Drag Me to Hell

Last night was pretty quiet. I spent most of the time reading Coldheart Canyon by Clive Barker. It's a horror novel about a major Hollywood movie star who becomes the target a horde of ghosts and monsters which he discovers in a deserted Hollywood mansion. It's pretty good so far, I'm about halfway through it. The rest of the evening was spent watching Red Dwarf and playing Sonic the Hedgehog as well as continuing with my writing, as far as possible, which wasn't really very far, because I've pretty much got stuck and researching moving to Canada.

Today was pretty quiet. My parents are on holiday in Madeira until tomorrow and so I didn't go out anywhere to eat today. I went along to the Cineworld cinema and saw Drag Me to Hell, directed by Sam Raimi. The movie tells the story of Christine Brown (played by Alison Lohman, replacing Ellen Page who was cast but dropped out) who works as a loan officer in a Los Angeles bank. In an attempt to impress her boss and get a promotion, she refuses to grant an extension on the mortgage of an elderly woman (Lorna Raver) who is about to be evicted. The woman places a curse on Christine causing her to be tormented by supernatural forces for a period of three days before a demon is due to arrive to take her to Hell. The movie is very reminiscent of the 1950s horror movie Night of the Demon which was in turn based on an MR James short story from 1911 called "Casting the Runes" and was also about someone cursed to be tormented for three days by a demonic force. However, while Night of the Demon was famous for it's subtle approach, Drag Me to Hell pretty much pulls out all the stops, especially when it comes to the volume levels - it's probably the loudest film I've seen in the cinema this year. It is a lot of fun and it's good to see Sam Raimi, who directed the Evil Dead movies, back to the kind of horror movies that made his name.