My anticipation was high for this film. A new horror film by Sam Raimi, famed director extraordinaire of such modern day tales such as the Evil Dead trilogy and the Spider-Man films? Excellent!
Then Benoit comes into work and says “Meh.” and a fear comes over me. Is it actually all hype?
I popped the film in last night and I have emerged with the following breaking news bulletin.
It’s a great campy horror film.
Who doesn’t like a little camp in their films? Camp definition: something that provides sophisticated, knowing amusement, as by virtue of its being artlessly mannered or stylized, self-consciously artificial and extravagant, or teasingly ingenuous and sentimental.
The film follows a Christine Brown who pisses off an old gypsy lady who puts a curse on her. The curse involves three days of haunting by a demon and on the end of the third day, chances are, you are being dragged to Hell by this demon. That’s a heavy-duty curse!
There are some great bits if you are a fan of Sam Raimi films…like the appearance of his 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88…I remember my parents having that car! In fact, I remember that being the first car I got into an accident with! Woops? Anyhow, that car shows up in every one of his films.
There are some great characters in this film…the psychic, the crazy old lady who keeps haunting Christine, the dude from the Mac commercials…brilliant!
All in all, I will admit that when I heard that this is the a really great horror film, I thought it would scare my pants to the ground (much like the first Evil Dead still does to this day), but in the end, there were some good shock moments, a good storyline (do you really need much story for a horror film? I think not!) and all in all, some good fun moments where you just have to laugh at the absurdity of it all. Classic Sam Raimi flick.