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Editorial Reviews
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Touted as a return to Sam Raimi's horror-movie roots, Drag Me to Hell is indeed closer in spirit to the director's Evil Dead pictures than to his Spider-Man films. You got your gypsy gargoyles with rotted dentures, your upchucking corpses, your flexible two-way orifices--yes, Raimi's definitely back in the saddle. There's even a story: a sad loan officer (Alison Lohman) turns down the aforementioned denture-wearing gypsy for a loan extension, which leads to an evil curse and a date in hell in three days' time. A séance, an animal sacrifice, and a session in a storm-tossed graveyard will make the 72 hours pass very nervously, thank you, along with assorted scares. Justin Long plays Lohman's upper-class boyfriend, and Raimi fills the rest of the cast with some unusual and unfamiliar types. Along with the giddy horror-comedy that bursts out of the movie every 10 minutes or so, there's also an underlying mood of pity: Lohman's character is something of a hard-luck sad sack, who does enough wrong things to make her seem like a truly abject individual, well outside the heroic model of most multiplex offerings. (Lohman's own little-girl-lost quality adds to this feeling.) But don't let that get in the way of the fun-ride aspects of this goofy enterprise: Drag Me to Hell is a bunch of Z-movie gags wrapped in top-drawer production values. --Robert Horton
Stills from Drag Me to Hell (Click for larger image)
Stills from Drag Me to Hell (Click for larger image)
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Product Description
Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is on her way to having it all: a devoted boyfriend (Justin Long), a hard-earned job promotion, and a bright future. But when she’s forced to make a tough decision that evicts an elderly woman from her house, Christine becomes the victim of an evil curse. Now she has only three days to dissuade a dark spirit from stealing her soul before she is dragged to hell for an eternity of unthinkable torment. Director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man and The Evil Dead Trilogy) returns to the horror genre with a vengeance in the film that critics rave is “the most crazy, fun and terrifying horror movie in years!” (Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly)
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Sam Raimi has been one of the top cult directors ever since he shocked the horror world with his impossibly low-budget debut The Evil Dead. He proved himself the absolute master of black absurdist comedy with the sequel Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, and added polish and cheesy goody times to the adventure flick that closed the series, Army of Darkness. He has also become known for his comic book adaptations Darkman and the massively successful big-budget Spider-Man series, and has produced some outstanding cult fantasy television series such as Xena Warrior Princess, Hercules The Legendary Journeys, and the recent Legend of the Seeker. Not a bad career for any geek god. But having faltered in recent years with the embarrassingly underwhelming "Spider-Man 3", and by attaching his name to bad horror films such as the American J-horror remake The Grudge and the abysmal Boogeyman, I may have lost my faith just for a little while. Sorry I doubted you, Mr. Raimi. To think I almost didn't go see "Drag Me to Hell" in the theater. PG-13 typically spells "kiddie horror", but the man made it work. Spectacularly. I never once felt that this film pulled a single punch. It not only shows you the good/bad stuff, it vomits it on the floor in front of you and forces you to laugh at it. This is overall the best reviewed horror film in recent memory and in this man's opinion Raimi has again served every other horror director out there nearly 30 years after "Evil Dead" dropped. Applause is called for.
