Drag Me To Hell (2009)

Yesterday I decided to go check out the new film, Drag Me To Hell. It has been a while since I have gone to a theater to watch a film, and there is certainly a lot of buzz about this one. After many years, director Sam Raimi returns to the genre that put him on the map. While I am always happy to see a director branch out to other genres, it is always exciting when they return to do another horror movie. If you are a major fan of the horror genre, then you have watched at least one film from the Evil Dead trilogy. There is just no way around it. Personally, I loved the first Evil Dead film, but the other two films I have always felt rather luke warm about. I don’t hate them, but I hardly love them. So with mixed emotions, I went to go check out Drag Me To Hell with a friend of mine. That is a kind of a funny story in itself. The friend that went with me came to see me go through my graduation ceremony (last Tuesday!), and isn’t much of a horror movie fan. They scare her, so she doesn’t like to watch them. So I told her if she was going to hang out with me, she had to go to this movie. I felt like I was dragging her to Drag Me To Hell.

In Drag Me To Hell, we meet Christine (Alison Lohman). Christine works for a bank as a loan officer. She has her eye on a big promotion for the assistant manager position, but new guy Stu (Reggie Lee) also wants it. He boss (David Paymer) tells Christine that he hasn’t decided yet, but it is between Stu and her. After watching Stu being a suck up with the boss, she finds an elderly woman sitting at her desk. Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) is about to have her house taken away from her because of late payments. She is seeking a loan extension, which would be her third one. Christine promises to try and help, and heads to see her boss. He tells her that it is possible to give Mrs. Ganush another extension, but also gives her reasons why she shouldn’t do it. He then tells Christine that it is “a tough call,” and leaves it for Christine to decide what to do. Thinking that promotion, she tells Mrs. Ganush that she can’t give her another extension on her loan. Mrs. Ganush drops to her knees and begins to beg, but when that doesn’t work, she goes on the attack. When it is time to go home, Christine notices that Mrs. Ganush’s car in is the parking garage. After a big fight between the two, Mrs. Ganush takes one of Christine’s buttons from her jacket, and lays a curse upon it. In three days time Christine will litterly be dragged to hell if she can’t find a way to beat the curse.

Being a Sam Raimi horror film, I figured there would be some comedy thrown into the mix. The reason I have always been luke warm about the second and third films of the Evil Dead trilogy, is because they are more comedy than horror movie. I’m fine with comedy in my horror movie, just let there be more scares than laughs. That is the reason I watch horror movies after all, to try and get that scared feeling. I don’t mind laughing some of the time, just not all of the time. So I wasn’t sure which Sam Raimi I would be dealing with, since he has done both kinds of horror/comedy. Even though Drag Me To Hell slips into the down right silly, I still found the mix of comedy to horror to my liking. It does try to scare you, as well as making you laugh. The use of the music and sounds are great. Sometimes they go hand-in-hand with the camera work, like a loud noise signals the close up getting a little closer. This helped draw me in a lot. There are plenty of jump scares to be found. Sometimes I knew there was going to be one, but it would come from somewhere I wasn’t expecting, so that is refreshing. I know they got to my friend, considering the number of times she grabbed onto my arm! Even though they didn’t bother me, I still enjoy watching everyone else jump. The only thing I didn’t like is when the comedy slipped into the silly. Even though it is for one scene, I guess it depends on how you will react to it in the end. Some people felt it was very funny, while others felt it took them out of the film some. I didn’t care for that scene, but since it was only one scene, it didn’t bother me that much to take me out of the overall feel of the film.

The effects for Drag Me To Hell seemed to use CGI effects more than anything. Normally I would complain about this, but this time I actually didn’t mind them so much. It isn’t that you can’t tell when they are using CGI, like a face coming out of a cell phone, because it is pretty obvious at times. Why it worked for me this time around is because the effects are actually good. They blend in better than a lot of effects of these kind sometimes do. I must say though that I have never seen a film that tries to put things in the main actress’s mouth like this film did. An eyeball, puke, and mud, to name a few of the things. Alison Lohman seems to have gone through a lot with her role, even though I’m sure some of the things were CGI effects. Speaking of Alison, I really enjoyed her acting in this movie. I swear I have watched her in something else, but I can’t place what it was, if I have at all before. I was really impressed with her acting. There are scenes where she is losing her mind, but is trying hard not to show it. It was these scenes I was most impressed with her. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her, as well as laugh at her expressions at the same time. Justin Long plays her boyfriend in this film. He is mostly known for Mac commercials, but I think he is starting to come into his own when it comes to films. Dileep Rao plays the part of one of the few people willing to help Christine. He is basicly new to acting, with only a few acting jobs so far. Lorna Raver stole the scenes she was in, as the old woman who never gives up.

Even though I knew a lot of people were giving Drag Me To Hell great reviews. Since I wasn’t sure about the comedy side of this film though, I didn’t go into it expecting a great film, which is what I got. That may have worked in my favor though, since I have often noticed when people keep telling me how great a film is, I often walk out feeling let down by it. At times, Drag Me To Hell did remind me of the Evil Dead films. I would see something happen on the screen, and think of the Evil Dead films right away. I guess this makes sense since it is the same director/writer. I will leave it up to you to decide if this is a good thing though. I have to appologize real quick. I started this review a week ago Sunday, but didn’t get it finished before getting too tired. I almost had it done the next day, but when I went to save my work, the net was gone and I lost my changes. The next day I lost power while trying to finish it, and so on. Outside of this, I have been busy with packing and moving back home, which is always a busy time when I get back home. I made up my mind that today I would get it done no matter what. I’m very sorry it has been so long since I have put a review up, and will try to make up for it somehow. As for Drag Me To Hell, if you haven’t gone to see it by now, you need to before it leaves the theaters. Nothing like seeing an eyeball pop out into someones mouth on the big screen.

4 out of 5 Avoiding all old women for now on