Drag yourself to 'Hell'

June 7, 5:10 PMLA Movie ExaminerJim Luksic

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Alison Lohman, Sam Raimi, Justin Long (AP)

Just as there's no rest for the wicked, there's no deception in the title Drag Me to Hell.

Director and co-writer Sam Raimi has carved up an amusing frightfest with panache, making it as captivating as it is irrational. The movie seethes with supernatural forces and special-effects, yet is no more implausible than The Hangover.

After a fleeting introduction takes us inside an unlucky house from decades earlier (past is prologue), we fast-forward to a comely bank employee (Alison Lohman, grown up since Matchstick Men and resembling a young Jessica Lange).

She politely refuses a creepy old woman's request for a mortgage extension, only to be cursed by the hag ("You shamed me!") 

Audiences won't need a crystal ball to see what's in store: A living hell soon envelops our heroine, who sacrifices a cat before ultimately requiring a seance. And the demonic beat goes on.

Raimi gets savvy support in spades: Justin Long, once again in nice-guy mode a la He's Just Not That into You, balances out his significant other's satanic stress; while veteran character actors Chelcie Ross (Hoosiers), Molly Cheek and -- as bank manager -- David Paymer (Quiz Show) are spot-on.

It all comes back to Raimi, the ambitious filmmaker known for his Spider-Man and Evil Dead projects, though I'm partial to more modest works such as A Simple Plan and For the Love of the Game.

This time Raimi has managed to construct a refined thriller, not unlike Roman Polanski's underpraised The Ninth Gate, and delivers the goods with tongue-in-cheek audacity.