Drag Me to Hell

Drag Me to Hell
Promotional poster
Directed by	Sam Raimi
Produced by	Grant Curtis Sam Raimi Robert G. Tapert Associate Producer: Ivan Raimi Co-Producer: Cristen Carr Strubbe Executive Producer: Joshua Donen Joseph Drake Nathan Kahane
Written by	Sam Raimi Ivan Raimi
Starring	Alison Lohman Justin Long Lorna Raver Dileep Rao
Music by	Christopher Young
Cinematography	Peter Deming
Editing by	Bob Murawski
Studio	Ghost House Pictures
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	May 29, 2009
Running time	99 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Gross revenue	$35,681,890[1]

Drag Me to Hell is a 2009 American horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi and co-written by his older brother Ivan Raimi. It starsAlison Lohman, Justin Long and Lorna Raver. The film stands as a return to form for Raimi, who had previously earned acclaim for his culthorror series The Evil Dead, before reaching a wider audience with the Spider-Man films. The film circulates around Los Angeles loan officer Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) and her refusal to extend a loan for Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) in order to impress her boss. In retaliation, Ganush places a curse on Christine, making her life a living hell. The movie also pays a tribute to 1980s Universal horror films as it shows a vintage opening logo from the decade and the "Ask for Babs" Universal tour title card.

[edit]Plot

In Pasadena, California in 1969, a young Mexican couple rushes to the home of medium Shaun San Dena (Flor de Maria Chahua). Their son had stolen jewelry from a group of gypsies three days prior, and since then, has been complaining of seeing and hearing things not of this earth. San Dena tries to help the boy in a seance, but she and the boy's parents can only watch in horror as the boy is thrown from the balcony by an unseen force before being pulled into Hell by demonic hands.

Forty years later, Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), a loan officer in Los Angeles, hopes to be promoted to assistant manager over her conniving co-worker, Stu Rubin (Reggie Lee). Christine's boss, Mr. Jacks (David Paymer), advises her that she needs to demonstrate that she can make tough decisions when she needs to. That same day, Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver), an elderly gypsy woman, asks for a third extension on her mortgage because she is struggling with economic problems due to an illness. To prove herself to Mr. Jacks, Christine, against her better judgment, denies Mrs. Ganush the extension. In desperation, Mrs. Ganush prostrates herself before Christine, begging and kissing the hem of her skirt. Christine panics and shoves the woman away, shaming her in public. As security guards escort Mrs. Ganush out, Mr. Jacks compliments Christine on how she handled the situation and implies that if she can close another big loan, the assistant manager position will be hers.

That night Christine is attacked in her car by Mrs. Ganush. After a violent struggle, Mrs. Ganush removes a button from Christine's jacket and uses it to place a curse on her. Mrs. Ganush disappears, leaving the cursed button with Christine. Later, Christine's boyfriend, college professor Clay Dalton (Justin Long), takes her to a coffee shop to comfort her. On the way home, they pass a fortune teller's store, and Christine insists they go in. There, they meet the fortune teller Rham Jas (Dileep Rao), who tells Christine that she has a dark spirit upon her.

Alone at home, Christine is attacked by the dark spirit, which appears as the silhouette of a goat's head. The spirit breaks some windows, cuts the power, and throws Christine across the room, causing minor injuries. Clay assumes that Mrs. Ganush followed them and attacked Christine again. However, when she insists that no one attacked her, they contact a psychologist. The psychologist says that victims of assault often relive past trauma, which seems to settle Christine. That night, Christine dreams that Mrs. Ganush attacks her in bed, and at work the next day, she has a violent nosebleed. Fleeing work, she tries to track down Mrs. Ganush at her granddaughter's home. There Christine learns that Mrs. Ganush died the previous night, and her granddaughter is in the process of holding a wake for her. Christine makes a scene by accidentally knocking over Mrs. Ganush's body, and her granddaughter tells her that she deserves what is coming for her.

Christine consults Rham Jas again, who tells her that the spirit haunting her is actually a demon called the Lamia, and that she is to be tormented by it for three days before being dragged to Hell to burn for eternity. Horrified by this revelation, Christine sacrifices her pet kitten in hopes that it will satisfy the Lamia. When the Lamia torments her during dinner with Clay's parents, Christine and Clay decide to pay $10,000 to enlist the help of the now elderly Shaun San Dena (Adriana Barraza). San Dena prepares a seance, the goal of which is to trap the Lamia in a live goat and kill it, which will destroy the Lamia. This plan backfires, however, when the Lamia assaults everyone in the room. San Dena manages to banish the Lamia from the seance, but dies in the process.

