Drag Me To Hell
There used to be two Sam Raimi's roaming this world. The first one, known to horror fans the world over, is the creator of the "Evil Dead" series, perhaps one of the most beloved trilogies in all of horror. It's a series of films that started out as dark, straight up scary, and through two sequels merged into full on Three Stooges inspired lunacy.
Throughout the years we've watched him grow and mature, wading back and forth from the serious to the macabrely funny. Films such as "The Gift", "A Simple Plan", "The Quick and the Dead"... all were part of a larger learning process for Sam. It's a process that saw its natural maturation when he was hired to direct the big budget remake of "Spiderman", and its two sequels. That's what I'll call the second Sam. The Sam that commanded big budgets and even bigger summer movie grosses. We're always proud of our directors when they go on to mainstream success, and conversely, always dream that they'll take that new found power and one day return to the genre. Now with "Drag Me To Hell", it's safe to say that Sam is back in a major way.
If you've seen the trailer for "Drag Me To Hell", you pretty much have all of the information about the plot that you need. Christine Brown is a former country bumpkin trying to make her way in the big city. She tries desperately to shrug her simple roots, even going so far as listening to tapes to try and help her hide her down-home accent. Her boyfriend Clay Dalton (Justin Long) loves her just the way she is, but his blue-blood parents are not helping Christine's insecurities. They look down on her and wish that he would get serious with someone in their own social strata, and their wishes do not escape Christine.
She works at a bank as a loan officer, a situation which comes with its own difficulties. Fighting for her rightful place in a male dominated business, Christine finds herself constantly at odds between her deeply ingrained values and her will to succeed. She's desperately gunning for a promotion at work, and is in the middle of a heated battle with Stu Rubin, a brown-nosing colleague who has a leg up on her simply by having a penis between his legs.
It's at this point that Mrs Ganush comes into her life. A disgusting, disfigured old hag of a woman, Mrs Ganush comes into the office and begs Christine to help her save her house that is being foreclosed on. Problem is, Christine just finished getting a lecture from her boss about how she needs to "make the tough decisions" if she wants to move ahead in her job, and so Mrs. Ganush proceeds to get the business end of security's foot as she's kicked off the premises for grabbing onto Christine's dress while groveling. Christine has picked the wrong day to try and act tough at work, and her reward is a big fat curse, placed on her by the old gypsy woman. She spends the rest of the film being tormented by an evil spirit that has been unleashed on her, and through the help of Rham Jas, a psychic and spiritual seer, tries everything in her power to stop the attack on her soul.
"Drag Me To Hell" is a loud, boisterous film. It also makes a lot of sense in the broader picture of Raimi's filmography. If you take the cartoonishly gooey, slapstick aesthetic of "Evil Dead 2", and mix it with the big budget summer-movie gloss of the "Spiderman" series, you would land smack dab in "Drag Me To Hell" territory. It's being called "classic" by many reviewers, which is something I agree with, but perhaps not in the way you're thinking.
It's is definitely an event film, a movie that's made to get your significant other sitting next to you to latch onto your arm like grim death. In reality, "Drag Me To Hell" is all style over substance. The jump scares are so over the top and so consistent, they're almost reminiscent of a William Castle-style gimmick like "The Tingler". After about the 4th or 5th time that you're assaulted by the loudest sound you've ever heard in your life, you start to picture Raimi sitting up in the projection booth with a jump-scare button, just waiting for his next chance to make his audience scream. I'm not sure if this makes any sense, but that's at the same time my biggest compliment and my biggest complaint about this film. Yes it IS style over substance, but when the style you're referring to is vintage Sam Raimi, it's hard to really hate on that.
Much was made of the film's rating being PG-13. With the exception of causing me to have to deal with throngs of tweens on opening night, it's hard to say that the rating change could have made a huge difference in the overall experience. As those familiar with Raimi's work know, the man has a talent for creating gore in such a manner that it is more disgusting than scary or offensive. The tone is so humorous here, it's hard to believe that the MPAA was offended by anything enough to give it an R rating on the first pass, but needless to say I will be very curious to see the inevitable "unrated" cut.
