DRAG ME TO HELL
US, 2009, 99 minutes, Colour.
Alison Lohman, Justin Long, David Paymer, Lorna Raver, Adriana Barraza.
Directed by Sam Raimi.
The film opens and closes with sequences which show, precisely, what the title means and entails.
Sam Raimi and his brother, Ivan, loved exploitation horror and produced a trilogy of Evil Dead scary filmfests from 1981, when he was 22, to 1992. Along the way he directed a wide range of films that audience fans of his horror and his Spiderman series tend to forget: a striking western, The Quick and the Dead, a comic-book hero with Liam Neeson, Darkman, a fine suspense drama, A Simple Plan, an occult thriller, The Gift, and even a baseball tribute with Kevin Costner, For Love of the Game, all this between 1990 and 2000.
He has decided to go back to the horror but, perhaps in the light of the popularity of Spiderman, he has mostly avoided gore and bloodshed and gone for a treatment that will entertain audiences who are younger and older. There are plenty of creepy moments and some jump-out-of-your-seat shocks. He has shrewdly created a mixture of ordinary scenes in banks, apartments and cars along with some eerie locations, a mansion where a medium operates and the shop and office of a seer fortune-teller. But, it is in the bank itself where the mood changes as Cristine (Alison Lohman) who is eager to become assistant manager and make hard decisions refuses an old woman, Mrs Ganush (who has some quite repulsive personal hygiene and dental behaviour) an extension of a loan for her house. Mrs Ganush (Lorna Raver) feels she is shamed and curses Christine. And, off we go.
Christine's professor boyfriend, Clay (Justin Long) is sceptical but goes along with her seeking a fortune teller and reading up about the spirit Lamia and its possessing people. As might be expected, she has a nightmare which has her waking up screaming. She also has hallucinations. Mrs Ganush makes plenty of alarming appearances.
Raimi is very skilful in keeping the balance between realism and the horror with touches of ironic humour, so that, Drag Me to Hell, does very well what it sets out to do.
1.Audience expectations? Critical acclaim? The horror, aspects of the supernatural?
2.The work of Sam Raimi, his origins in film-making, horror films and the Evil Dead? The experience of the Spider-Man? series? Polish, flair? Working with a bigger budget?
3.The Los Angeles setting, realistic, the bank, apartments and streets? The highways? The contrast with the eerie Los Angeles? The mansion at the opening of the film? The home of the seer and his shop? The return to the opening house forty years later? The musical score and its contributing to atmosphere, to shocks?
4.The special effects, less gory killings than might have been expected? The opening for people being dragged into Hell? The characters flying, falling? Mrs Ganush and her appearance? Her eye? Her sitting up in fright? Menacing Christine? Her mouth? The Lamia and the visualising of the spirit? The ending, the railway lines, the opening to Hell?
5.Editing and pace, the eerie atmosphere, the number of shocks and the audience jumping? Effective?
6.The moral perspective of the film: a look at human nature, erring, sinning, fear, the possibility of repentance, the possibilities of retribution or not, Christine going to Hell – deservedly or not? The theological implications of this kind of sinfulness and damnation?
7.Superstition and curses? The credibility of this kind of superstition, curse, background, rituals? The boy and his fate at the beginning, the medium and her failing to control the Lamia? The seer and his literature? The spirit, the number of days before retribution happened, the possession of the button? Christine and her believing this? Clay and his not believing it? Christine getting her fortune told?
8.The effect of the opening, the little boy, his parents and their concern, going to the medium, the look of the house, the experience of the boy in trouble, telling the truth about his stealing, the curse on him by the gypsy, his falling over the balustrade, on the floor, the floor opening, his being dragged into Hell? The story of the medium, her waiting forty years to confront the Lamia?
9.Christine, ordinary, her love for Clay, the background of the farm, the photo of her as a fat girl? At work in the bank, eager for the promotion? The discussion with Mr Jacks? Stu and her rival, looking at him, his adulation of Mr Jacks? The discussion with the manager, his urging her to hard decisions? Handling Mrs Ganush's situation, her plea, the refusal to extend the loan, Mrs Ganush’s reaction, her behaviour, removing her teeth, stealing the sweets? Getting on her knees and begging? Saying she was shamed, cursing Christine, taking the button? Her being thrown out of the bank?
10.Christine, upset, with Clay, going to the seer? The payment, her fear? His reading her palm, his knowing the truth? Her going back to him, looking up the books, the explanation of the spirit and its behaviour? Ten thousand dollars to go to see the medium, Clay paying? The explanation, the cat, the sacrifice of an animal – and the way that it was portrayed? Tongue-in-cheek? Later seeing the cat at Clay’s parents’?
11.Christine and her experience, Mrs Ganush appearing to her, in the car, trying to drive, the viciousness of the fight? Her appearance in her dreams? The imagery of her devouring Christine? The cloth floating through the air, in front of the car, the windscreen wipers? Christine tearing it? Mrs Ganush’s eye?
12.Christine going to visit Mrs Ganush and ask her pardon? The hostile granddaughter, finding the people at the wake, Mrs Ganush dead, her being upset, tripping, falling on the corpse? The image of the mouth? The horror? Christine’s determination to dig up the corpse, her finding the corpse, falling, the corpse jolting upright, the rain, the flood, Christine emerging from the grave?
13.The visit to Clay’s parents, her mother not impressed, Christine making a good impression, the meal, the talk, Christine’s distractions, the eerie sounds, Clay not hearing them? The gift of the cake, the appearances in the cake, her fear, flinging the glass, leaving?
14.Christine at home? Her determination to get the job? Meeting with Stu, the contract cancelled, knowing that he stole her file, sold the information to a rival firm? His coming, weeping? The phone call from Mr Jacks, giving her the job, Stu and his fate?
15.Going to the séance, the medium and her personality? Her assistant? With the seer, Clay waiting? The séance, the movement, the whirling, the assistant floating, the appearance of Lamia, possessing the medium, her death?
16.The issue of the button, going to the grave, getting the envelope? Her being at peace? Going to Union Station, buying the coat, Clay and the envelope and the irony of her putting the coin in the grave rather than the button? The mythology of giving the gift of the button to someone else and their being damned? Christine on the platform, her fear, backing away from the envelope with the button, falling onto the tracks, the oncoming train, the track opening and her being dragged into Hell?
17.An experience of terror for the audience, fear? The credibility of the plot, the background, possibility or not?
