Drag Me To Hell
At its core, Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me to Hell,” borrows from the successful formula used in such classic horror comedies as “Dead Alive” and Raimi’s own “The Evil Dead.” This is not a scary movie, despite its multiple jumps; and it’s not a comedy, despite the over-the-top scares that can only be laughed at. Instead, it is a perfect combination of the two and overall an enjoyable movie.
Over-the-top is certainly the best way to describe it. From the main title, which fills more of the screen than it needs to, to the casual sound effects that are vastly blown out of proportion (like the screeching when the main character presses her face against a window to peer outside), everything is large. The “scares” can often be reduced to a loud music cue or an in-your-face visual effect. They are predictable as well, but we watch to see how far the film will go. Will it be able to “out-gross” the last thing we saw? More often than not, the answer is yes.
And that’s why the movie is fun. The film centers around Christine Brown (played by Alison Lohman) who is a struggling loan officer trying her hardest to get a promotion. When she is faced with the choice of helping an old woman or pleasing her boss by turning down the woman’s loan extension, she chooses the latter, putting work above her morals. The old woman curses her, and for the next three days a goat-like demon, called the Lamia, chases Christine. On the fourth day, it plans to drag her to hell, unless she can do something to stop it.
And frankly, none of that matters. The curse is merely a MacGuffin that allows the filmmakers to have horrific creatures chase Christine and horrific visions taunt her. Every one of the moments is gross to the point of being funny, and that is the film’s charm. I, myself, laughed out loud countless times, be it at the corny dialogue, or the old gypsy woman who keeps losing her teeth in the most disturbing ways possible. The filmmakers, actors and everyone involved had fun making this movie and it shows.
“Drag Me to Hell” has the feeling of a classic B horror movie (it in fact has a dinner scene that seems to pay some homage to the famed scene from “Dead Alive”). Despite some of the obvious uses of CGI, this movie could have been made thirty or forty years ago and had the same effect. In fact, the credits list a number of puppeteers, suggesting many effects were indeed practical. Eyeballs fly into people’s faces; arms get shoved down throats; none of it makes sense; and, in the end, it’s wonderful.
Sam Raimi lets us laugh with his film, instead of at it. He forces us to jump, even if he’s just using a scary cue to do so. He pulls out every trick in the book to make a film that’s horrifyingly fun. It’s a throwback to the days before Sam Raimi became the director of “Spiderman,” and we can only hope that his future brings more films like this.
