It doesn’t seem that long since Sam Raimi directed a horror movie, but it has been, going back to Evil Dead 2 in 1987 (that film’s follow-up, Army of Darkness, is a lot of things–comedy, action film, warped gladiator movie–but it’s a stretch to call it a horror film). Similarly, it seems like Raimi has directed a multitude of horror films, but, putting old short films aside, the only films that really qualify for that designation are the first two Evil Dead entries. There’s a reason for these misconceptions, though. Raimi, a director who has long embraced the possibilities in genre filmmaking, proudly allows the sensibility of the most gonzo horror flicks to seep into many of his efforts. His western jolts with its outrageous, almost comic violence, exemplified by the unfortunate loser of a gunfight sporting a gaping hole in his body that could allow passage of a pitched softball. He made a superheroic adventure with a protagonist whose costume could have easily been transplanted to the murderer in a slasher film, and presided over a bayou mystery awash in creepy supernatural details. He even brought a taste of that dark world to his candy-colored Spider-man films, sending Mrs. Otto Octavius to her tragic, untimely demise with her screaming visage reflected in the cascading shards of glass that ended her life. It was a pure Raimi moment embedded in a blockbuster, intended to inspire surprised laughter at the sheer audaciousness of his choice.

That same reaction is what his new film, Drag Me To Hell, is built to extract from the audience over and over again. The story is simplicity itself. A young bank employee puts personal ambition ahead of human sympathy by refusing to show mercy to an elderly woman behind on her home loan. The displaced elder exacts revenge by leveling a curse against this young woman who made her homeless. What follows is an escalating series of unsettling experiences: Shadows creep and grab, doors and windows slam open, desserts bubble and glare. Alison Lohman plays the beset woman with the appropriate level of rattled nerves and mounting worry, even if the script gives her little to dig into beyond reacting to the descending mania. That built-in limitation is fully characteristic of everything that’s right and wrong with Drag Me To Hell.

Raimi’s adoring thrill in pulling out the goriest playthings in his moviemaking toy box is clear, ingratiating and infectious. The film is packed with quick, messy, mean little set pieces. The script he wrote with his brother Ivan Raimi provides ample opportunity for the on set effects department to open up more tubs of goop than is commonplace, even for this sort of film. Though there are many moments when Raimi uses tricks and surprises to get the audience to jump, he’s more interested in shock through excess than trying to get people to turn away from the sadistic gruesomeness onscreen. Modern horror filmmakers may have moved on to sadistic torture and nasty-minded realism, but Raimi remains the guy who prefers his human gristle to display a little panache, maybe with an old Hollywood soft shoe. The new film has its gross moments, but Raimi’s going for appreciative laughs rather than testing the endurance of viewers.

Between those set pieces, the rest of the film is cursory at best. Situation are set-up and played out in the clearest, plainest fashion. Raimi is merely marking time between the scenes designed to let him play. That’s not unexpected for this sort of film. It’s even somewhat appropriate, comforting in its familiar approach to genre rhythms. It also gets a little dull. While it’s fun to watch Raimi pull out the stops elsewhere in the film, it would have been nice if he used the overall storytelling acumen he’s demonstrated in other works to make the time spent getting to those bumpy night funhouse rides more engaging. As it is, the movie is dark lark, but little more.

(Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”)