Smash Cut

For a lot of us genre hounds, Evil Dead creator Sam Raimi’s name has probably lost a bit of its cultural value ever since he seemingly began to devote himself to running the Spider Man franchise into the ground and to producing endless watered-down J-Horror remakes on the side.

But…dang it all, if I haven’t given up hope on the guy. I mean, I think that 1981’s kids-terrorized-by-demonic-book fright-fest The Evil Dead still has teeth to this day, and that his 1998 thriller A Simple Plan remains one of the most handsomely-crafted potboilers in the last decade or so. Even his less-acclaimed Spaghetti Western homage, The Quick and the Dead, has its charms for me.

So I must admit that I, for one, am pretty thrilled about his return to horror cinema, Drag Me To Hell. If the buzz is to be believed, this pic about a loan officer facing a diabolical curse is a real return to form for Raimi, and something that’ll make all of his old-school fans happy.

And…if you’re one of those fans, and happen to be in the great city of Austin, Texas in mid-March to boot, then head on over to the South by Southwest Film Festival, where, on March 15 at midnight, Raimi and stars Alison Lohman and Justin Long will introduce a special “work-in-progress” screening of Drag Me To Hell. Damned if I didn’t wish I was down south right now, and it’s not just because of our pain-in-the-butt New York snowstorm.

Go to the official SXSW Film website for more info, and the Drag Me To Hell page to stay up-to-date on ticket availability and venue details.