DRAG ME TO HELL

LIONSGATE 

RELEASED 27 May 2009

For more than twenty years, Sam Raimi was one of the best directors in Hollywood who seemed destined to forever remain a cult director. His ‘Evil Dead’ movies are still revered by horror fans, and the minor classic ‘A Simple Plan’ showed Raimi has much more in the tank. Being handed the ‘Spider-Man’ franchise in 2002 broke Raimi into the big league. Each film has been a huge worldwide hit, and Raimi now has the power to pick whichever project he likes. So for Raimi’s longtime fans, ‘Drag Me to Hell’ is a absolute treat, irrefutable evidence that the horror maestro hasn’t forgotten how to shock you while making you laugh seconds later.

Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is vying for the assistant manager’s job in her bank, and to prove she has the steeliness to make tough decisions, she turns down a gypsy lady’s request for more time on the money she owes on the house she’s been in for more than twenty years. The gypsy, Mrs Ganush (Lorna Raver), places the curse of the Lamia on Christine, a demon that looks like a monstrous goat. After three days of torture and mindgames, the Lamia will ‘drag Christine to hell’. The only way Christine can escape her fate is by passing on the curse to somebody else.

‘Drag Me to Hell’ is probably the biggest, crowd-pleasing horror movie I can remember for years. There are so many scenes that positively have you squirming back in your seat at the sheer grossness of what’s happening, and then the tension is alleiviated by something ridiculously funny. Then Raimi throws something gross into the scene again! Much of this comedy horror comes from the Mrs Ganush character. She attempts to ‘gum’ Christine more than once, and each time it’s totally revolting. It’s a sign of Raimi’s skill that he can make the audience be so repelled by an old lady and her false teeth. When she attacks Christine in a car park, it’s the ultimate close-quarters nightmare of a deranged, disgusting mad woman bearing down on you.

The Lamia demon has plenty of tortuous tricks up it’s sleeves, from simply throwing Christine around the room to putting gruesome images into her head, such as meals containing gruesome items that squelch and move. Christine’s mouth gets plenty of unpleasantness pushed down it as well as ejecting equally gross liquids. In fact, much of the horror in ‘Drag Me to Hell’ seems to revolve around mouths. Alison Lohman is a real trooper in the film, as some of the ‘icky’ scenes must have been icky even though it’s acting.

My only regret about the movie is the obvious budget. While not horrible, some of the special effects work is not as slickly carried off as it could have been, but Raimi’s creativity and energy easily helped me get over this weakness.

In a time when Hollywood continues to produce horror films that don’t really do anything other than gratuiously chop people up in graphic ways, ‘Drag Me to Hell’ is a breath of fresh air, which is ironic considering it harks back twenty years to Raimi’s ‘Evil Dead’ beginnings.

FOUR OUT OF FIVE