In 1981 (the year I was born) a little movie called Evil Dead by an unknown filmmaker named Sam Raimi was released to American audiences.  You can watch the original trailer here.  I didn’t see Evil Dead until I was a senior in High School, 18 years later.  This cult classic was the breakout film for both Sam Raimi and his childhood friend and leading actor in the film, Bruce Campbell.  Evil Dead is a campy horror film at its best.  Stranded in a haunted shack in the middle of the forest a group of teenagers must fight off ghouls.  It’s cheesy and seems dated watching it 20+ years later but Evil Dead never gave you a break, it made you tense from beginning to end.  Raimi’s style can seem comic bookish and over-the-top at times, but all the quick zooms, tilted camera shots and other tricks he used to make you feel the tension just plain worked.  Sure, there was a fair share of gore in Evil Dead, but it was the tension built up on screen that made it a scary movie.  This critical skill in making scary movies is lost on so many of today’s horror filmmakers.  Instead of suspense they drown you in gore, instead of building anxiety they saturate the screen with demented images to disturb rather than to frighten.  Jaws is still a horror (or Thriller) classic because of all the anxiety built up.  It is preciesly because you almost never see the shark that it’s so scary.  And so I’ve become jaded in my search for moddern horror/thriller films that gleefully frighten rather than turn your stomach in disgust.  Sam Raimi’s most recent venture back into the horror genre, Drag Me to Hell, is that movie.

But I almost missed it.  The promotion on the film seemed really small in light of how good it was.  It was only after hearing about Drag Me to Hell on Fresh Air that I found out Raimi was directing it (at which point I ran out and bought a ticket).  The plot is simple, the acting is well done but it is Raimi’s vision that makes Drag Me to Hell a gleeful fright-fest.  This is campy horror (on a big budget) that didn’t sell out.  All of Raimi’s old cinema tricks from Evil Dead make this a fun and scary movie.  And in my book shutters that bang open and shut incessantly when you’re home alone trump meat hooks any day.  Oh, and fans of European horror/thriller films like Spoorloos will appreciate the ending.