Drag Me To Hell
Directed by: Richard Jobson
Starring: Dougray Scott, Alastair Mackenzie, James Anthony Pearson
If you happen to find yourself at home this Hallowe’en weekend and in the mood for a good fright, you could do an awful lot worse than scaring yourself silly with Sam Raimi’s excellent Drag Me to Hell.
When trying to prove herself to her boss, bank clerk Christine (Alison Lohman) refuses to extend the morgtage of a creepy Baba Yaga-looking Hungarian lady. The crone’s unhappy response is to curse the unassuming Christine with the Lamia – three days of supernatural torment by a satanic goat culminating in the cursed having their soul dragged into the underworld.
But there’s a catch – the curse can be given away. Whatever should a good girl do?
Sam Raimi’s first non-Spiderman film since 2002, Drag Me to Hell marks a fantastic return to form for the director since the lousy Spiderman 3.
Creepy, freaky, sometimes disgusting and mostly bloody scary, DMtH showcases every single sneaky directorial trick in Raimi’s arsenal to horrify the audience without having to resort to the blood or brutality of the lokes of Saw.
It’s also extremely funny. Not “let’s stop the action for some slapstick” funny but more that giddy, freaked out funny that made Wes Craven’s Scream so much fun.
The annoyingly underappreciated Alison Lohman fills Christine with an impressive humanity. She is neither cartoon ditz nor Sarah Connor-style superwoman.
A rational, modern lady she tries to rationalise the spooky situation surrounding her and only towards the end is allowed to slip into a sort of Bruce Campbell in The Evil Dead homage. It’s a weird transition but one that the film more than happily pulls off.
As satisfying a frightfest as has been filmed in years, the ending alone is worth the price of rental.

X-Men origins: Wolverine
Directed by: Harold Ramis
Starring: Jack Black, Michael Cera, a cast of Biblical thousands
Disappointed. That’s the only word that eloquently, or even adequately, expresses how Wolverine will leave you feeling, either as a comic book fan or a casual film afficiando.
Attempting to build on the extraordinary work done by Hugh Jackman in the role of cranky super hero, Wolverine in the first two X-Men movies – all claws, snarling and sideburns – the cinematic powers-that-be deemed that, despite Brett Ratner’s X-Men 3 sucking mightily, a solo project based on the character would be appropriate.
Which would’ve been fine if it made use of some of the excellent storylines featured in the Wolverine’s comic books down the years. Instead, however, director Gavin Hood opts for a slightly mangled origin tale that A) differs quite wildly from the comic book canon – way to alienate your core audience Gav and B) isn’t very good anyway – way to alienate the watching public who prefer their films to not be annoying.
Affected by the same problems as X-3 and Spiderman 3, Wolverine tries to cram too many characters and too much plot into its running time.
Logan goes from scared child to soldier of fortune to soulful lumberjack before gathering pace and embarking on a revenge quest that name checks about half a million marvel characters. Yet, despite this shattergun approach, it still manages to be quite boring at times.
Shouldering the burrden of bad guy responsibilites are Liev Schreiber and Danny Heuston. Both excellent actors in their own right, they soldier manfully with a leaden script that lacks any of the wit of the first two X offerings.
Jackan is also excellent but even his charisma can’t save what disappointing, dead duck of a movie.