Drag Me to Hell

So, I'm starting off this blog with a movie that I've been jabbering over for the past week since I've seen it. Once in a while a good horror movie will come out in theaters and surprisingly will be good (The Descent, Quarantine, Let the Right One In). But, the old school horror directors haven't been hitting the old pars that they use to and some of the new ones are kind of making the masters of horror show their age. That isn't the case with Sam Raimi since the return of his 20 plus year hiatus from the horror circuit with Drag Me to Hell. I had my doubts at first but, still like the horror nerd I am was highly anticipating it since the recent success of the Spider-man trilogy. Drag Me to Hell was actually a pleasant fright to have thrown at an individual with such scepticism.

The film starts with tale of a Mexican family who's small son has stolen a silver necklace from a gypsy woman and in return has placed a horrible curse on the boy which he begins seeing manifestations of demons and spirits coming after him. The family seeks the help of a known medium/psychic to reverse the spell and free their son of his torment. During the seance in order to cast the spell out, the family and psychics actions are cut short by paranormal forces that throw the boy of a stairwell on the ground below. The floor begins to tear open and hands reach from below to grasp the boy and drag him down into Hell. A few decades pass and we meet Christine Brown(Allison Lohman) who works as a loan officer for a bank firm that is eager to get the assistant manager. One day an elderly woman named, Mrs. Ganush (Loma Raver), who is seeking a third extension on her home loan goes to Christine for help. In hopes of ensuring her position as assistant manager she denies Mrs. Ganush the third extension, thus causing her to beg to Christine for help. Christine becomes frightened and ends up having her escorted out of the building. Later that evening while Christine is leaving for the day, Christine is attacked by Mrs. Ganush in the car port where she tears off one of Christine's button and whispers, "Lamia" forging the curse upon Christine. Christine seeks condolence from her boyfriend Clay (Justin Long) and shorty after begins seeing horrible images that only she appears to be seeing. She seeks the help of a local psychic who tells her fortune and sees that she has had a curse placed upon her soul. Clay seems sceptical and thinks Christine is only experiencing post-traumatic stress and doesn't believe their is a curse and they leave the psychic. As the days go on the manifestations become generally stronger and more violent. Christine returns to the psychic he tells her more about the curse and that on the third the day the manifestations stop and the one with the curse is dragged down to Hell for all eternity. Christine then sets upon the mission to try and reverse the curse in anyway possible to go as far as dabbling in ancient rituals to trying to pass the curse of to someone else while dealing with the ever growing horror which presides around her.

I heard from my friend, Martin, that this film was debuting at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and I sort of wondered as of to why. With all the shit coming out today and the reputation that Raimi built himself with the Spider-man movies and producing the American versions of the Grudge with his production team Ghost House, I questioned if this was Cannes material. On top of it all, it was PG-13. But, still, hope is the last thing to die. I still had faith that Raimi would make a triumphant return and believe it or not it was better than I anticipated. Not since the original Evil Dead trilogy have I seen such a well balanced meal of gritty in your face horror and a tolerable dose of slapstick/gross-out humor. The recurring gag of something nasty always finding it's way towards Christine's mouth never gets old through out the whole movie or, the constant repetition between Mrs. Ganush and Christine where a chunk of hair always gets torn from Christine's scalp. It's almost equivalent to watching to two long time rivals having it out back and forth against one another as if it's a routine occurrence. The comedy never overwhelms the fact that this is a good old fashion horror flick the scares are just as good as the humor. The tense moments never die down and strike at the least possible moments and are thrown in at times when other horror films haven't really put them before. One important ingredient in the recipe for a horror film is just that element of surprise in all the un-designated places where you'd least expect a scare. What I liked most about it was that Raimi brought back the nostalgia of the trademark Evil Dead insignia at one scene in the movie where the dead embody the living and we hear the classic liners pertaining to the swallowing of souls and the contorted faced, pupil-less, hovering mounds of Hell that shocked our psyches those 20 years ago return. The film runs a good length too where it doesn't drag on or, doesn't move too fast the story shows it was well thought out and wasn't some rushed together thing. Sam Raimi and his brother, Ivan wrote the story together and clearly didn't want to make the return to the genre a flop. The story written actually gives me the thoughts that this would be along the lines of something that could have come out of Italy during the 60s or 70s gothic horror. The fact it was PG-13 didn't even dwindle the enjoyment of it any. Teens want to go to a horror flick to get scared and this was both a good scare flick for little acne infested teens as well as something that would be revered at some as pristine as the Cannes Film Festival. Thanks Sam Raimi for not fucking this up.

trailer