Review - Drag Me To Hell
November 22nd 2009 14:53
I was very keen to see Drag Me To Hell as I am a huge fan of the horror genre and had heard some pretty good feedback overall about the film. Starring Justin Long, Alison Lohman and David Paymer, Drag Me To Hell is surprisingly rated a PG-13 in the States, although seemed to warrant a MA 15 in Australia. Still for me, the movie worked and I had a fun time sitting back and watching Sam Raimi do his stuff.
Opening in 1969 and then moving to the current day, Christine Brown seems to be luckier than most. Having been raised in the country, she has managed to reinvent herself as a big city girl, owns a gorgeous house, has a successful Psychology Professor boyfriend and a steady job as a Loans Officer. She has her eye on a promotion to Assistant Manager although Stu Rubin (Reggie Lee) is also keen on the position and will do anything to enable himself to get the job.
Mrs Ganush, an old gypsy woman who is having trouble keeping up with her loan repayments, requests Christine to help her out in order that she does not lose her home. She is torn. Her good self would like her to help out Mrs Ganush, however in order to prove to her boss that she can make tough decisions, she has to go against her better judgement and deny any further extensions on the loan. Mrs Ganush begs for Christine to help however slightly overwhelmed by the odd behaviour, Christine calls for security which shames Mrs Ganush even further.
Leaving work alone and entering a dimly lit carpark, Christine notices Mrs Ganush's car directly across from her own. As all good horrors go, there is a struggle of life and death proportions between the two characters and Mrs Ganush snatches a button, curses it and returns it to Christine. If she thought she had been experiencing a bad day up until now, then she hasn't seen anything yet.
The premise of the curse put on her by Mrs Ganush is that in three days a demon known as the Lamia will come to collect her and drag her to hell but Christine is insistent that she will not go down without a fight. Turning to a mystic named Rham Jas (played by Dileep Rao), to help save her soul, they soon find that they are way out of their league. Requiring extra assistance to face the Lamia, Rham contacts spiritual medium Shaun San Dena who has previously faced the Lamia in another battle. Unfortunately for all of them, she lost that battle and the soul she was fighting for was dragged to the firey depths of hell.
The movie will provide enough bumps and scares to keep your horror interest nurtured and the story line provides enough impetus to keep the movie and the characters developing at a nice pace. There is some fun humour to be found within the movie as the morality tale plays out. The balance between the well developed characters and the ridiculousness of the situations put on them really worked for me and I for one was thinking to myself - Sam - what took you so long?
Voyage Review: 3.5/5
Opening in 1969 and then moving to the current day, Christine Brown seems to be luckier than most. Having been raised in the country, she has managed to reinvent herself as a big city girl, owns a gorgeous house, has a successful Psychology Professor boyfriend and a steady job as a Loans Officer. She has her eye on a promotion to Assistant Manager although Stu Rubin (Reggie Lee) is also keen on the position and will do anything to enable himself to get the job.
Mrs Ganush, an old gypsy woman who is having trouble keeping up with her loan repayments, requests Christine to help her out in order that she does not lose her home. She is torn. Her good self would like her to help out Mrs Ganush, however in order to prove to her boss that she can make tough decisions, she has to go against her better judgement and deny any further extensions on the loan. Mrs Ganush begs for Christine to help however slightly overwhelmed by the odd behaviour, Christine calls for security which shames Mrs Ganush even further.
Leaving work alone and entering a dimly lit carpark, Christine notices Mrs Ganush's car directly across from her own. As all good horrors go, there is a struggle of life and death proportions between the two characters and Mrs Ganush snatches a button, curses it and returns it to Christine. If she thought she had been experiencing a bad day up until now, then she hasn't seen anything yet.
The premise of the curse put on her by Mrs Ganush is that in three days a demon known as the Lamia will come to collect her and drag her to hell but Christine is insistent that she will not go down without a fight. Turning to a mystic named Rham Jas (played by Dileep Rao), to help save her soul, they soon find that they are way out of their league. Requiring extra assistance to face the Lamia, Rham contacts spiritual medium Shaun San Dena who has previously faced the Lamia in another battle. Unfortunately for all of them, she lost that battle and the soul she was fighting for was dragged to the firey depths of hell.
The movie will provide enough bumps and scares to keep your horror interest nurtured and the story line provides enough impetus to keep the movie and the characters developing at a nice pace. There is some fun humour to be found within the movie as the morality tale plays out. The balance between the well developed characters and the ridiculousness of the situations put on them really worked for me and I for one was thinking to myself - Sam - what took you so long?
Voyage Review: 3.5/5
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
I really liked this one too and was impressed that raimi returns to his roots...if your interested you can read my Drag me to Hell review by clicking HERE
Comment by Michelle Sweeney
Competition Queen
Always Learning
Cinema Voyage