When "Drag Me to Hell" was released theatrically, back in May, the critical community swooned at director Sam Raimi's return to down-and-dirty, goo-drenched horror. After all, before indulging in the big budget Hollywood school of diminishing returns (three increasingly indifferent "Spider-Man" movies, back-to-back-to-back), he made scrappy, wildly entertaining junk - stuff like "Darkman," the three "Evil Dead" pictures (see the trailer for the third entry, "Army of Darkness," above), and the underrated western "Quick and the Dead."

And, really, the world should have celebrated "Drag Me to Hell." It's easily the scariest (and funniest) movie of the summer. When I saw it, in a sparsely populated theater the weekend it came out, people were screaming and shouting and having a great time. The movie, about an adorable bank teller (played by Alison Lohman) who wrongs an old gypsy and has a demonic curse placed upon her head, rockets from one spooky gag to the next, with a wit and verve that is almost entirely absent from modern-day genre filmmaking.

But the movie ultimately bombed.

Maybe audiences were just saving all their good will for the "Transformers" sequel.

But for those of you that missed it the first time around, fear not - you have a chance at redemption! On Friday and Saturday night, the Avon Theater in Stamford will be screening "Drag Me to Hell" at 10 p.m. and, as an added bonus, on Saturday night, the movie will be prefaced by an introduction by yours truly!

It's going to be so much fun, I hope everyone can make it. This is one movie that benefits immensely from the surround sound experience, so if you wait for this thing to hit home video, you're going to be shortchanging yourself severely.

See you there!

AVON WEBSITE: http://avontheater.com/