Drag Me To Hell
(2009) 99 Min.
Rated: PG-13 (gore)
Country: USA
Director: Sam Raimi
Starring: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★★★☆
(This review has images from the unrated Director’s cut which has a few more gory scenes than the PG-13 version)
Synopsis:
In 1969 Pasadena, California, a young boy is plagued by demonic visions and taken to psychic Shaun San Dena. The boy has stolen a necklace from gypsies and is seemingly cursed. Ms. Shaun tries to perform a ritual but instead the boy is flung down a balcony and the earth beneath him cracks open. He is swallowed into Hell and Ms. Shaun swears she will face off with the demonic force again.
Christine Brown (Lohman) is a professional woman trying to shake her past by losing her southern accent, losing weight and trying her hardest to become the assistant manager at the bank she works for.
Christine is a loan officer and one day deals with an elderly woman named Sylvia Ganush (Raver). Mrs. Ganush pleads with Christine to make an extension on her mortgage payments. Christine at first consults her boss, but the boss reminds Chris that she has to make the call and that the bank will make more money in fees if they’re able to close the account. Chris denies the woman who then gets on her knees and begs. Christine is distraught and calls for security.
The woman feels shamed by Chris and tries to lunge at her but is carted away and taken out of the building.
Later that night as Chris goes back to her car she finds that Mrs.Ganush is in the car with her and attacks her. They go through a very intense fight and Mrs. Ganush drags Chris out of the car, rips off a button from her coat and chants. She mentions the word “Lamia” and places the button back in Christine’s hand saying that soon Christine will be begging her.
In the aftermath, Christine files a police report and her boyfriend, Clay Dalton (Long), takes her home. They pass by a fortune teller’s business and Christine decides to get her fortune told. The fortune teller, Rham Jas (Rao), tells her that she is being haunted by an evil spirit.
Later at home Christine is attacked by the spirit and has nightmares involving Mrs.Ganush. At work she ends up projectile nosebleeding on her boss and in front of customers.
She runs away and eventually goes to Mrs.Ganush’s home to beg for forgiveness. However, once there she learns that Mrs.Ganush is dead. She can no longer ask for forgiveness so she goes back to Rham Jas and asks him for help.
Rham tells Christine that he believes the spirit is a Lamia and that she essentially has three days to live before it takes the owner of the accursed object to Hell. Christine learns that the button Mrs.Ganush gave to her is the cursed object. Rham tells her that she can’t easily get rid of the object because in the end she’d still be the owner and the Lamia would take her. He suggests offering a blood sacrifice in the form of a small animal.
Christine goes home and is harassed by by the Lamia again. She is flung around her bedroom and her house is a mess. She reluctantly looks for her kitten and stabs it to death, then buries it in the backyard.
Clay arrives and they both go to meet Clay’s parents. His mother is overbearing and disapproves of any girlfriend Clay has. Christine tries her best and brings a harvest cake for dessert. The family cat hisses at Christine when she passes by and during their meal Christine sees the eye of Mrs.Ganush in her cake slice. She starts to hear noises and ends up throwing a glass at a door and embarrassing herself.
She speaks again to Rham Jas, angry that the death of her cat didn’t stop the demon. Rham tells her that the only real way would be to ask for help from a woman he knows. Her fee would be $10,000 and it would be due tomorrow. The woman is Shaun San Dena.
Christine goes home and tries to look for things to pawn. In her garden shed a demonic Mrs.Ganush appears and attacks Christine. Chris manages to take some of her things to a pawn shop. In the end she only manages to make $3,000. Clay, however, shows up and says that he paid Rham the $10,000. Christine is overwhelmed with gratitude and they embrace.
Christine attends the seance with Rham Jas and Shaun San Dena. Shaun also has an assistant named Milos. They bring a goat with the intention of pulling the demon into the goat and killing the goat. Unfortunately when they call the Lamia it proves to be too powerful. It is in the body of Shaun first, then transfers to the goat and bites Milos. Shaun then casts the spirit out of Milos and banishes it from the seance. After that Shaun dies.
Christine at first is relieved, believing the spirit to be banished forever. Rham, however, tells her that it was only banished from the seance and that the Lamia will come for her. He takes her button and puts it in a white envelope, sealing it. He tells her to make a gift of the button to pass the curse.
Christine goes to a diner and sits there looking at all the patrons. She can’t bring herself to pass on the button to them. She even calls her co-worker to the diner who previously stole a file from her and ruined her chances at becoming an assistant manager. Ultimately she doesn’t give him the envelope.
She instead decides to go to the cemetery an give the button back to Mrs.Ganush’s corpse. She drives down to cemetery and digs up her grave, then after struggling with the corpse shoves the envelope into Mrs.Ganush’s mouth.
Feeling relieved she goes home. She gets a call from her boss that her co-worker confessed his crime and the assistant manager position will be hers on Monday.
She’s preparing to go on a special train ride with her boyfriend, Clay, and buys a new blue coat. She meets Clay and tells him that she realizes now that she should have been nicer and gave the woman a loan extension. Clay notices her new coat and tells her that he wish she’d kept the old one since he found an envelope containing her button and not a coin. In that instant, Christine realizes she mistakenly took a coin which had been placed in an envelope earlier and gave that to Mrs.Ganush’s corpse. She backs away from Clay and falls onto the train tracks. A train is coming, but before she is hit, the earth opens up beneath her and pulls her into it’s fiery maw.
Review:
Drag Me To Hell is probably one of the most well-rounded horror tales with a nice big dash of comedy thrown in. Every little scene means something, whether it’s played for comedic value or sets up the characters and story. It is fully engaging from the get go.
Christine was a character who was both a victim and not. She proactively tried to rid herself of the curse and was a fighter until the end. Even though she ultimately succumbed to the curse I think she’s likely a memorable character in horror. She’s someone whose sin seems so human and relatable that audiences will likely sympathize with her plight. To me, that’s good storytelling.
Even though there is horror in this story, there’s a lot of over the top gross out humor which is seen in other Sam Raimi films like Evil Dead and Army of Darkness. It’s a little bit cartoony but it doesn’t detract from the story and at least gives the audience a break between Christine’s ordeal.
Overall I think I would recommend this film to any fan of horror. There isn’t much in the way of genuine scares aside from a few light jumps. If you’re a genre fan and enjoy a demonic curse tale with a bit of gross out humor, this will probably be right up your alley. Do not go in expecting a serious scary movie, you’ll be disappointed, to be sure.