Sam Raimi returns to his horror roots in the unrelenting and cheerfully macabre spook tale, Drag Me To Hell.

And it is about time, too, since although Raimi’s recent output has been enjoyable, fans will always fondly remember the sheer lunacy and entertainment value of his Evil Dead films, those bastions of horror cinema that successfully melded high impact violence with cheeky slapstick.    

With no Bruce Campbell to torture, the mantle has been passed to a more than game Alison Lohman as Rami’s new plaything. She portrays Christine, a home loan officer who in an attempt to secure a promotion denies an extension to an elderly gypsy (Lorna Raver, spectacularly spooky), who in turn places a curse where a goat demon will literally drag Christine to hell in three days.

Throughout it all Lohman puts on a bravura performance, as she in thrown about, beaten up, and has her hair pulled out several times, while putting up with an endless stream of slime and the buzzing of flies.   

Drag Me To Hell is a welcome throwback to a time when horror cinema was as merciless as it was entertaining. With the multiplexes infested with the torture porn style of the Saw films, Raimi’s decision to return to the genre that made him could not be timed better.

Here is a master filmmaker who knows what he wants and how he wants the audience to react. Viewers will jump, laugh, shiver, and grimace, as if lured into an absurd dance with Raimi taking the lead. The films comedic moments shows that Raimi’s love for the Three Stooges is still strong, and blends very well with its horror elements, which is thrilling and features plenty of gross out moments.

Raimi’s patented style of kinetic camera work, coupled with excellent sound effects marks Drag Me To Hell as both a visual and aural treat. Further enhancing the films effect is Christopher Young’s score which conjures images of hell fire and brimstone.

Featured is an underlying theme about the nature of belief and its damnation of greedy corporations is obvious, yet Raimi is too smart to get bogged down by such affairs. Horror has not been this fun in a long time.