Review: Drag Me to Hell (2009)

Drag Me to Hell (2009)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of horror violence, terror, disturbing images and language

Score: 4 out of 5

Do not let the PG-13 rating fool you. Drag Me to Hell is a mean, vicious, whoop-your-ass horror movie from a guy who, even after moving on up to big-time superhero blockbusters, still knew his way around the kinds of campy B-movies he first made his career with, demonstrating that he hadn't lost his touch. It combines gigantic scares, gross outs, and the darkly comedic tone of Evil Dead II, wasting absolutely zero time in getting to what most people come to see a Sam Raimi horror movie for, and the rating proved to be no obstacle when it came to delivering the goods. It still holds up ten years later as a film that needs no sequel and pulls no punches, thanks to both an excellent cast and a filmmaker at the top of his game.

The plot is very much of the year 2009: Christine Brown (no relation to an R&B singer who probably deserves to be dragged to Hell) is a loan officer who, seeking a promotion and looking to prove to her boss that she can do what it takes, denies a mortgage extension to an old woman named Sylvia Ganush who's on the edge of foreclosure. Mrs. Ganush, an old gypsy woman, retaliates by ambushing and violently attacking Christine in order to put a curse on her: a demon called the Lamia will torment her for the next three days before taking her away to Hell. What follows is a parade of misery for Christine as the Lamia haunts her, and it wastes no time, making its presence felt quickly even in the more ethereal, shadow-like form it has in the first act. Raimi is considered a master of horror for a reason, and just why that is becomes apparent very quickly here as he sets up and executes some monster scares. This film is a case study in how to do jump scares right, building an atmosphere where, once it becomes apparent that something is haunting Christine, that something is always on the attack. The Lamia's presence is felt throughout the film, always lurking, and frequently pulling the rug out from under the viewers any time it seems like Christine -- and the audience -- has gotten a reprieve. Some decent stretches can go without the Lamia showing up, only for it to come back meaner than ever, first slowly and then all at once; a scene where Christine is meeting her boyfriend's parents for lunch serves as a standout example. Raimi isn't afraid to get flat-out ridiculous with the scares, either, fusing his love of gross-out body horror, old-fashioned Universal-style atmosphere (complete with an excellent score), and Three Stooges-inspired slapstick in that way that few others can pull off. Often, I couldn't help but smile at scenes where Christine drops an anvil on the Lamia's head and its eyes pop out and go flying into her face and mouth, or when the Lamia possesses a man and has him do a goofy dance in mid-air while telling Christine what he's gonna do to her soul in Hell. The B-movie spirit of the Evil Dead films is very much alive and well here; while the gags may now be augmented with CGI, they're still more or less the same beast that they were before.

Alison Lohman also proves to be a perfect fit for this film's brand of heightened, gonzo horror. It's odd that she more or less retired from acting right after she made this (she got married and had a kid), because this film could've taken her places. Her performance often felt like what it would be like if Kristen Bell played Ash in the Evil Dead films, a perky but kinda basic young woman who gets covered in blood, vomit, worms, embalming fluid, and God knows what else more times than I could count, and whose reaction to the existential dread of her fate includes breaking out the Ben & Jerry's. I'm almost grateful that they didn't go with Ellen Page, their first choice for the role; while both of them are very fine actresses, Lohman is such a big part of what makes this film the way it is that it would've been a very different film without her. She walks a fine line in making Christine sympathetic and cool on one hand, but on the other, also painting her as a corporate climber who's willing to put her better qualities aside in the name of naked self-interest even if it means hurting others. Justin Long, too, makes for an engaging supporting character as Christine's boyfriend Clay, a man who genuinely is as nice and good-hearted as he seems at first glance and stands by his girlfriend's side all the way to the end. Even though he's initially skeptical about Christine's claim that she's been cursed, he never turns into a token asshole, a guy whose only purpose in the story is to be a dick to the protagonist and get in her way. Clay felt like somebody who was written as the charming male lead of a romantic comedy only to be dropped into a horror movie instead, a refreshing change of pace from the countless unlikable romantic partners seen in horror, and Long did a great job playing him. Without spoiling anything, Clay gets a moment near the end of pure shock and terror that absolutely made him, Christine, and the film as a whole.

The Bottom Line

To put it plain and simple, this is a highly effective chiller whose teen-friendly rating masks some truly vicious material, all delivered with a giant shit-eating grin on its face. Any fan of Raimi or his style of B-movie horror should check this out.