Sam Raimi is back with an in your face horror movie, Drag Me to Hell. Instead of a cabin in the woods, the malicious spirits come to metropolitan America when a bank loan officer gets cursed by a gypsy she denies a mortgage extension. The gypsy curse causes all sorts of outrageous horror to befall her, Sam Raimi style.

Crave Online: Was there a difference between major franchise and a smaller production such as this?

Sam Raimi: With those Spider-Man pictures, which I love making, there's still a lot of responsibility on the director’s shoulders and the producers, everyone's shoulders, because you're dealing with a character that has been around for 40 some years, is much loved by people throughout the world and people not just have a sense of ownership of Spider-Man, rightfully so, but they look up to him as a hero. Generations of people do. So you have to be careful with how that portrayal takes place. You have to have a lot of respect for the ownership of everyone which they do have over that character and so I was using the word responsibility of the responsibility to present him in a proper light. And that's a great job but it's much more freeing to take a break from that and work with your own characters in a place where no one has any expectation of them because they don't know them. You’re really free to do anything you want. So there's a lot more freedom's that come with the independent picture, Drag Me to Hell.

Crave Online: Was it intentional to comment on the economic crisis? A lot of people will relate to the old lady.

Sam Raimi: That’s true. I think that is a coincidence though. We just wrote this picture as a short story many years ago and recently turned it into a screenplay but without paying attention to what was happening in the bank situation in the country.

Crave Online: Did you have alternate endings?

Sam Raimi: That was always the ending of the picture. We felt it was always where the story had been heading with the main character. We felt that anything else would just have actually been more horrible if you think about it, because she’s really a despicable character. She starts out with the idea that she’s a good person. She thinks she’s a good person. Hopefully the audience can buy into that illusion because they’ve got so many things that they can identify with. She goes to work every day. She’s sweet to people. She’s pleasant and attractive. She’s got a boyfriend that is a sweet, intelligent fellow. They have a connection. She seems generous when it comes to things that aren’t critically important in her life, but when push comes to shove and she’s got to impress the parents, she feels that this job promotion would really help her. At that point, when we all have a chance to be greedy or not, when it’s important, she’s cruel to this old lady for her own betterment. She sins with greed and forces her out of the house, hiding under the rules of the bank.

Crave Online: How do you keep us going with her if we want her to go to hell?

Sam Raimi: That’s a good question. I never know if we achieve that balance but I assume that had a lot to do with the casting of Alison Lohman. She’s really despicable. I don’t mean Alison. Alison’s okay but Alison has a very positive charm that works on the audience, that helps us stay with her despite all the terrible things that she does. A lot of people forgive you if you’re good looking too, and Alison is very good looking and has a very nice smile. You get away with a lot I think with that.

Crave Online: Are you worried about any gypsy backlash?

Sam Raimi: Oh, no. She’s not the villain of the piece. She’s really the victim.