That sounds like so much fun! Let us know how it went!
I’m recovering from a buttered popcorn and Diet Coke hangover… We went to a matinee today and had a ball! What a great horror movie! It had everything…gore, laughs, suspense, over-acting…
Funny story. I went to the bathroom in the middle of the flick. It was deserted. After peeing, I stood up and the toilet flushed automatically. It scared me so badly I nearly wet the pants I was trying to pull up. And the theater didn’t even charge extra…
Composer Christopher Young has never been Academy nominated, and this film certainly won’t change that, but his work here is really exemplary. Top-notch, my fave score for 2009 thus far.
I really, really enjoyed it. If I hadn’t seen the movie rating beforehand, I would’ve sworn it was rated R. The heroine was completely believable, and, well… incredibly cute.
I must admit, though, that the switch at the end didn’t surprise me- I totally saw that coming.
Me too. In fact I imagine most people would. But what I thought would happen with it is that they would go to the cabin where much mayhem would pursue. Then they would realise they were cursed and would have to live out their lives together, trading the button back and forth every three days, taking their turn for three days of hell forever and ever amen. (And then the sequel would have them finally figuring out how to get rid of it, except that something else would go wrong.)
It was a lot of fun. No torture porn, no cruelty for cruelty’s sake. Raimi underplayed the ‘demon slap’ comedy sequences compared to Evil Dead, which I appreciated. The lead actress was believable, and her makeup was well done; she looked like a frazzled tweeker when she was being tormented by the demon. The tormenting plot was very well done too, good use of lighting, reaction shots, etc. I really liked the shadows under the door sequence too. I agree that it looked like a return to old movie-making techniques, which I found charming.
I liked the subplot with the co-worker & his come-uppance. Also the dinner with the fiancee’s parents.
My date totally spoiled the envelope switch, which I had forgotten, but would have remembered on my own a couple minutes later.
I really liked that there was no readily-identifiable insertion point for a sequel. .
I think I want to see it in the theater a second time, maybe in a diferent venue and with a different date.
I saw the movie on Friday at 10:00pm, with a really loud, talky audience, and it was the only movie I can think of where that was actually the best way to see it. The movie was fantastic, and the reactions of everyone around me just served to heighten the fun.
This is especially true of the people right behind my friend and I; one of the women in the group was absolutely AMAZING. Favorite audience reaction moment:Allison Lohman gets in her car in the garage, and the camera pans around 180 degrees, and stops when you see the Gypsy woman in shadow in the back seat.The entire theatre was dead silent, waiting for the scare beat, and right when it comes the woman behind me screams OH, FUCK!!! at the top of her lungs. The entire theatre erupted in laughs. Truly a brilliant moment at the cinema.
Jester, you weren’t watching it today in Houston, were you? I worship Sam Raimi, and this was classic stuff, I loved every freaking second. However, I screamed out loud seven or eight times, jumped out of my seat, watched half the movie through my hands, etc. I am a horror freak and have never had so many scares in my life, everyone was laughing around me.
And yes, the sound and score was incredible. And the goat!!!
I am a quiet, polite audience member. I shush folks in the theater, including members of my own party. If I must laugh, I try to keep it in control. I try not to interrupt others’ movie going experiences.
That said, when the heroine stabs the cake with the fork, I noticed I heard someone yelling. No words, just “AAAAAAAAAGH!” Then I realized it was me. It was a very enjoyable movie.
mariposalabrown I was watching in Chicago, sadly, so unless you were screaming really loud, I think it might’ve been somebody else. I’m glad to hear that my audience wasn’t an outlier, though; seeing the movie with tons of active, screaming people really enhanced the experience for me (partly because it lessened the tension occasionally; I’m a major wuss when it comes to horror).
Almost forgot another highlight of the evening; when Lohman is running from the Lamia, goes upstairs and locks her door, a guy behind me (other side of the row from the “Oh, Fuck!” lady) yells out “THAT AIN’T GONNA DO SHIT!”
Just saw it this afternoon. I closed my eyes at all the icky stuff.
My favorite part – the only part where I was really engaged – was when Christine was in the diner looking for candidates for the button and realizing that she didn’t have it in her to pass her bad luck on to someone else.
Loved the score and the opening credits. They felt very Tales of the Crypt-like.
This movie, like “Thinner” and a few others, made me wonder again… if Gypsies have such powerful magic, why do they all live in such squalor???
Is sending other people to horrible deaths the only power they have? If so, couldn’t they find some way to parlay that into wealth or comfort??? If you’ve got magic on your side, couldn’t you use it to get the money to pay your freaking mortgage???
So we weren’t the only ones annoyed by this? There has to be a male goat-demon somewhere in mythology (the darker side of Pan), so why call him a Lamia when he’s neither female nor snake-y?
I didn’t expect the comedy, since that’s lacking in the commericals. It was kind of jarring, considering what the rest of the movie was like.
something that must be said
the moment I saw that kitten, I knew it was toast. poor kitty!
I haven’t seen this movie, but I remember that maybe 10 years ago there was talk of Raimi working on a film project with the working title The Lamia that I think was about a woman who was turning into a lamia or something. I was already using “Lamia” as a username at that time, so this caught my attention. As far as I can recall the rumored movie I heard about then didn’t sound like Drag Me to Hell aside from there being a woman and a lamia, so I’m guessing that maybe Raimi just wanted to use something from his abandoned project. He seems the type who would be up on his mythology, so I’d expect that he knows perfectly well that the mythical lamia wasn’t a goat demon.
I personally remain a female snake demon, no matter what it says in the movies!
