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Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell](http://www.cinematical.com/2009/03/16/sxsw-review-drag-me-to-hell/) comes out on home video next week. Universal’s essential DVD release contains both the unrated “director’s cut” and the theatrical cut, although the unrated cut runs just a few seconds shorter than the theatrical cut. The major change – I’m told – is a moment’s hesitation before the main character considers… well… it has to do with a cat. In the theatrical cut, the character hesitates for a moment, which, frankly, makes the situation all the more squeamishly gruesome, and in the other cut, she charges right in for a more sudden and gorier effect. This tiny change says a lot about Sam Raimi, who was once a talented B-movie director with a narrow range, and has now graduated to one of Hollywood’s major A-list players, as well as being one of the cinema’s most interesting potential masters. Best of all, he shows up for work in a suit and tie. How cool is that?
Drag Me to Hell is currently one of my favorite movies of 2009, and I like it for some of the same reasons I like Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy. More than nearly anyone else alive, Raimi has a feel for the movement of cinema, and the sheer joy behind that movement. His films pulse and flow and dodge and dart and fly; they never move too fast or too slow and the cuts always seem to arrive right on time. His films aren’t roller-coaster rides, exactly, nor are they meant to be “intense.” It’s more like they pick you up and carry you along; it’s an exhilarating ride not because the vehicle is moving fast, but because the road is interesting.