Let me get to what those of us who saw it in the theater want to know first. How is the unrated director's cut? Well, it's exactly the same film. However, there are a few shots where extra gore was added that apparently would have pushed an already intense horror film into R-rated territory so they were left out of the theatrical cut. I welcome the additions, but I do wish there was more material to justify the "unrated director's cut" label, which implies something more substantial even beyond an R-rating. And while I'm on about the DVD, the special features consist solely of about 30 minutes of excellent production diaries. I wanted more. A commentary with Raimi and the stars would have been great considering the director's talent for entertaining commentary tracks and the great personalities of the film's two charming stars Justin Long an Alison Lohman
The story and setup of "Drag Me to Hell" couldn't be any more standard or unimaginative. Through a series of unfortunate events, a good person makes a bad decision under stress and winds up cursed by an old Gypsy woman. An evil spirit will torment her for three days and then take her soul into the abyss unless she can find a way to stop or appease it. Standard. Unimaginative. But I've often said that I don't mind the redundancy inherent in genre entertainment so long as the execution is solid; and it is beyond solid in this one. Ms. Lohman is the loveliest thing I've seen on screen in some time. As our protagonist, Christine, she is sweet and vulnerable but also prone to temperamental moments of badaz$ery, which come off as downright cute and funny no matter how mean-spirited her intent. Raimi' sadism when it comes to his leads is legendary and Christine gets no quarter. Coping with stressful situations like meeting her boyfriend's terrifyingly shallow and judgmental mother or vying for a promotion at work against a ruthless amoral up-and-comer are bad enough without an evil spirit only you can see or hear blasting terrifying visions in your face without warning. The film definitely uses the speakers to maximum effect which could be annoying in it's volume, but I feel that the film is trying to put you in Christine's shoes and makes you personally experience what is driving her insane, which is the flash-visions and screaming noise that accompany them. Some may call them cheap "startle scares", but I feel it was for immersive purposes and I can tell you, it keeps you on edge. Mission accomplished, then.
"Drag Me to Hell" is not a comedy, but it is very funny. The film is absolutely grim and you will see some deaths that will horrify you. The scream of sheer terror that punctuates the opening scene is one I can't get out of my head. Unlike most horror directors, Raimi doesn't care about morality. He doesn't go into a film thinking he's going to punish the horny stoned teenagers and let the good-hearted innocents off with a warning. Like I said, he's a sadist. Regardless of how cute and nice and young a character is, they're getting it bad one way or another. Empathy will get you nowhere. It's all part of the fun.....if you're a sick bastard like me, that is.
The story goes from one messed-up situation to the next and Christine winds up seeking supernatural help to try and do away with her invisible demonic tormentor. The film climaxes in what has got to be the wildest and most bizarre seance in cinema history. That scene was where the film went from good fun to borderline classic for me. I laughed hard even as I was completely shell-shocked by what I was seeing onscreen at the time. It's relatively easy to be scary OR funny, but scary AND funny at the same time? That takes a special kind of talent. I have only one major complaint about "Drag Me to Hell" and it consists of a single bad CG shot. Most of the effects are practical, and you will see in the production diaries that Lohman quite literally ate maggots to get a good shot. What a trooper. I told you Raimi's a beast. Any way you slice it, this movie is the real deal and it pushed it's PG-13 rating as far as possible with disturbing death, vile excretions in unsavory place, and a generally sadistic attitude. Even with a few extra-nasty shots, the core film is only slightly more shocking then it already was. It's still the same movie. No better, no worse.
"Drag Me to Hell" has all of the familiar charm and zany unexpected bleak humor we've come to know from the director, and it's really amazing how comfortably he slipped right back into the horror genre. In my opinion it can easily stand alongside the Evil Dead films in terms of sheer entertainment value and really could easily be seen as taking place in the same "universe" as it were. Some may (and do) disagree but I would sentence those people to watch every inane toothless PG-13 horror film of the last two decades and then give this one another shot. It'll look like The Exorcist in comparison. Good modern horror is hard to find on the big screen these days. When we get it, let's embrace it with both arms, shall we?
