Drag Me to Hell has been a favorite of mine since its release. Campy, stylish, and wickedly fun, it teeters on the edge of occult horror and full-blown madness. Sam Raimi takes a story as mundane as a loan officer denying a mortgage extension and turns it into a curse that spirals out of control.

The premise is simple: say no to the wrong person, and you’ll find yourself hunted by a vengeful spirit. From there, the film erupts into chaos with slimy gross-outs, demonic hooves, and a cursed button that seals our heroine’s fate. Raimi wastes no time pulling the audience into his carnival of shocks. Every scare is timed like a punchline and every disgusting gag is played for both horror and humor.

What makes it so effective is how grounded the world feels. The settings are ordinary, almost suburban, which makes the supernatural absurdity all the more entertaining. The dinner scene with her boyfriend’s parents is a perfect example: you can feel the discomfort radiating from the screen as everything unravels, and you can’t help but wish for her that none of this had ever happened.

The cast leans all the way in. Justin Long is convincing as the sweet, clueless boyfriend who has no idea how to navigate the curse closing in on them. Alison Lohman throws herself into the role of Christine, enduring humiliation, terror, and buckets of slime with a sincerity that keeps the madness anchored. Her performance is both sympathetic and unhinged, which is exactly why it works.

This is Raimi at his most mischievous. You can draw a line from The Evil Dead to Drag Me to Hell: the same mix of possession, gore, and slapstick comedy, now sharpened with studio polish. Raimi delivers séances with possessed goats, flying corpses, and even a Looney Tunes-style anvil gag, and somehow it all feels right at home in his grotesque funhouse.

Many dismiss Drag Me to Hell as too silly or too gross to be taken seriously, but that misses the point. Horror doesn’t always have to be somber. It can be outrageous, theatrical, and gleeful in its cruelty. Raimi proves that absurdity and realism can live side by side, and the result is both hilarious and horrifying.