Drag Me To Hell

Maybe Sam Raimi didn't set out to make a perfect monster film but Drag Me to Hell exists in that rare category of horror classics. Many films are made but few are chosen to lead the pack. Some will say Raimi has returned to form but to me he was always firing on all cylinders as a director.
The story was written by Raimi and his brother Ivan nearly a decade ago as a short story, recently taken out of the drawer, dusted off and turned into a screenplay. As a nod to another era the Universal logo that opens the movie is from the 80s, the same decade when Raimi made the first two Evil Dead films. Raimi's style doesn't seem so much like a throwback to another era (there's plenty of CGI in DMTH) as it's defined by his singular touch that mixes scary images with comic timing. Nobody pops eyeballs out of demons and into the mouths of babes like Raimi.
Drag Me To Hell only made me scream out loud once and it was more of a "got me off guard" muffled yell than an out and out blood curdling scream. After repeated scares accompanied by loud noises I noticed one passage where the chill factor was brought on by silence. DMTH conjures moments from Raimi's own Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn as well as the 50s classic Night of the Demon. Raimi's one of a handful of directors who can appropriate classic images from horror and sci-fi films and actually make them better (Joe Dante would be another).
Petite bank loan officer Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) decides she must be heartless in her job if she wants a promotion. Unfortunately the first person she refuses to help happens to be a Hungarian gypsy woman (Lorna Raver) with a glass eye and a penchant for Satanic curses. Christine's fiance Clay (Justin Long) at first hesitates to believe something supernatural has occurred. A fortune teller Christine consults (Dileep Rao) realizes the full potential of the spell, only he himself at first wants nothing to do with her. Reluctantly he reveals more to Christine, and for a price arranges a seance that may be the last hope she has before being, yes you guessed it, drug kicking and screaming to a flaming bottomless pit beneath the surface of normalcy.
Humorous moments spring from the most horrific ideas and include the rampant momentum of the curse leading Christine to take actions outside her realm of comfort. This will be known as the kitty cat scene. Also the interaction with minor characters like Clay's parents and a rival bank loan officer are laced with sarcastic undertones. Drag Me To Hell may be genre filmmaking but it had me glued to the screen from beginning to end rapt with cinematic joy.

Thursday night film events!

Once nicknamed the "Eighth Wonder of the World" the Astrodome was the first domed sports stadium when it opened in 1965. Join us at the Contemporary Art Museum (CAM, Bissonette @ Montrose) for a special screening of the Astrodome as portrayed in documentaries and films, curated by artist/curator Andrea Grover.

Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 6:30 p.m.

“The Pleasures of this Stately Dome,” 1975, Geoff Winningham, 54:00, 16mm on video, color, sound

A study of the Houston Astrodome as a folk theater, created on the 10th anniversary of the opening of the dome. The film includes vintage footage from the construction and grand opening of the Astrodome in 1965, plus footage from ten years of diverse and memorable shows.

“The Lord of the Universe,” 58:00, 1974, TVTV (Top Value Television), color, sound, video

Sixteen-year-old guru Marahaj Ji attempts to levitate the Houston Astrodome in this 1973 DuPont award winning documentary. Follow the guru from his New York mansion to limousines in Houston and listen to his followers celebrities and non-celebrities alike extol his virtues.

AND FOR FANS OF HEAVY METAL ...

Canadian heavy metal band Anvil will play a live music set immediately following the special 9:45 p.m. show of ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL at the Angelika Film Center, Thursday, May 28, 2009.

Summer Hours

Wile away the summer in the lush countryside. The hours are important in this French import because they turn into months and then generations. Director Oliver Assayas (Demonlover, Irma Vep) was the subject of a retrospective about five-years ago at the Rice Media Center. The RMC showed select films of his from the 80s and 90s. For the program Assayas had sent a list of music to be played before each film, different songs reflecting his state of mind when doing each film stated the notes. (I can fill you in on the exact songs if you contact me.)
You have to admire any director that took the time to write down a discography of mostly new wave and post punk songs to accompany showings of his earlier works. At the end of Summer Hours (L'Heure d'été) the credits roll with such a fresh sound and although I consider late 60s psychedelic folksters The Incredible String Band obscure by American standards those in the know accept it (the song is off their second LP The 5000 Spirits or The Layers of the Onion) as one of the core LPs from that era. Films by Oliver Assayas mean something.
Summer Hours imparts as much character into non-animate objects like designer armoires and desks, late 19th century vases and famous paintings as it does its human cast. The opening act matches bright summer light with the shadow of old age as the matriarch of a family informs her children the manner in which she wants the family heir looms divided after her death. One museum in particular wants some of the furniture while several sketch books of a close-friend famous artist promise a stampede at a Christy's auction in New York.
Successive sequences are drained of certain colors but the light's still strong. The three children have ties all over the world. One manages over slave labor at a Puma tennis shoe factory in the third world; another works in America (Juliette Binoche sporting a blond emo look); while the eldest brother advises on economics in Paris. When mom passes the idyll at the country house is less colorful. The reality of inheritance taxes and the expensive movement of art work through customs brings them down to Earth. At this point the film opens up to some other aspects of their lives, like the kids being in trouble at school. Then the adults leave the story entirely as we see the last sequence from the point-of-view of the daughter who was in trouble. The house has been sold but before the new ownership takes place her parents are letting her throw a party at the country residence. Assayas lets his camera roam the acreage. What truly gets passed on from generation to generation the filmmaker asks in the penultimate scene where we see the house's effects nicely displayed at the previously mentioned museum.