After blockbuster success with his Spiderman trilogy. Sam Raimi returns to his horror roots with this gross out wild cartoon ride with camp undertones.

Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is a loans officer looking for promotion. In order to impress her boss who thinks she is too nice. Christine refuses a loan extension to a weird old woman, Mrs Ganush. The angry woman feels shamed by Christine's actions and curses her.

Later Christine is attacked by Mrs Ganush who seems to possess supernatural strength. With her boyfriend Clay Dalton (Justin Long) they go to see a psychic Rham Jas. He tells Christine that she will be tormented by a special curse for three days and then dragged into hell.

This is not as low budget as the Evil Dead movies. A Bruce Campbell cameo is sadly missing. Horror movies fans will enjoy this especially with its dark humour and wild pace.

I did wonder why Mrs Ganush needed a loan extension, she could had sorted out the arrears from all those people who were in her house.

DRAG ME TO HELL sees Sam Raimi attempting to update his EVIL DEAD formula to the modern era, reinventing it as a teen-friendly comic horror about an unsuspecting bank worker who becomes a victim of a witch's curse. It sounds entertaining, and you'd think it would be easy for a man who once made it his job to bring fresh, energetic horror to our cinema screens.

Sadly, time has passed, and nowadays the formula seems a little stale. Raimi relies far too much on CGI in this movie, so that most of the (frequent) scare scenes are fake-looking and cartoonish; sometimes making this look like a Looney Tunes cartoon done via live action. I'd much have preferred practical effects, because then the film wouldn't have been so cheesy and laughable.

The mood is all over the place, too. The witch's curse storyline has real potential to be interesting, but none of the scare scenes work, mainly because Raimi goes for the gross-out over the genuinely spooky. There's a kind of infantile relish in watching a toothless old crone slobbering over her victim that makes me wonder what exactly he was thinking of. Playing it straight would have worked far better, I think.

The cast is nothing to write home about, with performances ranging from the pantomime (Dileep Rao) to the decent (David Paymer). As the heroine, Alison Lohman tries very hard to convince, although she does fail to elicit much sympathy. The pacing's good, though, and there are plenty of set-pieces and jump-in-your-seat moments, so undemanding horror fans might find themselves entertained regardless. Sometimes, though, Raimi goes too far; take the goat scene: just what on earth was he thinking?

Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is a loans officer in a fight for the assistant manager job. She is afraid that she's too nice. Her boyfriend Clay Dalton (Justin Long)'s mother doesn't think much of her either. Then an old woman Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) comes in for a loan extension and her boss Mr. Jacks (David Paymer) leaves it up to her. She refuses the extension despite the old woman begging. She feels shamed and places a curse on her with her button. It's a curse that will send her to hell. She goes to see a store front psychic Rham Jas.

This is a great old fashion horror from Sam Raimi. The old lady is both gruesome and hilarious. Alison Lohman is the cute perfect victim and she screams well. The story isn't anything original but it's lots of fun. There is some CGI but I really love the real effects. It's a simple thing to fire junk at a girl's face. It goes up a notch when she's screaming with her mouth wide open. That's this movie. Raimi is using every trick in his book. The only scene I have a problem with is the old lady in the tool shed. It's a bit cartoonish for an anvil to be hanging from the ceiling. Dropping it on her head looked more like a Road Runner cartoon and using CGI really limits the horror fun. Otherwise, the movie is done with a nice sense of humor. It's the blend of horror and comedy that makes this such a great ride.