Review: Drag Me to Hell (2009)

[jjmoya1955]

Drag Me to Hell
 (2009)

A Movie Review
By
Jonathan Moya

The Plot: (from AllMovie.com)

Determined to impress her boss and get a much-needed promotion at
work, Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) lays down the law when
mysterious Mrs. Ganush literally comes begging for mercy at her feet.
In retaliation for being publicly shamed, Mrs. Ganush places the
dreaded curse of Lamia on her unfortunate target, transforming
Christine's life into a waking nightmare. Her skeptical boyfriend Clay
(Justin Long) casually brushing off her disturbing encounters as mere
coincidence, Christine attempts to escape eternal damnation by seeking
out the aid of seer Rham Jas (Dileep Rao ). But Christine's time is
fast running out, and unless she's able to break the curse, she'll be
tormented by a demon for three days before literally being dragged to
hell.

The Review:

Drag Me to Hell is Sam Raimi's diabolical return party to the horror
genre after a decade stuck in the Spiderman web.  It is Raimi-lite,
content with scary shadows, gypsy curses, putrefying hags vomiting all
manners of emerald nastiness and a good old scary séance. Its PG-13
rating makes it almost quaint family fare by horror standards, a Tales
from the Crypt to keep the comic crowd happy until 2011 and Spiderman
5.    Sniff this butt and know that The Evil Dead remake scheduled for
next year is going to bring Raimi back to his dismembering and blood
projecting roots.

There is a lot of orifice horror in Hell.   The evil slime not only
falls on the fresh scrub face of the blonde Christine (Allison Lohman)
but also is tongue kissed into her mouth, breathed in and plopped
right into her eyes--hardhearted punishment for the softhearted loan
officer misfortunate enough to administer tough love to the one
mortgage defaulting, disease-eyed, talon, curse wielding gypsy woman
(Lorna Raver) in the city.   Lohman is the open-eye beneficiary of one
of the great projectile face transplants of the last twenty years or
so.    It is the nasty stuff that gets inside that is really the best
squirm inducing fright.

Raimi and his co-caballer brother Ivan conjured up the screenplay, a
couple of catfights that sticks to the basic spooks.  It is a Looney
Tunes nightmare on Speed and Acid.  There is a dandy bitch slap turned
demolition derby that takes place in a parking garage that gives new
meaning to click it or ticket.  Lorna Raver as the gypsy crone
provides some early character developing scares simply by jujuing with
a set of moldy dentures.  Adriana Barazza as the good counterbalance
gets the most of her fifteen minutes of screen time in Hell's séance
scene.  Allison Lohman  (cast at the witching hour when Juno's Ellen
Page got spooked) musters enough Buffy the Vampire Slayer toughness
while just barely passing her good girl acting test.

Still it is the scares before the scares that I remember:  the
diabolic shadows, the clanging pots and pans, an ectoplasmic
handkerchief floating and attaching itself like a wind octopus.
Raimi gets the little scares right so that the big horror matters.  He
messes with the head before taking the knife out.    It is so old
school old and well done that it looks brand new.

For its scary good fun, it gets a B+.


The Credits:   (From AllMovie.com)

  Sam Raimi  - Director / Screenwriter / Producer Grant Curtis  -
Producer Robert Tapert  - Producer Ivan Raimi  - Screenwriter / Co-
producer Peter Deming  - Cinematographer Christopher Young  - Composer
(Music Score) Bob Murawski  - Editor Steve Saklad  - Production
Designer Cristen Carr Strubbe  - Co-producer Joshua Donen  - Executive
Producer Joe Drake  - Executive Producer Nathan Kahane  - Executive
Producer Isis Mussenden  - Costume Designer John Papsidera  - Casting
Howard Berger  - Makeup Special Effects Bruce Jones  - Visual Effects
Supervisor Gregory Nicotero  - Makeup Special Effects

With:  Alison Lohman  - Christine Brown Justin Long  - Clay Dalton
Lorna Raver  - Mrs. Ganush David Paymer  - Mr. Jacks Dileep Rao  -
Rham Jas Reggie Lee  - Stu Rubin Adriana Barraza  - Shaun San Dena
Molly Cheek  - Trudy Dalton

Copyright 2009 by Jonathan Moya