alison lohman Tagged Articles at Cinematical

(Spoilers herein.)

Okay, so you lot have had two weekends now with which to see Sam Raimi's sublimely ridiculous Drag Me to Hell, and I'm seeing the debate that a couple of us waged out in front of the Paramount at SXSW last March coming back around on a grander scale, so I want to open up the floor.

Some have claimed that the third-act twist -- in which Alison Lohman's character mistakenly gives away an envelope with a quarter instead of an envelope with a cursed button and is consequently dragged to, um, Hell -- is telegraphed so far in advance that it takes the suspense out of the last reel or so, while others (including yours truly) believe that Raimi is smarter than that, and knows that we're in for this ride anyway, so even if we know that her efforts to pass on the curse are futile, we'll take a certain pleasure in knowing that her fate is sealed regardless.

Sure, Raimi could have simply cut out an insert shot of everything falling on the floor and mixing up, thus letting himself slightly, temporarily off his own hook. Lohman's character could have simply reached into her boyfriend's bag and grabbed the wrong one (oddly enough, the button falls out of her purse -- which she's holding -- but the quarter was placed in her boyfriend's bag, which is nowhere to be seen...). But he does seem to go just enough out of his way to let us know what's afoot. If you've seen the film, what do you think - rookie mistake or intentional wink?

By Peter Martin (original publication date: 3/16/09 -- SXSW Film Festival)

Don't f*** with old ladies, especially if they have bad teeth and an evil curse up their sleeve. If there's anything new to be learned from Drag Me to Hell, director Sam Raimi's return to horror, it's that loan officers will have hell to pay if they dare to foreclose on your mortgage. It's a lesson that should make everyone stand up and cheer.

The film screened as a "work in progress" late last night at the completely packed Paramount Theater in Austin to a loud, raucous reaction. Some of the finer technical points clearly remain to be tweaked (sound, visual effects, maybe a little editing here and there) and end credits need to be added before its wide theatrical release on May 29. And in its present version, the ratings issue is still cloudy -- PG-13 or R?

But this much is clear: Raimi has made a joyful romp through his personal horror playground and come up with a very entertaining horror-comedy that gets back to the basics. By that I mean creepy shadows on the wall and things that go bump in the night: all the odd, unexplained sights and sounds that keep anxious children awake at night, hiding under the covers. Any inkling that Raimi's soul might have been irretrievably chewed up by the Hollywood studio machinery -- a well-founded concern after the disappointing Spider-Man 3 -- quickly evaporates once the story gets underway.

As encouraging as it must be for a filmmaker to be recognized or associated with just one iconic film or franchise, Sam Raimi is the creative force behind two of them. He launched his eclectic career almost 30 years ago with the original Evil Dead, a horror classic that spawned two sequels and countless imitators, and then established himself as an A-list adaptor of comic book material with Spider-Man, which also begat sequels, and perhaps more importantly, several billion dollars or so in worldwide grosses. His latest film, Drag Me to Hell, is a return to the genre material that helped make a name for himself, albeit with the sensibility of a guy who survived one of Hollywood's biggest franchises, and took a few lessons away from the experience to boot.

Cinematical recently sat down with Raimi to discuss his new film, and the director demonstrated that in addition to being a hit machine with the mind of a born moviemaker, he's also a smart, generous, and remarkably humble fellow. While discussing his work on the film, he took time to respond, and kindly, to folks who both love and hate his legacy, before deconstructing his acrobatic cinematic style, and finally, digging deep to find a few films that meant something special to him as a young cineaste. And while he managed to pick consummate summer movie experiences that, quite frankly, didn't actually happen during the summer, the convenience of a Google search and the forgiveness of a grateful nation lying in wait for his films more than makes up for his lack of seasonal accuracy.

Not many movie-going summers have had the good sense or fortune to formally kick themselves off with the likes of Hugh Jackman and his razor-sharp jazz hands, but as these are the times in which we live in, it's a clear indication that we're in for about eighteen weeks of spectacular spectaculars worth gulping down popcorn and guzzling down pop* with.

Eugene's already shone the spotlight on a fair amount of smaller titles worth your while, so our staff tried to keep the focus on that which we haven't seen, those spectacles for which we're most excited and least likely to text during. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls: sit down and shut up, because these are the seven movies that we're fairly f**kin' pumped for.

(*Okay, I pretty much never call soda that, but you get the idea.)

Don't f*** with old ladies, especially if they have bad teeth and an evil curse up their sleeve. If there's anything new to be learned from Drag Me to Hell, director Sam Raimi's return to horror, it's that loan officers will have hell to pay if they dare to foreclose on your mortgage. It's a lesson that should make everyone stand up and cheer.

The film screened as a "work in progress" late last night at the completely packed Paramount Theater in Austin to a loud, raucous reaction. Some of the finer technical points clearly remain to be tweaked (sound, visual effects, maybe a little editing here and there) and end credits need to be added before its wide theatrical release on May 29. And in its present version, the ratings issue is still cloudy -- PG-13 or R?

But this much is clear: Raimi has made a joyful romp through his personal horror playground and come up with a very entertaining horror-comedy that gets back to the basics. By that I mean creepy shadows on the wall and things that go bump in the night: all the odd, unexplained sights and sounds that keep anxious children awake at night, hiding under the covers. Any inkling that Raimi's soul might have been irretrievably chewed up by the Hollywood studio machinery -- a well-founded concern after the disappointing Spider-Man 3 -- quickly evaporates once the story gets underway.

