May

29

Plot:  A loan officer ordered to evict an old woman from her home finds herself the recipient of a supernatural curse, which turns her life into a living hell. Desperate, she turns to a seer to try to save her soul, while evil forces work to push her to a breaking point. 

The story itself is classic Raimi, revolving around an evil curse that causes bad things to happen to normal people. Proceedings kick off in Pasadena, Calif. in 1969 and involve a young boy stealing a bracelet from a gypsy and the dire, hell-dragging consequences that follow. A crowd-pleasing pre-credit sequence, it perfectly sets the scene for what is to follow -- 90 minutes of unadulterated, uncompromising horror heaven.

The film then cuts to the present day and follows the efforts of ambitious loan officer Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) to earn a promotion at work. According to her boss, this will involve "making the tough decisions," and so when the elderly Mrs. Ganush comes in requesting help with the payments on her house, Christine flatly turns her down, then humiliates the woman as she begs for help.

This is a mistake. The woman's long, dirty nails, thick Eastern European accent and malevolently evil eye single her out as a gypsy, and as everyone who has ever refused an offer of "lucky heather" knows, you shouldn't mess with gypsies. Ganush attacks Christine in the office, then later as she heads home for the day, and this is where the film really takes off.

The sequence in and around Christine's car is a true horror tour-de-force. Raimi employs all his creative skills to craft a scene that's shocking, disturbing, terrifying and hilarious all at once. He makes a handkerchief threatening. He turns a stapler into a potentially deadly weapon. And he does things with teeth -- jagged teeth, missing teeth and even a set of aging dentures -- that had the audience going wild.

The scene is signature Raimi, combining highly stylised horror with humour to create genuine spectacle that smashes you round the head like a sledgehammer. And if there's any criticism, it's that the film struggles to top the sequence from here-on-in.

Raimi and Co. do their best, however, as Christine has now been hit by the deadly curse of the Lamia that will result in her being dragged through the demonic ringer. Cue a visit to a fortune teller and much soul-searching as our heroine has to decide how far she will go to break the gypsy curse, and some inspired action involving maggots, flies, and a talking goat that will live long in the memory.

To reveal any more would be to ruin the many surprises that the filmmaker has up his sleeve, but suffice to say that a decade spent working in the mainstream universe of the Spider-Man movies hasn't diminished Raimi's capacity to deliver sick, twisted, macarbre celluloid.

He's also nailed it in terms of cast. Lohman is a revelation as the woman whose life is turned into a living hell, her gradual descent into curse-induced madness extremely convincing, and her transformation from sweet loan officer to tough-talking, butt-kicking warrior a joy to behold.

Trivia:  Ellen Page dropped out due to scheduling problems.