Watch Sam Raimi’s Looney Tunes-esque horror film, now on Netflix

Just a little over midway into Drag Me to Hell, the protagonist is trapped in a device shed, choking on a throatful of demon. Christine, the sympathetic however nonetheless damned mortgage officer, is pinned towards a bar, about to asphyxiate on this outdated (undead) lady’s arm. Luckily, Christine’s received an ice skate in her hand… and there’s an anvil above her supernatural adversary’s head. You can virtually hear Daffy Duck groveling, “Thisth meansth war.”

So goes the logic of Sam Raimi’s final (and as of this writing, ultimate) horror movie, which was summoned to Netflix this month for a much-deserved cultural revival. Why is there an anvil hanging in a device shed? Well, as a result of Christine goes to chop it down, after all. And when the anvil drops, it isn’t going to simply topple the outdated girl. It’s going to squash her, and jettison a pair of eyeballs (with a facet of unfastened scalp) into Christine’s mouth. Yummy.

Directed by Raimi in full Bugs Bunny mode, Drag Me to Hell is an antidote to the self-seriousness of many fashionable horror motion pictures, which might ignore how foolish ghouls and goblins are in favor of labored metaphors about trauma. Luckily, 2023 motion pictures like M3GAN and The Blackening have proven us that new horror can have enjoyable too, however the cathartically vulgar violence and cursing goats of Drag Me to Hell really feel like a particular Acme model of horror comedy that merely doesn’t exist anymore. It’s careless. It’s enjoyable. It’s straight-up Looney Tunes.

Image: Universal

Raimi and his collaborators first conjured up their model of this idiotic — but painstakingly choreographed — camp horror again within the ’80s with the landmark Evil Dead trilogy. Those motion pictures should not a lot comedy-horror movies as they’re scatalogical fireworks shows with a cartoon high quality to the jokes that draw clear and specific influences from the Three Stooges.

But as Raimi grew extra common and reworked as a director, largely leaving the horror style behind, the style shifted away from him, too. By the time he was achieved along with his triumphantly worthwhile Spider-Man trilogy, it was the 2000s, and movies like The Blair Witch Project and Saw had ushered in a completely totally different form of horror panorama that contained about as a lot slapstick as Porky Pig has pants.

Drag Me to Hell debuted in 2009 to surprisingly middling preliminary box-office returns (although it made some huge cash in the long term). While it is rather a lot a horror film — and a scary one at that — it punctuates its most annoying scares (just like the outdated girl sticking her arm down Christine’s throat) with the silliest bits (an anvil exploding the demon’s head). It’s by this legitimately jolting distinction that Raimi is ready to create such an off-kilter and unpredictable tone, by no means giving us the advantage of figuring out whether or not we’re protected in joke territory or if we’re about to witness one thing actually, actually horrific.

Even the film’s setup looks like a type of Elmer Fudd episodes the place we all know very effectively he’s doomed from the beginning… however one way or the other, we’re nonetheless shocked when he finally ends up with a pie within the face. Drag Me to Hell goes like this: Christine refuses to increase a mortgage for a really determined outdated girl on the financial institution. The girl, Mrs. Ganush, locations a curse on her. The curse dictates Christine will likely be dragged to hell in three days. Christine does all the things she will to absolve herself of the curse, akin to chopping up and burying her cat (not humorous) and conspiring with a stressed spirit who performs the trombone (very humorous).

Image: Universal

There are glimpses of the Looney Tunes brutality Raimi delivered to horror in comedy sequence like The Eric Andre Show and I Think You Should Leave… however I can’t consider a single latest horror film that’s keen to go Merrie Melodies gonzo. Barbarian (coincidentally additionally starring Justin Long) will get shut, however there’s nonetheless a veneer of atmospheric dread that retains it from totally being just like the proudly unpolished, uncool movies of Raimi. And that’s a bit of tragic. Because the very best horror movies are visceral experiences. And Drag Me to Hell is an excellent barrage of the senses, a full-on onslaught of eyeballs coming out of desserts and bugs flying into (and out of) nostrils.

Raimi not too long ago stated in a Reddit AMA that he’s open to a sequel to Drag Me to Hell, ought to the correct script come round. For now, not less than I can watch Mrs. Ganush vomit maggots into Christine’s face on Netflix. As a smart pig as soon as stated: That’s all, of us!

Drag Me to Hell is now streaming on Netflix.