thank God For Bulletpoints
** According to the fine people at the IMDB Ted Raimi was in the movie in a "blink and you'll miss him" moment.