Drag Me To Hell is one of those films that I’ve been meaning to get round to but never seemed to have the time. One of those films you keep in the background and think “Yeah, I’ll watch it one day.” You know you want to see it, but it doesn’t give off that vibe that you NEED to see it, and once I finally got round to it I can safely say I still have that opinion. It’s a tough one, because if you’re a Sam Raimi worshiper then you have to see this film, it’ll be right up your alley, but he’s never seemed convincing, like he has a spell on the world and only a few people are immune to it. The only Sam Raimi project I’ve really ‘loved’ was 30 Days of Night – a film he only produced! So, that’s not entirely inspiring for Drag Me To Hell.
Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is a timid pushover bank loan officer looking to get a promotion at work, but she faces competition from new hot shot Stu (Reggie Lee) and she’s told she needs to be more cut-throaty. Her adoring boyfriend, Clay (Justin Long) gives her all the support in the world and tells her everything will be okay, but it won’t. When an elderly woman (Lorna Raver) comes to Christine in a moment of desperation for a loan, Christine denies her and it all goes downhill from there. The elderly woman waits for Christine in her car and what ensues is one of the best and most hilarious/disgusting near 10-minute long fight scenes in film, which includes the elderly woman sucking on Christine’s chin (seriously) attempting to bite her face off – but she’s lost her dentures (again, seriously). The elderly woman puts a curse on Christine which sees her tormented by an invisible demon. She goes to see fortune teller Rham Jas (Dileep Rao) with Clay – who’s all very skeptical of this – but Rham doesn’t like what he sees and tries to send Christine away. She heads over to the old woman’s house only to discover she’s passed away. Desperate, she goes back to Rham who says a woman will help her, a woman who’s experienced with this particular demon and faced him nearly 40 years ago! Oh, but she’ll only help for $10,000. With a climatic showdown between the demon and the humans, Drag Me To Hell has a surprisingly good ending.
So, Sam Raimi finally broke the mold and made a fairly enjoyable film, fairly enjoyable – not the over-praise it has received on other sites. The problem with it is he had a strong cast and could have utilized them properly but instead opting to head right back to his go to B-movie standard. Lohman’s portray leaves little to be desired and Justin Long is all but wasted until the final act of the film. The effects also go from very good and grotesque to outright cartoony at some points – and this is where the film loses you a little. There are certainly plot holes in the film, like the fact the old woman has been waiting 40 years to get her revenge on the demon – but only if she gets $10,000 too! But she really, really wants her revenge, but seriously she’s going to need that 10 grand first.
You can’t help but hate Christine a little bit too and some of the most enjoyable parts of the film are seeing her being terrorized by the demon. I know, it’s terrible of me, but she’s a truly terrible and poorly written character. And that’s not Alison Lohman’s fault, it’s Raimi’s, who has this beautiful ability to take good actors and make them look awful on screen. Credit has to be given to Lorna Raver however, who plays her role as the creepy gypsy woman perfectly who, even after death, still haunts Christine.
Despite the mostly poor performances, Drag Me To Hell is still an enjoyable film, one which shouldn’t be labeled as an all out horror because honestly it’s too hilarious at times and really should have been marketed more as a comedy horror – but then again that leaves a nice surprise to anyone who doesn’t know much about the film before watching it.
Rating: A fun camp-horror that’ll see you cheering for the bad guys! (5.5/10).
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