Let me get to what those of us who saw it in the theater want to know first. How is the unrated director's cut? Well, it's exactly the same film. However, there are a few shots where extra gore was added that apparently would have pushed an already intense horror film into R-rated territory so they were left out of the theatrical cut. I welcome the additions, but I do wish there was more material to justify the "unrated director's cut" label, which implies something more substantial even beyond an R-rating. And while I'm on about the DVD, the special features consist solely of about 30 minutes of excellent production diaries. I wanted more. A commentary with Raimi and the stars would have been great considering the director's talent for entertaining commentary tracks and the great personalities of the film's two charming stars Justin Long an Alison Lohman
The story and setup of "Drag Me to Hell" couldn't be any more standard or unimaginative. Through a series of unfortunate events, a good person makes a bad decision under stress and winds up cursed by an old Gypsy woman. An evil spirit will torment her for three days and then take her soul into the abyss unless she can find a way to stop or appease it. Standard. Unimaginative. But I've often said that I don't mind the redundancy inherent in genre entertainment so long as the execution is solid; and it is beyond solid in this one. Ms. Lohman is the loveliest thing I've seen on screen in some time. As our protagonist, Christine, she is sweet and vulnerable but also prone to temperamental moments of badaz$ery, which come off as downright cute and funny no matter how mean-spirited her intent. Raimi' sadism when it comes to his leads is legendary and Christine gets no quarter. Coping with stressful situations like meeting her boyfriend's terrifyingly shallow and judgmental mother or vying for a promotion at work against a ruthless amoral up-and-comer are bad enough without an evil spirit only you can see or hear blasting terrifying visions in your face without warning. The film definitely uses the speakers to maximum effect which could be annoying in it's volume, but I feel that the film is trying to put you in Christine's shoes and makes you personally experience what is driving her insane, which is the flash-visions and screaming noise that accompany them. Some may call them cheap "startle scares", but I feel it was for immersive purposes and I can tell you, it keeps you on edge. Mission accomplished, then.
"Drag Me to Hell" is not a comedy, but it is very funny. The film is absolutely grim and you will see some deaths that will horrify you. The scream of sheer terror that punctuates the opening scene is one I can't get out of my head. Unlike most horror directors, Raimi doesn't care about morality. He doesn't go into a film thinking he's going to punish the horny stoned teenagers and let the good-hearted innocents off with a warning. Like I said, he's a sadist. Regardless of how cute and nice and young a character is, they're getting it bad one way or another. Empathy will get you nowhere. It's all part of the fun.....if you're a sick bastard like me, that is.
The story goes from one messed-up situation to the next and Christine winds up seeking supernatural help to try and do away with her invisible demonic tormentor. The film climaxes in what has got to be the wildest and most bizarre seance in cinema history. That scene was where the film went from good fun to borderline classic for me. I laughed hard even as I was completely shell-shocked by what I was seeing onscreen at the time. It's relatively easy to be scary OR funny, but scary AND funny at the same time? That takes a special kind of talent. I have only one major complaint about "Drag Me to Hell" and it consists of a single bad CG shot. Most of the effects are practical, and you will see in the production diaries that Lohman quite literally ate maggots to get a good shot. What a trooper. I told you Raimi's a beast. Any way you slice it, this movie is the real deal and it pushed it's PG-13 rating as far as possible with disturbing death, vile excretions in unsavory place, and a generally sadistic attitude. Even with a few extra-nasty shots, the core film is only slightly more shocking then it already was. It's still the same movie. No better, no worse.
"Drag Me to Hell" has all of the familiar charm and zany unexpected bleak humor we've come to know from the director, and it's really amazing how comfortably he slipped right back into the horror genre. In my opinion it can easily stand alongside the Evil Dead films in terms of sheer entertainment value and really could easily be seen as taking place in the same "universe" as it were. Some may (and do) disagree but I would sentence those people to watch every inane toothless PG-13 horror film of the last two decades and then give this one another shot. It'll look like The Exorcist in comparison. Good modern horror is hard to find on the big screen these days. When we get it, let's embrace it with both arms, shall we?
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By darklordzden
Format:DVD
Los Angeles, The Present: Christine (Alison Lohman) is a timid small town girl trying to cut it as a banker in Big City and failing miserably. Eager to build a secure foundation for herself and her academic boyfriend, Clay (Justin Long), as well earn the respect of Clay's snobby parents, Alison eagerly pursues a promotion to assistant bank manager, a task which sees her locked in a passive aggressive struggle with weasily, conniving contemporary, Stu (Reggie Lee). During the course of a working day, Alison finds herself reluctantly forced to act as judge, jury and executioner on the estate of Sylvia Ganush (Lorna Raver), a sinister, elderly Gypsy woman who is defaulting on her mortgage. Keen to prove herself to her boss as the kind of capable employee who can make a hard judgment call, Alison goes against her better instincts and forecloses on Ganush's mortgage. But as anyone who has ever seen a horror movie knows, crossing an old Gypsy woman is never a good idea, and before long Alison finds herself pursued by a relentless demonic force that quite literally wants to drag her straight to hell...
