Horror films are always unpredictable. You can never know really what to expect. Now you add in the fact that the director of 'Drag Me', Sam Raimi, is most notably known for directing the 'Spiderman' franchise. Now how will a writer/director of a huge comic book super hero movie transition into the horror/thriller type of genre? Going into this one I figured that it could easily go either way, but I was optimistic because the trailer seemed interesting. (The people who make trailers really should be paid more, LOL)Now I will be the first to admit, I am NOT a huge fan of horror movies. So I probably will be a bit overly critical when reviewing them. But I do feel that the criticism I have for this one is well warranted. I was actually very impressed with the writing and the story line in this one. It was a pretty imaginative idea. One thing that I enjoyed about this is the fact that I prefer a supernatural enemy as opposed to some guy with a big ol' knife running around hacking up people in horror films. We get introduced to the "villain" in the opening sequence of the film. And we very quickly learn that it is completely without remorse or any type of sorrow whatsoever.
The biggest downfall of this film is the ridiculously over animated violence scenes. **SPOILER ALERT** I severely hate to give away actual scenes from the movie, but there is a scene where the woman attacking our lead actress sticks her entire arm down her throat. Yaaaaaaawn. **END SPOILER** There are quite a few scenes kind of like this. I don't mind gore, I don't mind excessive violence... but I do mind sillieness. (The whole hair pulling thing became really old and really stupid after the second time. And i think it happened about 5 times. LOL)
I was not overly impressed with the skill of our lead, Alison Lohman, by any means. She was standard at best. I enjoyed the job that Justin Long (the Mac guy) gave us in that film. He was the one small dose of reality as he played our hero's other half. Most impressive is a relative unknown by the name of Dileep Rao. I have never seen him before and IMDB.com has him as only being in a couple of random TV show episodes before this. But I am confident that we will see more of him. His somewhat eerie demeanor mixed with his genuine emotion really stood out to me.
Overall, the film was not bad. To be honest, if Lohman was replaced and the comedic silly violent scenes were redirected to go another direction, the film would've be fairly high on my charts. But as it is, I'd give it about a 6 out of 10. If you like horror films, check it out. But if you aren't a big fan of the genre... you can definitely wait until this one is in the NetFlix cue.
** A light yellow spoiler alert means it is very slight and not detrimental to the story.
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7 comments:
6/10 not bad. Actually going with a group tonight to see it. Surprised that Long was good considering the last movies I remember seeing him in were Jeepers Creepers & Dodgeball which I only remember since he got hit by a wrench.
I do wish they'd get better actresses to play these parts. Takes away from the movie so much when you have the usual blonde with the horrible acting in front of the camera the entire movie.
Good post AD, keep it up.
Only because of the Comic book movie flood has Rami gained notoriety on the Spiderman series. He has done a ton of good films. In fact he’s no stranger to the horror genre. I’d say he’s most known for the ‘Evil Dead’ (horror) series. He’s remaking it in a year or so.
While I'll agree with you that Rami began his fan base with 'Evil Dead' but I am pretty sure that more of today's movie goers will identify him with 'Spiderman'.
Just as Quentin Tarantino begun to build a fan base with 'Reservoir Dogs', but I guarantee you if you mention his name today more movie watchers will identify him with 'Pulp Fiction' and/or 'Kill Bill' than 'Reservoir Dogs.'
Thanks for the comments ATM. LMK how you liked it after you see it.
Actually was surprised by this film even after reading your review. Was like a breath of fresh air in the horror genre. Some of the CGI stuff was over the top but overall the movie was good. My arm twitched a few times had some decent scares.
After seeing it pretty much agree with what you said. Good looking. Hopefully future horror films take some notes on some of the stuff in this movie.
Glad you enjoyed it. And I do agree with you about the Horror genre could take a lot from this movie.
How did you feel about the performance of our leading lady?
She wasn't great but it was bearable. I'm a bit biased myself since I actually watch a ton of horror films and have just come to accept crappy female leads. With that being said she was better than average but I'd still like to see stronger female leads cast for these roles.
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