Directed by Sam Raimi. Written by Sam and Ivan Raimi. Starring Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, David Paymer, Bojana Novakovic, Reggie Lee, Adriana Barraza and Dileep Rao.
Plot: a loan officer evicts an old woman from her home and finds herself cursed.
The movie opens in 1969. A family comes to see a young medium when the son starts hearing things. The medium does a seance, but it doesn’t stop the boy from being drug to hell by a demon. In the present day, a bank loan officer named Christine (Lohman), is competing with a co-worker, Stu (Lee), for a promotion. When her boss suggests that she needs to make the tough decisions, Christine refuses to give an elderly Roma woman, Sylvia Ganush (Raver), an extension on her mortgage. Inevitably, Sylvia curses Christine. In full effect, the curse brings on hallucinations and even violent attacks.
Christine and her boyfriend, Clay (Long), go to Rham Jas (Rao), a fortune teller, who sees that Christine is haunted by a dark entity. He explains that she will be attacked for three days before something eventually drags her to hell. He also tells her that a sacrifice may prevent that. So, SPOILER ALERT, she sacrifices her own cat. Seriously! Which is when I was officially done with her and wanted to watch her be drug to hell by whatever was coming.
This is a very well made, well written movie. There are jump scares in abundance. Just when I started to calm down another thing would freak me the fuck out. Also, there was a great cast. I mean, these were good actors putting on a good show. Having said that though, we didn’t like the movie all that much. With a pet sacrifice? Imagine that.
I’m not gonna say we hated it though, because we didn’t, but we didn’t love it either. First of all, Alison Lohman is stupid from the beginning of the movie and she never really gets smarter. I mean, why put your career ahead of that little old lady in the first place? How is she going to sleep at night? Oh, that’s right, she’s not, because she’s cursed from now on.
Second of all, it is so gross. So gross! If gross shit bothers you, DO NOT watch this. Worms freak me out, so I had my eyes shut through one scene in particular.
Third, she killed her cat to save her own ass. Not even DJ is as bothered by this as I am, but even he couldn’t kill one of our dogs to save himself. Pets are family people!! You can’t go around killing them because you fucked up. Geez!
Bottom line: If you like gross things, give it a go.
I suppose I could list my favorite movies here, but instead I'll give you a strange glimpse into what makes me TaraRomero.
1. I met George Romero. He was the kindest and sweetest man. He talked to me for longer than he should have with the line getting longer. He also held my hand. And when he noticed the ladybug I have tattooed on my wrist, he said he liked it and asked me it's name. Till then, it had not had a name. Now, I call him George.
2. I love stickers. All stickers. I just adore them. I even ask for stickers for Christmas! As a matter of fact, the birthday that just past, every member of my immediate family gave me sticker packs as gifts. Affordable and extremely appreciated.
3. I have never put much stock in astrology or horoscopes, but I LOVE the magic of the MBTI. Omg. I am an INFP and it actually sounds just like me. Introverted mostly. Creative always. Heart before head and not the most logical. Totally me! For better or worse.
4. It's no surprise I count horror so high up on the list of things that make me, me. However, it's so within my soul that I was part of the Horror Club in college. Interesting bunch. And even took a Horror Lit class as an elective. I got an A.
5. Coffee always makes me happy. Always. I'm particularly fond of caramel macchiatos. But I'll drink black coffee if it's the only thing available.
6. I hate shock for the sake of shock and endings that depress me. I always mention the movies Within (2016) and the Eli Roth produced, written and starred in, Aftershock (2012), as proof of this distate I have. I abhor the idea that just because I like horror, some people think I'd actually praise a movie that lets you think the "Final Girl" just made it through the night, only to slap her in the face with a tsunami.
7. We are big time animal people. I mean, if I could, I'd have an elephant, a bear, a zebra, a penguin, an otter and a meerkat, living with me. Seriously though. We have 2 dogs right now and 2 cats. Both cats we picked up when they each came to our front door hungry. And both dogs we got from 2 different sets of neighbors. Both who, unfortunately, don't know how to care for pets long-term. But they're happy and healthy now!!
8. Revisiting my love of horror, one of the above cats, my cat, is a little black guy named Church. Because Pet Sematary. His middle name is even Pascow. To give credit where credit's due, the name was DJ's idea. But he loves horror too!
9. I'm big into art. Along with movie posters and an Anne Frank quote, I have some actual paintings on my wall. I really think Dali paints beautifully when he wants to. And if I don't get to see Michaelangelo's Pieta in person some day, I will be very disappointed.
10. Lastly, I find Emily Dickinson's poetry intriguing. I took an elective course about her as well. But do you know I injected horror even there? I was given a poem to dissect and I picked one on death, of course. Then, I researched old "Death Photos" and even printed out copies for everyone in the class. They were so interested in looking at them that it stopped them from all looking at me, and I was able to deal quite well with my stage fright. Haha
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