"a soft spot in their heart for Raimi's comical gore-fest directing style"

That's where I'm coming from, and that's where this movie falls short for me.

The main reason why comedy and horror can work so well together, I think, is that they both puncture society's norms. They are a relief from the tensions and strictures of everyday conventions and life. They are a joyful rebellion against societal expectations.

Yet this movie guts the full on freedom of comedy and horror by playing each element just shy of it's potential:-

(1) The horror was gutted by the PG13 rating. Horror really needs to go all out;

(2) The comedy was weakened by an overly strict adherence to it's "do wrong, get punished" morality tale conceit, but even more so by it's po-faced leading lady, who lacked that crazy Bruce-Campbell-OTT-gleefully-fights-with-his-own-hand mania, that can really liberate a viewer from conventions.

I mean, the movie got part way, the horror was pretty gory and scary, certainly for it's kid friendly rating, and the comedy, involving a possessed goat and loose dentures, was on point when it appeared in the movie. But that crazy, anything-can-happen liberating nuttiness that you got with Raimi's earlier movies never really happened for me.

If this was directed by anybody but Raimi, I'd say, "awesome effort buddy," But Raimi's "Evil Dead 2" pretty much made the comedy horror genre, and Bruce Campbell is the comedy horror poster child, so from Raimi, this offering was simply too conventional and too restrained to be exceptional.

I agree with your rating. :)