Best. Horror. Ever.

I've always had a fondness for Sam Raimi and I'm not sure why. Despite understanding the appeal of the Evil Dead series, I never really rated them, and the Spider-man films really weren't great looking back on them. But knowing that Drag Me To Hell was written and directed by Mr Raimi (with a little help from Ivan Raimi, presumably his brother) inclined me to see it. The second reason I wanted to see it was because a fearless friend of mine told me whilst drunk that there were moments when he was so scared he actually couldn't watch. A fact he now denies.

So I braced myself and ventured to the cinema (I say ventured, that implies an epic journey... it's really just down the road.) Within two minutes I'm jumped out of my pants and was, for the first time in a long time actually frightened. (I'm talking in a cinema setting. My new HD TV died the other day and I was terrified until I realised it was just a fuse.)

Drag Me To Hell doesn't ease you in gently. At all. In fact it throws you in head-first. It then naturally chills out for a while, as horror films must, but this is where the genius of Raimi kicks in. When Drag Me To Hell begins to build up, you can never be sure if what it's building up to will be down-right terrifying, or a taste of Sam Raimi's signiture comic horror. Or some strange combination of the two. This uncertainty makes the funny bits funnier and the frightening bits, well, you get me...

The lead character, Christine, played by Alison Lohman is surprisingly likable for a female lead in a horror film. As is her unbelieving partner, played by the recognisable Justin Long.

Drag Me To Hell really does treat you to some fantastic set pieces and doesn't get repetative with the scares. Each is quite different in its approach. In fact, I'm desperately trying to think of a bad thing to say about this film and I'm really struggling. So I'm going to go all out and just say it:

Best horror film ever.

There. I said it. I'll probably remember some other film that I loved right after I click post, but hell, until then...