'Drag Me to Hell's' poster: Is it really scary ... or really sexy?

latimes ^ | May 29 2009 | Patrick Goldstein

[JoeProBono]

Going all the way back to the days when Fritz Lang had to flee Germany after Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels figured out that Lang's "Dr. Mabuse" thrillers were crammed with all sorts of not-entirely-hidden cautionary warnings about the evil, malevolent tyrant who was about to transform Germany into a truly evil empire, horror films have had a justified reputation for ruffling our feathers, for stoking our most unruly, subconscious urges and fears. In horror films, there is always more to the images than meets the eye.

That goes double for the slyly evocative one-sheet for "Drag Me to Hell," the new Sam Raimi thriller from Universal Pictures that opens this weekend. The other day I found myself staring at a row of "Drag Me to Hell" posters slapped on the side of a construction site in my neighborhood.

The poster ostensibly offers up the riveting image of a young woman (played in the film by Allison Lohman) in the clutches of a multi-armed beast from the underworld, presumably dragging her off to its hellish lair.........

[Rocko]

You’ve seen this? You’d recommend this?

[Borges]

I thought it was fun. The tone is essentially comic and you have to be in the mood for this sort of thing. It’s just nice to see a horror film that isn’t either a Scream knockoff, a remake of an Asian film or torture porn.