DVD Capsule Review: Drag Me To Hell (Unrated)

Limited features? What's up with that?

By: Sara Michelle Fetters
Published: Tuesday, October 13th 2009 at 1:14 AM

BRAD'S THEATRICAL REVIEW: READ IT HERE

QUICK THOUGHTS: Drag Me to Hell is a glorious return to the horror genre for director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man). The movie contains all the unhinged lunacy you'd expect from the director of the Evil Dead trilogy including some projectile maggot vomiting, nasty nasal blood spurts and a talking demonic goat as a young woman (Alison Lohman) declines an elderly gypsy (Lorna Raver) a mortgage extension and suffers the consequences of her decision.

As crazy as the movie gets, Raimi keeps things emotionally grounded through the use of the relationship between Christine and her caring (if befuddled) boyfriend Clay (Justin Long), the one element to which everything else revolves. Beyond the emotional, Raimi never lets his foot come off the gas pedal as the film moves at such a breakneck pace it's easy to get swept up in all the hysteria.

SUPPLEMENTS: There is little to talk about in regards to special features. The DVD presents both the PG-13 theatrical cut as well as an unrated director's cut, both versions running an identical 99 minutes. As far as differences are concerned there's a bit more blood in the unrated cut as well as an additional F-bomb, but otherwise the separation is fairly negligible. The disc also contains about a dozen or so Video Production Diaries ranging from goat wrangling to the best way to make blood shoot out of an actor's nostrils. Most of them are interesting, but none are good enough on their own to warrant more than a single glance.

FINAL THOUGHTS: As a visceral foray back to his horror roots Raimi has constructed a picture difficult to dislike. The film goes straight for the jugular and offers up a multitude of scares. While the DVD is relatively underwhelming (I would have loved a commentary track) Drag Me to Hell is still so enjoyable I think picking it up for a rental is a total no-brainer.