As far as the on-screen talent goes, I think that Raimi made a lot of great decisions. Alison Lohman is adorable, and proves herself as a competent actress, even if I'm still not sure where I'm supposed to know her from. Her character is really the only one in the film that is given much depth, and the script manages to sufficiently tug at your heartstrings when it comes to her plight. Those with an aversion to Justin Long will probably hate him here, but I've always thought of him as a decent actor with great comic timing. Being a Sam/Ivan Raimi scripted film, he gets plenty of chances to show off his comedic chops here. No one else in the film really gets to display a whole lot of range, but I will give Dileep Rao a shoutout as the spiritual leader Rham Jas. Finally, Lorna Raver is not scary as Mrs Ganush, but she certainly has gross nailed down, which was pretty much all the role called for.
"Drag Me To Hell" is a spectacle of a horror film. It's not really scary, or at least it won't be to hardened horror fans. It's meant to be fun, wacky, over the top and full of energy. On all of those counts it succeeds. The story and characters are frankly pretty pedestrian, so let's be honest with ourselves, it would be silly to try and claim that this film by any other director would be half as watchable.
The undeniable fact though is that this is truly a Sam Raimi film in all the ways we had hoped for. And in a summer/fall season that's faced with nothing but remakes and sequels, I will always support an A-list director deciding to bring an original horror property to big screens across the country. Some are hailing this as a true horror classic. I'm not sure I'm ready to go that far. In fact, I was getting pretty antsy by the time it was all ready to wrap up. I'll be damned if old Sam didn't pull me back in with that ending though. It's an ending that's so deviously, hilariously awesome that I can't really hate on the film too much. Looking for a final verdict? Don't let anyone tell you that it's the greatest horror film ever made. On the other hand, don't let anyone tell you that it isn't fun as hell... because they'd be lying.
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Can't wait!
Submitted by Bonehand on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 07:45.As a huge Evil Dead fan, I was really pulling for this to be good, and I love seeing all these hardened horror fans being won over by this flick. It really warms my cockles, I can't wait to see it.
Right on
Submitted by Joe on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 07:54.Just got back from seeing it and I have to agree that if anyone else made this it wouldn't be been nearly as good. I loved all the semi-funny moments that were thrown in while all the nasty shit was going down. I found myself being reminded of the Evil Dead series in a lot of different parts. I don't want to give anything away but at one point I was waiting for a severed hand to run out.
Normally I hate seeing movies with a packed house but there was something about seeing this with a large group of people who were all reacting to the jump scenes that made it even better. I wonder if I'll actually like it as much on DVD. And yeah it did have the wife grabbing my arm the entire time.
Honestly one of the better horror films I've seen in a long time.
We'll obviously get into it
Submitted by mark on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 16:32.We'll obviously get into it on the podcast, but I wanted to expound on Joe's point a little bit.
I usually do the solo nerd viewing of theatrical releases so I can nitpick every detail, but because of the buzz this movie had I thought it was important to go "into the belly of the beast" so to speak to see people's reactions. My theater wasn't packed (it's a HUGE theater), but everyone there was squirming, jumping, and shouting throughout the whole movie, in a good way.
I'm not a diehard Raimi fanboy, but I was enjoying myself so much throughout the movie and I was so engaged that I almost missed the twists that my horror expertise should have allowed me to pick up on immediately. That is to say, occasionally it's alright to let yourself go and have fun at a horror movie, even if it's far from perfect, and "Drag Me To Hell" is a great example of that.
NICE!!!
Submitted by djrad on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 21:38.I agree with you guys. I saw this in a packed theater last night and I have to say this was most fun I have had at a film in many years. People were yelling, screaming, laughing.....It's also nice to see Sam Raimi back on his "horror" game. Now, maybe wel'll get Evil Dead IV
Robb
I am in semi-agreement. I
Submitted by CG34 on Sun, 05/31/2009 - 08:01.I am in semi-agreement. I liked the movie and had a good time. It was really predictable at points and contained its steady stream of jumpscares. Really enjoyed most of the movie it just took me out of it at parts. Like Mark I'm not a diehard Raimi guy, but I do like Evil Dead and Dark Man and Spider-man enough to say I enjoy most of his work. The gross out gags were a little too goofy for me, but all the other humor was pretty great. Overall, it was a hell of a lot of fun and is sooo much better with a crowd. You just can't take it too seriously or else you'll be miserable like some of the people I went with.
