Drag Me to Hell

Director: Sam Raimi (Evil Dead trilogy, Spider-Man trilogy)

Screenwriters: Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi

Cast: Alison Lohman (Big Fish, Matchstick Men), Justin Long (Live Free or Die Hard)

Length: 1h 39m

Synopsis: A bank loan officer named Christine (Lohman) finds herself up for a big promotion at work, but to win the job she must prove she can hold firm against sympathetic customers. Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver), a witchy old woman, asks Christine to give her a third extension on her mortgage, but Christine is obligated to turn her down. In doing so Mrs. Ganush finds herself greatly embarrassed and publicly shamed. To seek revenge she puts a curse on Christine that will bring Hell right to her front door.

Opinion:

It is truly remarkable how some movies can be so timely without actually trying to be. I can see no movie being released within the next year that could be nearly as bluntly critical of the current economic state of this country. To be specific, it’s critical of the fat cats on Wall Street whose greed apparently had a large part in causing the current recession (mind you the associations are very broad). The character of Christine, the sweet and lovable girl who wouldn’t harm a fly (even if it flew up her nose and resided in her stomach), is representative of the greedy workers on Wall Street, though is hardly a depiction of Bernie Madoff. Her crime is ambition, which alone is not evil but she satisfies it by leaving an old desperate woman hanging out to dry. And once she is cursed she shows only a slight reluctance in doing immoral things to save herself. The rest of the film takes liberties in exacting revenge for these acts of selfishness – and this is where director Sam Raimi has a lot of fun. The tortures Christine is forced to go through are decidedly repugnant, with numerous liquids and bugs going in and out of various orifices. Raimi has decided to return to playing with the grotesqueness of bodily fluids, which is a sizable amount of the outrageous humor audiences can find to go along with moments of fright and horror. Fans of Raimi’s earlier work, specifically the Evil Dead movies, will agree that his return to the horror genre is a welcome homecoming. Drag Me to Hell proves with every frame that this is where Raimi truly belongs, and that his excursions into other Hollywood varieties merely serve to demonstrate his impressive versatility. Thinking about the film in retrospect reminds me how guilty I feel for the delight I felt in witnessing the torment that the beautiful Ms. Lohman endured. But alas, even the beautiful must learn to reap what they sow. Don’t expect Raimi’s best work, but it’s far better than all the other PG-13 “horror” flicks to come out in recent years.

Rating: 7.5