Rham Jas tells Christine that the Lamia will still return for her in just one more day unless she can find a way to stop it for good. He then tells her the only way to get rid of the curse is to give the cursed item to someone else as a gift, thereby cursing him or her. Christine seals the button from her jacket in an envelope and considers giving it to Stu, since his actions cheated them both out of the promotion, but she cannot bring herself to condemn someone else to Hell. She then decides to give the button to Mrs. Ganush. Rham Jas confirms the plan will work, damning the Gypsy woman's soul to Hell. Christine drives to the graveyard and digs up Mrs. Ganush's grave. In a torrential rainstorm, Christine jams the envelope in the old woman's mouth and leaves believing she has beaten the curse.

Christine meets Clay at Los Angeles Union Station, who is preparing to propose to her in marriage; they have plans to spend a relaxing weekend in Santa Barbara. Clay gives her the envelope with the button in it. She had dropped it in his car the night before and accidentally picked up a similar one, which contained a rare coin she had given to Clay earlier in the film. Horrified, Christine falls onto the tracks as a train barrels into the station. Just before she is struck, the ground beneath her opens and demonic arms pull her down into Hell. She tries to crawl out, but to no avail as her flesh burns away in seconds and she screams desperately for help before the ground closes above her and she is damned to suffer for eternity. As the train roars through, Clay can only watch, frozen in terror as his girlfriend disappears under the stoned track. Tearful for the horrific sight that he has just witnessed, he has a brief glance at the button he is still holding in his hand before returning his attention back to the spot where Christine was dragged to her death, glancing down in horror.

[edit]Cast

Director Sam Raimi, actors Dileep Rao, Alison Lohman, and Justin Long discussing the film at San Diego Comic-Con International in 2008.

• Alison Lohman as Christine Brown
• Justin Long as Professor Clayton "Clay" Dalton
• Lorna Raver as Mrs. Sylvia Ganush
• Dileep Rao as Rham Jas
• David Paymer as Mr. Jim Jacks
• Reggie Lee as Stu Rubin
• Adriana Barraza as Shaun San Dena
• Chelcie Ross as Leonard Dalton
• Molly Cheek as Trudy Dalton
• Flor de Maria Chahua as Young Shaun San Dena
• Art Kimbro as the voice of Lamia

Ellen Page was originally cast as Christine, but dropped out of the project due to SAG strike-related scheduling issues.^[2]

[edit]Reception

Drag Me to Hell has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics, with a "Certified Fresh" rating of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 168 reviews (156 "fresh", 12 "rotten"), with an average rating of 7.7/10.

The film's screening at the Cannes Film Festival was met with generally positive reviews. Critics praised director Raimi's ability to come back to the horror genre after 16 years and still craft an extremely effective horror film with a comedic effect. However, Peter Debruge of Variety had mixed feelings about the film, saying, "Scant of plot and barren of subtext, the pic is single-mindedly devoted to pushing the audience's buttons, and who better than Raimi to do the honors?" He went on to focus on one detractor the film presents: the semi-convincing CG effects. "CG touches -- including the one that'll have auds cheering into the end credits -- look cheap, but practical effects and makeup are tops." Yet he concluded by saying, "Still, there's no denying it delivers far more than competing PG-13 thrillers (including several from Raimi's own Ghost House shingle)."^[3] Empire magazine gave the film four out of five stars with reviewer Chris Hewitt commenting "Thrilling and often hilarious, it’s good to see one of Hollywood’s most inventive directors fully reinvigorated. On this form, Spider-Man 4 should be a belter."^[4]

The film placed third to fourth at the box office during its opening weekend earning $15,825,480, while it fell to 7th place during its sophomore stint with $7,040,550.^[5]

[edit]References

1. ^ http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2009/DRAGM.php
2. ^ "Ellen Page Quits Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell". MovieWeb. February 29, 2008.
   "We were racing to start production so that we could accommodate Ellen's schedule. But like so many other productions trying to start before the potential SAG strike date, this one needed more time and we had to push back the start of production."
3. ^ "Festival Reviews--Cannes--Drag Me to Hell".
4. ^ "Empire Reviews Central - Review of Drag Me to Hell".
5. ^ "The Numbers - Box Office Data for Drag Me to Hell".