I've been a Sam Raimi fan since the very first time I laid my fingers on the creepy dark blue Thorn-EMI VHS case pictured right here -----> ) From the awesome "Evil" trilogy to the very clever Darkman and the very underrated The Quick and the Dead, right up to A Simple Plan, For Love of the Game (yup, dug it), and The Gift -- it was just fun to watch an "old pal" make his way up the movie chain. And then Spider-Man hit, and suddenly everyone knew how cool a director he was. Hmph. I got that snarky little "I liked him years ago" vibe and went back to watch Evil Dead 2 again...

Ah yes, that's why we're here. Because Sam Raimi is making his first return to full-bore horror since 1987. (Yes, fellow genre minions, I said 1987. Army of Darkness is not a horror film. Admit it already!) A work-in-progress cut of Mr. Raimi's Drag Me to Hell played in Los Angeles a few weeks back, and if my trusty west coast horror posse is to be trusted, then the movie is pretty darn good. (Much of the Cinematical squad will find out next week when the film plays at SXSW, although it's still not the "final print" version.)

Which brings me to the point: This brand new trailer on Yahoo! As we learn from the way-too-forthcoming promotional clip, Alison Lohman plays a frustrated bank manager who gets hit with a gypsy curse. In the hands of most directors, I'd call it a half-intriguing Ouija Board / spooky seance affair, and of course I'd still see it ASAP, but like I said: Sam Raimi directed it. That's no guarantee of quality, but it's as close as you're likely to get in the genre movie biz. Drag Me to Hell opens all over the place on May 29.

I scream! You scream! We all scream for even more announced SXSW premieres!

That's right, the film festival that knows how much it spoils us (see, they admit it right here) are adding screenings of Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell and Jonathan Demme's Neil Young Trunk Show to their already crowded line-up. (And that's figuring that neither takes up the 'TBA' or 'Super Special Screening' slots -- my best guess is that Austin's own Richard Linklater might bring his Me and Orson Welles home after running festivals last fall. I've been wrong before...)

Despite being formally billed as a work-in-progress, talking with one or two of the lucky bastards who saw Raimi's gypsy terror flick back in January led me to believe that it looked pretty close to finished then, so who knows what it'll look like now. Either way, I'm pretty pumped; I mean, that last Neil Young concert film just rubbed me the wrong way -- nothing against one's filmography or the other's discography, but maybe it was something I ate that day that made me never want to give it a second thought, or this one a first look. It really made for a strangely irritating experience of a film held highly by most.

But I'm sure plenty of the other Film (and Music) attendees are psyched, and who can blame 'em? Neil Young is like the terror gypsy of folk music.

God knows we have some horror fans on the staff, but we haven't been talking much about Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell. Raimi's return to the horror genre is about an ambitious loan officer (Alison Lohman) who denies a mysterious old woman (Lorna Raver) an extension on her mortgage payments to angle for a promotion. Like any self-respecting home owner facing foreclosure, the old woman responds by placing a powerful supernatural curse on the merciless loan officer. When an evil spirit starts pursuing her, the loan officer appeals to a psychic to help rid her of the curse.

This week, MTV got ahold of a couple of photos from the movie. The most interesting one -- the close-up of Lorna Raver's scary old woman that I've put beneath the cut -- is hopefully an indicator of the kind of movie this is going to be: old-fashioned, straight-ahead, unironic fantasy/horror. I mean, just look at that make-up job. (In the interview at MTV, Raimi actually uses the precise analogy I thought of when I saw the photo: a carnival funhouse ride.) And since there's basically no one better than Raimi at when it comes to straight-ahead genre films, well -- I'm looking forward to next May.

There are three more pics over at the MTV site -- no more of the villainess, but some of the heroine and her boyfriend, played by Justin Long (who, by the way, brings down the house in this weekend's Zack and Miri Make a Porno).

Do you like video games? How about The Running Man? If your answer to both of these questions is yes, then you're in luck because a Gerard Butler fan site has provided a scan of the July issue of Empire magazine, which includes a sneak peek at the video game thriller, Game, starring Butler and Michael C. Hall (Dexter). OK, so they aren't the greatest photos, but they will remind audiences that the film will at least have stuff blowing up. Crank creators Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor wrote the script and also directed, and I can only assume the two will be doing what they do best: ridiculous action set pieces and over the top machismo.

Game centers on a 'not too distant future' where the most popular past time is an online game called Slayers. But this isn't your usual MMORPG; instead, gamers get to control real-life convicts. Butler stars as Kabel, the most popular contestant who has caught the eye of resistance fighters looking to bring down the games creator, Castle (played by Hall). The cast also includes Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes), Alison Lohman (Beowulf), John Leguizamo, and Christopher 'Ludacris' Bridges.

Game is scheduled to arrive in theaters this fall.

First we reported that Ellen Page would be starring in Sam Raimi's first horror flick in many a moon: Drag Me to Hell is what it's called. Then a few days ago, we learned that Ms. Page's schedule was way too booked with other stuff, so the horror flick is what had to go. Oh well, Page's loss looks to be Alison Lohman's gain.

According to Variety, production on Drag Me to Hell will be delayed only two weeks, which gives Ms. Lohman a little time to learn her lines. Alison's actually 28 years old, but dang she looks a lot younger than that -- which is good since she'll soon be playing a high school student. (Or maybe Mr. Raimi will move his story to college?) The good news is that not only is she very pretty, but Alison Lohman has proven to be quite the fine actor. (You'll remember her stuff from White Oleander, Matchstick Men, Big Fish, Where the Truth Lies, and Beowulf.)

So while I definitely look forward to Ellen Page's new flicks, it's cool to see Alison Lohman snag a starring role ... in a horror flick. Production begins in L.A. at the end of the month.