Firstly, let me say that I had been waiting for this movie for a while before I saw it. I guess sometimes, you build something up too much and it can't help but disappoint. That is what happened with this movie. Don't get me wrong, I did like it, but it was far from great. I liked the Evil Dead movies which I have reviewed here and here so I kinda thought that this movie would be similar which was a mistake. It stars Alison Lohman and Justin Long. It is directed, of course, by Sam Raimi.
It begins with a child being brought to a woman called Shaun San Dena. He has been cursed and the Devil is coming to take him to Hell. She tries to help him, but she fails and he is dragged down to Hell. The movie then cuts to Christine Brown(Lohman) who is working in a bank and she wants to get a promotion to assistant manager. There is another employee, Stu(Reggie Lee) who is battling for it too. She wants to look tougher to her boss so she turns down a loan application for an old woman, Sylvia Ganush(Lorna Raver). Little does she know that the woman is a gypsy and when she thinks that Christine has humiliated her, she puts a curse on her. She is waiting for Christine after work and she takes a button from her jacket and puts the curse on her.
Christine is shaken and she is met by her boyfriend, Clay(Justin Long). He thinks that it is the shock of what has happened that is making her imagine things. Christine sees a fortune teller and she goes inside to have her fortune told. Rham Jas(Dileep Rao) is perturbed by what he sees in her future and he tells her to go. He tells her that there is a dark spirit after her. From this point on, Christine is terrified by all sorts of spooky happenings as the spirit torments her. She sees things and she hears the spirit coming after her. Clay wonders if she is cracking up at first, but he begins to believe her after a while. She goes back to Rham and he tells her that the spirit haunting her is called a Lamia and that it will come for her after three days and drag her to hell. He tells her that a sacrfice might appease it, but after sacrificing a poor kitty cat(which I found repulsive because I am a huge cat lover) she finds out that it doesn't work.She tries a seance with Shaun San Dena and that doesn't work.
They eventually figure out that Christine has to give the button away to pass on the curse to someone else. She decides to go the the grave of the recently deceased Mrs. Ganush and she gives her the button back, but little does she know that she got the button mixed up with a coin belonging to her boyfriend and she has given Mrs. Ganush a useless coin! She is horrifed and then she falls in front of a speeding train and she is pulled down to Hell...
As I have already said, this movie is good, but not great and there were some cliches which I found off putting, but hey, it's only a movie and it is a lot better than some I have seen recently. At least it gave me a laugh! Some of the scares were good and I liked the old biddy who was cursing her.Did anyone else notice the similarity to a story by Stephen King called Thinner? I thought that this was very like that story.Jigsaw hated it and wanted to give it a 0/10, but I am going to be kind and give it a 6/10.
Yes it was a mix of Thinner and a little Evil Dead. Thought it was a lot of fun to see at the theater and of course I am a Raimi mark - so I definitely recommend it to others.
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