Director: Sam Raimi.

Cast: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao.

BEFORE Sam Raimi turned Spider-man into one of the biggest movie franchises of all time, he made his name with the cult horror series Evil Dead.

Drag Me To Hell written with his brother Ivan prior to the Spider-man films - is a welcome return to Raimi's roots, particularly the dark humour that made Evil Dead 2 such a mould-breaker.

Lohman gets out her inner scream queen as bank loan officer Christine Brown, an aspiring young woman whose life takes an evil twist when she refuses to extend the mortgage of an old gypsy woman. Faster than you can say "curse you!", Christine is being hounded by an evil spirit intent on taking her soul to hell for all eternity.

It's a simple and by no means original premise for a horror film but the Raimis dredge up some great scares in a script that keeps surprising.

The plus is that the characters are well defined and more than just the cannon fodder that populates so many modern scary movies.

You care for Christine and feel sorry for her when the forces of evil beset her at work or - even worse - while meeting the prospective in-laws for the first time.

Lohman has a tough job but does well while getting covered in all sorts of excretions, nearly drowning in mud, having her chin sucked by a toothless crone and spurting blood out her mouth.

Much of it is played for laughs - such as a claustrophobic yet hilarious fight scene in a car - which breaks the tension that comes from the film's wonderfully ominous soundscape and Raimi's suspenseful camerawork.

A refreshingly thoughtful horror movie with a sting in its tale, Drag Me To Hell is scary, funny and one of the better examples of the genre in some time.