Lamias: vampire like demons originated from the ancient Greek mythology, named after Lamia daughter of Poseidon and Lybie. In rage about the death of her child she became a monster killing and devouring other children.

Content and criticism…

The audience is already confronted by such a demon in the pre-title-sequence where he drags a child to hell. Soon afterwards Christine Brown – a hard fighting employee for the open position of the assistant manager of her bank – is lumbered with the demon after she refused the mortgage extension of an old gypsy who then execrates her. She gets terrorized for three days the Lamia emerges in all kind of visions to drag her finally to hell. With the help of her boy-friend Clay, the fortune teller Rham Jas and the seer Shaun San Dena Christine tries to escape this fate….

This is just a quick finger exercise in slapstick horror what director Sam Raimi presents in his last movie - no more, no less! With a comparatively low budget of about $30 Million US-Dollars Raimi proofs that he is able to make a family proved PG-13 horror movie. So, the horror specialist, who promoted to the top class of directors with the SPIDERMAN trilogy, presents us now a consistently entertaining scary movie where the interspersed shock effects vanish into liberating laughter. Comic like exaggerated are the attacks Christine has to endure and during the seance his own cult movie "Evil Dead” is copied more than once. In principle you can maintain: EVIL DEAD - horror but much more harmless in effects! No great demands at the actors but the little is respectably played by the actors. The KNB-F/X-Group delivered again high quality masks and F/X, the music of composer Christopher Young underlines the focused less depressing atmosphere. All in all a nice snack for in between which does not spoil your palate but satiates anyhow.

Versions for comparison

In recent times again and again a PG-13 has been aimed for cinema release because the target group is then bigger and box-office results can be maximized. For the home video market there is then always a Unrated release for the hardcore fans. In the US both versions have been released on DVD and are now compared here in this report. Compared has been the Theatrical Version (PG-13) with the Unrated Version. Just one word to the running times: everywhere the unrated version is listed with 98:51 minutes and the theatrical version with 99:00 minutes running time. It seems just the other way around at my place however the total of the cutting times comes to the everywhere announced result. Mainly it is because only in the theatrical version the MPAA (PG-13) advice can be read at the end of the movie. So I could have misread…

20:06 Min.
When Christina hits Mrs. Ganush’s head with the stapler the first stroke has been filmed in a different way and the second stroke including the close-up of a cramp sticking in her forehead has been removed completely.
( 1 sec. )

Unrated:	Theatrical Version:

21:06 Min.
Ganush takes Christina’s chin in her toothless mouth. The close-up starts some frames earlier in the unrated version.
( 5 SF )

21:16 Min.
Christina drives a ruler into Ganush’s mouth. While there is an additional front view of Ganush in the unrated version, the shots of Christina are a little longer in the PG version. The Director’s Cut in total runs about half a second longer.
( 0,5 sec. )

Unrated:	Theatrical Version:

39:48 Min.
Christina’s nightmare: In the theatrical version a close-up side view where she spits out bugs has been removed.
( 1 sec. )

42:21 Min.
The take of Christina having a nosebleed spattering Mr. Jacks is much more longer and more explicit in the unrated version. There is also alternative material but all in all the unrated version runs longer.
( 2,5 sec. )

Unrated:	Theatrical Version:

46:17 Min.
At the obsequies: After the scene with the frightened guests the side view starts earlier in the unrated version.
( 1 sec. )

52:38 Min.
The killing of the cat has been filmed in different ways. While Christina goes searching through the kitchen, finally finds the cat in the basket and the concluding killing can only be heard and assumed by a shrill cat meow from an outside look onto the house in the theatrical version, on the other hand the unrated version shows Christina coming out of the darkness onto the camera stabbing a knife many times into the cat and blood splattering all around. The theatrical version begins with the mortuary of the cadaver while the unrated shows how the cadaver is thrown into the hole. All in all is the theatrical version much funnier at this point while the unrated is much more morbid. But the theatrical version runs longer...
Theatrical Version + ( 11 sec. )

Unrated:	Theatrical Version:

64:42 Min.
The close-up where Ganush-Ghost drives the arm down Christina’s throat runs some frames longer in the unrated version.
( 0,5 sec. )

64:56 Min.
When Zombie-Ganush gets hit by the anvil on her skull, her eyes popping out into Christina’s mouth the settings are equal in both versions however red and slimy in the unrated version and in the theatrical version dark brown and rather muddy.

Unrated:	Theatrical Version:

90:09 Min.
In the unrated version there is a close-up of Christine driving a spade into the corpse’s mouth, whereas in the theatrical version the previous front take runs a little longer. There is no running time difference.

Unrated:	Theatrical Version: