Drag Me To Hell
This poster is one dragon away from being a heavy metal album cover
Sam Raimi's career is quite impressive
when you look at it. From humble beginnings directing low-budget
horror movies like Evil Dead and Army Of Darkness, Sam Raimi has
become a household name by directing summer blockbusters like
Spider-Man and Oz: The Great and Powerful. Not content with just
directing, Raimi writes, produces, and even acts in a myriad of
movies. His career helps legitimize the horror genre and shows young
directors that anything is possible. While he has moved onto other
genres, Raimi is most beloved for his work in horror. His
incorporation of humor, special effects, and old-school style scares
have created multiple classics. After his work on the Spider-Man
movies, no one would have blamed him from staying away from horror
movies. That's why a roar of approval came from the horror community
when Raimi announced that he was writing and directing a new horror
movie.
Drag Me To Hell is a 2009 supernatural
horror movie written and directed by Sam Raimi (Evil Dead,
Spider-Man) with writing help from his brother, Ivan Raimi. The film
stars Alison Lohman (Gamer, Beowulf) as loan officer Christine Brown.
Christine lives a fairly normal life in Los Angeles with her
boyfriend Clay (Justin Long, Jeepers Creepers, Dodgeball) while
trying to get a promotion as the bank she works in. Christine is
insecure about her humble farm upbringing as well as her previous
weight. One day, an elderly woman named Sylvia Ganush (Lorna Raver,
The Caller, Breaking Waves) comes into the bank and asks Christine
for another extension on her mortgage. Christine informs Ganush that
she has already received two extensions, but asks her boss Jim Jacks
(David Paymer, Mr. Saturday Night, State and Main) what he thinks.
Jim leaves the decision up to Christine and, knowing her promotion
depends on it, denies Ganush the lone. She makes a scene, begging
Christine to reconsider. Scared, Christine calls security and Ganush
is deeply shamed and insulted. That night, when Christine gets into
her car, Ganush is waiting in the backseat and a fight ensues. She
rips a button off Christine's coat and places a curse on her. After
the attack, Christine and Clay meet with a fortune teller named Rham
Jas (Dileep Rao, Avatar, Inception) to get her fortune read. Rham
sees that she is haunted by an evil demon spirit and asks her to
leave. Over the next few days, Christine is haunted by the demon
known as the Lamia who is now after her soul. Christine goes to
Ganush's house to try get her to remove the curse, but it is revealed
that she has died. Desperate to stop the attacks, Christine kills her
pet kitten to appease the demon, but it does not work. With the help
of Rham, Christine has a séance with Shaun San Dena (Adriana
Barraza) who has tried and failed to defeat the Lamia once before.
The séance does not work and San Dena is killed in the process. Rham
informs Christine that the only thing to save her now is to give her
cursed button to someone else, passing the curse onto them. Will
Christine be able to free herself before she is dragged to hell?
Robbing graves is still more respected than being a banker
Drag Me To Hell may be the first movie
during this entire year where I was legitimately conflicted about my
feelings. The movie had plenty of things I liked, but a good amount
of things that I didn't. Normally, when there's something I don't
like in a movie, whether it's a plot hole or a stupid scene, I can
just write it off and move on. With Drag Me To Hell, the scenes I
didn't like were actually done well and I couldn't just say “Oh
that's stupid” and continue watching. A lot of these scenes revolve
around the movie's humor. Some label the movie as a “horror comedy”
but I think calling it a comedy is too far of a stretch. The jokes in
the movie are very much in line with the humor from the Evil Dead
series: gory over-the-top violence with improbably situations and
clever one-liners. My problem with the humor in the movie is in the
execution. The jokes tend to pop up out of nowhere, killing the
actual horror. One good example is during the séance when the demon
spirit is put into a goat. The evil goat then proceeds to talk and
say dirty words. It's kind of funny, but not exactly a kneeslapper.
More importantly, it renders the fear in the scene useless. It's a
good, scary scene that turns into a goof off. Then there's scenes
that are just plain silly, like when Christine's nose starts to bleed
and then sprays all over her boss. It was just too random and
unnecessary for my tastes, but it was still executed well. The movie
takes a decidedly Evil Dead-esque turn towards the end which will
delight fans of those movies, but may confuse the casual viewer. A
scene in a graveyard has a strange cheapness to it unseen in the rest
of the movie, using an obvious set with a green screen as the
background? Again, it's not a bad scene, it's just jarring for the
movie to just change like that.
The story itself is good, if a bit
predictable. A gypsy is wronged and places a horrible curse on
someone. Sound like another movie that I reviewed? How about Stephen
King's Thinner? Sure the details are different, but the basic premise
is similar. Even the big surprising ending reminded me of Thinner.
Speaking of the ending, I found it a little disappointing and rather
bothersome. It would have actually been nice to get the happy ending
we were teased with. Instead, we get an ending that felt rushed and
convenient. Raimi gets to flex his horror muscles once again,
creating a spooky atmosphere and using lots of old and new tricks to
get scares. The movie properly mixes current special effects and
traditional effects that will entertain all types of horror fans.
Alison Lohman is a good scream queen and would do well in other
horror movies. Justin Long is fine though I still prefer him in
comedy roles. Lorna Raver is very creepy as the gypsy Sylvia Ganush
and helps make the movie far more scarier than you would expect.
You complete me
Overall, Drag Me To Hell is a fun
horror movie with a few problems. The humor feels out of place to me
which really kills the horror. It's not bad humor, it just doesn't
feel right. It's always difficult to balance horror and humor, but I
think Drag Me To Hell should have just stuck with the horror. The
acting is good and the directing is solid. Fans of Raimi's work will
have a lot of fun from start to finish. Those unaccustomed to his
brand of horror and humor will still enjoy the movie, but may be a
little put off by how the movie jumps from horror to humor too
quickly. The special and traditional effects are both good and the
horror is fairly enjoyable. It's a good watch, but with a few tweaks,
it could have been great.
7.5/10
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