Drag Me to Hell (Theatrical)

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In the "Evil Dead" series undead spirits called back to the living by the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis terrorized Ash (Bruce Campbell) and his compatriots. For "Drag Me to Hell" Sam Raimi has conjured up an even more frightening villain: mortgage lenders.

Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is a bank loan officer vying with a brown-nosing colleague for a promotion to assistant manager. Her boss (David Paymer) tells her that if she wants the job she has to learn how to make the tough decisions. Fortunately for Christine, and for the story, a tough decision walks into the bank in the form of Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver), an aging gypsy woman who begs for extra time to pay her mortgage. The normally soft-hearted Christine denies the extension for which she is, of course, cursed to hell. If only we could have sent Mrs. Ganush after the hedge fund managers who brought down Bear Stearns.

With her non-descript boyfriend Clay (Justin Long) in tow, Christine eventually learns the details of the gypsy curse. She will be tormented by a malevolent demon called a Lamia for the next two days and, on the third day, she will then be dragged to hell. Thus the title. She spends the rest of the film trying to undo the curse with the help of a medium (Dileep Rao) who may or may not be a scam artist.

It´s typical of Raimi (who co-wrote the film with his brother Ivan) to complicate the good guy/bad guy dynamic or, in this case, the good gal/bad gal one. Mrs. Ganush ultimately turns into one evil witch but at first she is somewhat sympathetic as a victim of the recession now faced with eviction. But the writer/director further muddies the waters. Even in her first scene, Mrs. Ganush is not just a sweet, innocent supplicant. In a classic display of Raimi grotesque, she removes her dentures and gums all the hard candy on Christine´s desk. I wouldn´t give her a loan either.

Likewise Christine isn´t a simple heroine. While her punishment hardly fits her crime, Christine isn´t just a poor victim of forces beyond her control. She´s a hungry dog trying to climb the corporate ladder and she´ll do what it takes to survive both in business and in life. There´s one action in particular that Christine undertakes in the middle of the film that stretches audience sympathy past its straining point. And despite it being a violation of one of the most fundamental rules of story-telling, Raimi somehow makes it funny as hell. I will say no more.

The plot is pretty silly, but Raimi films are always more about the tour-de-force sequences than the story. Fortunately, "Drag Me to Hell" features several of these. A parking garage fight between Christine and Mrs. Ganush shares some of the spirit of Ash´s battle with the pit-bitch in "Army of Darkness" though sans chainsaw. It also sets the tone for the movie which is much more comedy than horror. A séance scene is also inspired and I´m willing to go on record by claiming that it features the best demon-possessed goat you will see all year long.