The other day my little brother and I went to see the movie Drag Me to Hell.  Both of us are horror movie fans and have been incredibly disappointed with the more recent selections of movies being produced and marketed to the American public.  We like being scared, and for the last several years it seems like movie directors have mixed up the idea of being scared with the idea of being grossed out, which, as Stephen King once said should always be the last resort when trying to get a reaction from the

is something I haven’t experienced when in a theater for a long time.  I also had several moments where I wanted to leave the theater because I knew something bad was going to happen (being an animal lover many will know what moments these were, though thankfully they never showed anything) and was relieved when the movie was finally over just so my heart would calm down.   

Now, I have already heard people complaining that this movie wasn’t bloody enough for them, but those people are ones that I expect this kind of statement from and wouldn’t know a good horror movie if it reached up into their colon and released their bowels right there in the theater.  They are of the group that wants to be hit in the face with bits of blood coming out of the screen and think that the remakes of movies like Halloween, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Haunting, are way better than the originals, if they even realize they are remakes to begin with (you wouldn’t believe how many people I talk to who think that the remake of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the only movie with that title).  So, if you are in the mood for a good scary movie, one that will get your heart racing, then go get some tickets for Drag Me To Hell, but be warned, finish your popcorn and soda before the movie starts, because once it begins and you try to eat or drink something it probably will just end up all over your lap.  

King, Stephen, On Writing. New York: Scribner, 2000.

audience.  Now, that isn’t to say every movie we have seen in the last couple of years has been terrible, most, however, should not have been marketed as horror movies.  Horror movies should be scary, and while movies like I am Legend and The Mist had frightening moments, they didn’t have us on the edge of our seats the way the original Halloween or Friday the 13th or even Child’s Play did, all of which left us frightened long beyond the credits, which, in my opinion, determines whether or not the movie was truly scary.  If one is still thinking about the movie after leaving the theater, or after switching off the VCR or DVD player then that movie was successful.  Two other movies that succeeded in doing this, though not to the same degree as Halloween and Friday the 13th, were Vacancy and Strangers, the first of which we saw in the theater, the second while at home in our parent’s basement.  These movies were scary because the directors used camera angles and sounds to ratchet up the tension and when the time came for some violence they didn’t overdue it, but instead kept it realistic, their minds not seeming to worry about whether or not the audience members would be able to continue eating their expensive snacks.  Then again, I have heard many horror movie fans say that these movies weren’t bloody enough so maybe directors know what they are doing with modern day horror movies, I don’t know?

All that said, both my brother and I thought that Drag Me to Hell was scary and well deserving of being described as a horror movie.  It was gross, and at times went a bit too far, but in ways that one expects from a Sam Raimi movie, especially if those viewers are Evil Dead fans, and overall these gross moments didn’t taken anything away from the constant state of panic viewers were kept in.  This ‘state of panic’ was so intense that I hesitated before taking a sip of my soda or reaching into the bag of popcorn because I feared something was going to make me jump, which