Here’s another movie that didn’t make it to Germany, and I was pretty bummed that I missed out on Sam Raimi’s apparent return to making awesome movies. Now that I’ve seen Drag Me to Hell, I’m certainly glad he’s returned to more of a horror-comedy mode, but am a little underwhelmed. Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is a pushover loan officer vying for a promotion to assistant manager, but constantly bested by her asshole competitor Stu (Reggie Lee). In an effort to be more assertive and impress her boss (David Paymer), she denies an elderly woman’s (Lorna Raver) request for a third extension on her payments, knowing it would result in her eviction. That evening the woman viciously attacks Christine, and puts some freaky hex on her coat button.
Feeling shaken and uneasy, she convinces her boyfriend Clay (Justin Long) to go in for a psychic reading. After various levitating items and spooooky happenings, Christine finds out she’s been cursed, and following three days of torture, a crazy demon will drag her soul to hell. She tries to reason with the old woman, but she’s passed away. She tries to appease the demon, but he is not in a merciful mood. She teams up a fortune teller and an old mystic to kill it once and for all in a dangerous seance, but her time is running out and her reserve is all but depleted.
While it definitely has some funny moments, this movie is more of a straightforward gory thriller, following Christine as she becomes more and more desperate and willing to sacrifice her beliefs to save her own life. Alison Lohman is great in the role, portraying an average young woman trying to do well in life, now drawing on newfound strength as she’s pulled into an unreal and terrifying situation. There are some cool effects, good jump scares, and a lot of gross, gory events. It didn’t keep me up that night, but it freaked me out while I was watching it (mainly because of how squeamish I am).
I guess in general Drag Me to Hell isn’t amped up enough to be a great movie. It’s well-written, well-acted, and well-directed, but nothing really special. It was a bit predictable and needed to be either funnier or scarier, or both. The ending is really good, though. It’s great to see Raimi’s return to the genre, and I hope he continues in this vein for future projects (also, I hope Spider-Man 4 doesn’t suck so incredibly hard).
3.5/5
Popularity: unranked [?]
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