Btw, did anyone else get a kick of the overly blatant Apple product placement whenever Justin Long was on screen, and also when Christine is using her laptop. That made me laugh every time.
Fun times indeed!
Submitted by Planet_Of_Terror on Mon, 06/01/2009 - 20:43.Its funny that the poster before me mentioned the Apple product placement and it didn't even dawn on me until he made mention of it. That's how engrossed I was with this film.
The most fun I've had at a movie theater in years as well. Hopefully we start to see more original, produced for the masses horror films like this instead of more of the same (i.e. with the never ending parade of remakes).
It's about time!
Submitted by Jack on Tue, 06/02/2009 - 05:18.Jesus Christ, I thought with the slew of bad horror films, that the genre was dying in the eyes of studios. Thank you Sam Raimi. "Drag Me To Hell" made me feel all warm and fuzzy like I was watching Evil Dead 2 for the first time.
Only problem is the Goddamn tv trailers kind of spoiled the ending a bit. I'm not going to say what, just in case someone who hasn't seen it reads this.
Review, before listening to podcast
Submitted by Laush on Sun, 06/07/2009 - 02:07.Review: Drag Me To Hell
Directed by: Sam Raimi
trifle – noun. a literary, musical, or artistic work of a light or trivial character having no great or lasting merit.
Overview
Like most moderately in-the-know horror movie fans, my G.C. (geek-cock) got a bit turgid when, somewhere in the past nine months, I read or heard that Sam Raimi was returning to horror with a movie titled “Drag Me to Hell”.
It goes without saying that I watched and loved the Evil Deads (the first two)… I never bought the idea that the second movie should have the “2” attached, as it was basically a refinement of the first, but it was still good stuff. I am also a big fan of the first Spiderman film – The Amazing Spiderman was about the only comic I habitually speed read when visiting the drug store as a kid, and I thought Raimi did a fantastic job tuning his directorial style to fit the typical origin story.
Spiderman 2 confirmed my opinion that Raimi was firing on all cylinders- this is definitely in my top 3 superhero movies, along with the first Superman movie and X-Men 2. (The only complaint about that movie I will give audience to is that Aunt Mae has at least one horribly long speech about responsibility that should have been ix nayed, at the latest, during review of the dailies.)
Spiderman 3 was a huge disappointment to me and pretty much failed in every way possible except some of the Green Goblin stuff. The meteor goo (“Jordy Verrill, you lunkhead!”) happening to land on earth, in Central Park, within 20 feet of where Spiderman and GF happen to be hanging out at the exact same moment? The Sandman having absolutely no motivation to be either as violent and then as reconciliatory at the end? It’s shit.
Stilll, I can forgive. The studio screams for Venom to bring in the kids and forces a release date on you; Pulitzer prize-winner Michael Chabon doesn’t work on the script… ok.
Heading into Drag Me To Hell (hereafter ‘DMTH’), I was ready for some high quality genre entertainment. I had read that this was Raimi returning to his roots and had read Eric’s review , so I had a generally positive vibe on the flick.
In college, you have your required classes. Then you have your electives. Electives can sometimes be taken as pass/no-pass.
I am branding DMTH as an elective now that Raimi is, at the least, thoroughly established as, if not quite A-list, at least something more than a workhorse. He’s stuck with common genre flicks that are typically highly entertaining and don’t have too much below the surface… I never watched The Gift, but thought A Simple Plan pushed it’s morality a bit too hard and had a bit too long of a running time as a neo-noir.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter in terms of his career how fans of genre like us react. More importantly, since the horror genre has been and in my mind will forever be marginalized by mainstream critics and ‘mainstream’ movie goers, it doesn’t really matter if this movie gets horrible reviews in the ‘press’ (such as it is in 2009) or what it makes, as long as it makes back it’s money (which, given the level of interest and what I assume is a relatively low budget, it will).
The Movie
So, how was the fucking movie I am supposedly reviewing? I give it a ‘pass’ for Raimi fans and horror genre fans willing to forgive quite a bit of hackneyed screenplay.
DMTH is, for all intents and purposes, empty of originality in terms of storyline/plotting. It’s a gypsy curse… yeah, that’s right. You remember the dirty, creepy gypsies from Thinner, and the European pogroms (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/havel-accepts-czech-guilt-for-gy...)?? Well, apparently they are just as ignorant, hateful, and as full of black magic as ever!
Do I think Sam Raimi and his brother and co-screenwriter Ivan are bigots trying to incite white supremacists with their portrayal of migrant Romani peoples?
No.
Do I think their screenplay is lazy and hackneyed for using this horror trope?
Absolutely.
The motivations of the main character are telescoped in the opening sequences at the bank where she works with much expositional dialogue and some silly POV camera moves:
(PAN TO ASSISTANT MANAGER’S DESK) – she’s EYEING the asst. manager position… GET IT?
SPOILER- come back after if you are going to watch the movie
The ending involves some misdirection which is so sad, you will notice unless you are me, as I’m one of the few people I know who sinks into a plot and will allow it to make me it’s bitch… I don’t see shit when it comes to switcharoo endings…
END SPOILER
Is there anything good in the movie? As a horror movie fan, there are some moments.
#1, I forgot how Raimi had basically invented his own style of editing and camera moves back in the days of Evil Dead that he carried through in his career... most of his genre movies (including his very entertaining Western ‘The Quick and the Dead’) have a rhythm, style, and shot sequence (noticeable POV back to observer) that somehow embraces two communiqués to the audience: the post-modern message “you’re watching a movie” (see ‘Wanted’, ‘Freddy versus Jason’) and the old-school “I’m telling you a story, my tricks may use advanced technology, but I will try and keep you centered in this moment in the story” (Spielberg, even when the script is half-baked) sensibility.
I haven’t watched what I consider the formative Raimi movies, ED 1 & 2, in years, but this movie certainly brought me back to them, though I think some of the gags were a bit more refined… there is a scene where the protagonist is reacting to the typical banging window shutters that does a crazy pull-back through hanging pots and pans that then start clanging that was so seamless I wanted to laugh and clap.
Acting Talent
Alison (one ‘l’, bitch) Lohman- cute, has good taste in scripts, and seems to put up with some practical effects shots that most people would probably not.
Justin Long – remember him in Jeepers Creeper? Guess he was in Die Hard 4 which I literally fell asleep through... I believed him here, and probably the best part of the script was that just when you think his character is gonna douche out, he comes back with a totally good guy moment.
In the End
This flick may be revelatory to the PG-13 crowd who haven’t snuck into or downloaded some of the better R rated horror flicks from the past year.
Those who have seen and hold as touchstones the Evil Dead movies will be pissed off that the “action” acts as sparse chocolate chips in a fairly mediocre cookie.
Watching this movie, I didn’t find much more joy than watching some of the betterShowtime Masters of Horror episodes… obviously, this production had more money, pre-production time, and run time, and so in the end becomes more entertaining and effective than any single episode of that particular series.
For you - As a horror movie fan, DMTH is an elective - (as opposed to one of the Evil Dead movies).
It was okay... and here there be spoilers...
Submitted by auntdar on Thu, 06/18/2009 - 14:40.I went to see this movie last night and I'd probably give it a 6/10.
Overall I found I just couldn't get interested in the story. I enjoyed the very Raimi parts of the film (the attack in the gargage, the seance and the grave scene were priceless), but overall was pretty bored.
One issue, was that I read Thinner (not one of my favorites) many years ago, and just couldn't get past the the glaring similarities. Including the twist ending (although it plays out a little different in Thinner, victim still tries to give away the curse with less than stellar results).
Now since I just turned 40, I am going to put on my old lady hat. My one main complaint, and Eric mentioned this in his review, was the eardrum splitting volume on the jumpscares. You saw the jumps coming a mile away, so Sam decides to deafen you to get you to jump. It got so bad that during the last 30 minutes, I spent most of it with my fingers in my ears. I would have enjoyed the silliness of them a lot more if I had not been blasted out of my seat each time (kept flashing back to the THX Simpsons moment).
Overall, it was okay, and there were parts I enjoyed, but won't be buying this one on DVD (although would probably rent it for the Raimi commentary...)