I'll be honest. I had gone right off of Sam Raimi in recent years. I loved the "Evil Dead" films but absolutely despised the "Spiderman" films and despaired of ever seeing a decent film from the man following his mainstream success. Luckily for me though, "Drag Me To Hell" heralds a return to his earlier gonzo style of film-making.
Taking it's cue from M.R. James' short story "Casting The Runes" and any number of seventies satancentric Amercian TV movie schlockers, "DMTH" is a joy-ride through glorious excess and bad taste. Those familiar with the "Evil Dead" films and those gloriously tacky 'movies of the week' will know what to expect: its less of a horror film and more of an absurdist dark comedy which takes a subtle jab at our 'win-at-any-cost' culture of corporate success. Which is not to say that it isn't rife with gore and general ickiness. It is. Its just that its rendered in a tone more akin to that of a Tex Avery cartoon than a hardcore splatter movie (indeed, a carefully positioned and precariously suspended anvil is actually responsible for a gloriously grotesque demise at one point). Likewise, a scene in which a goat is possessed by a demonic force, and begins to bleat about how much of a "b-e-a-a-a-i-i-i-t-ch" our protagonist is, is a clear indicator that things should not be taken too seriously.
While its not going to be too everyone's taste, I had a ball with this film. It made me roar with laughter and grimace in equal measure. It'll confound those who aren't in on the jokes, but if you grew up on a diet of Tex Avery and films like Fear No Evil, The Legend of Hell House and Curse of the Demon / Night of the Demon (an excellent Jacques Tourneur directed adaptation of the aforementioned M.R. James story which this film obliquely references several times) then you'll probably take this one to heart.
I'll be honest. I had gone right off of Sam Raimi in recent years. I loved the "Evil Dead" films but absolutely despised the "Spiderman" films and despaired of ever seeing a decent film from the man following his mainstream success. Luckily for me though, "Drag Me To Hell" heralds a return to his earlier gonzo style of film-making.
Taking it's cue from M.R. James' short story "Casting The Runes" and any number of seventies satancentric Amercian TV movie schlockers, "DMTH" is a joy-ride through glorious excess and bad taste. Those familiar with the "Evil Dead" films and those gloriously tacky 'movies of the week' will know what to expect: its less of a horror film and more of an absurdist dark comedy which takes a subtle jab at our 'win-at-any-cost' culture of corporate success. Which is not to say that it isn't rife with gore and general ickiness. It is. Its just that its rendered in a tone more akin to that of a Tex Avery cartoon than a hardcore splatter movie (indeed, a carefully positioned and precariously suspended anvil is actually responsible for a gloriously grotesque demise at one point). Likewise, a scene in which a goat is possessed by a demonic force, and begins to bleat about how much of a "b-e-a-a-a-i-i-i-t-ch" our protagonist is, is a clear indicator that things should not be taken too seriously.
While its not going to be too everyone's taste, I had a ball with this film. It made me roar with laughter and grimace in equal measure. It'll confound those who aren't in on the jokes, but if you grew up on a diet of Tex Avery and films like Fear No Evil, The Legend of Hell House and Curse of the Demon / Night of the Demon (an excellent Jacques Tourneur directed adaptation of the aforementioned M.R. James story which this film obliquely references several times) then you'll probably take this one to heart.
38 of 54 people found the following review helpful
By Monkdude
Format:Blu-ray|Amazon Verified Purchase
I can't believe I'm going to say this but Drag Me to Hell is one of my favorite movies of the year so far. I thought this Sam Raimi gem would get mixed reviews at best, so I was blown away when I saw the 100 or so positive reviews flowing in from critics. It ranks with UP and Star Trek as one of the best reviewed movies of the year. That rarely happens with a horror film, but this one is so much more. It's full of dark humor, gross out gags (really pushes the PG-13 envelope), good acting, nice SFX and an interesting story. I can't remember the last time I was this surprised at how much better the movie was than any of the trailers or what I had expected going in.
Alison Lohman really sold me here. She is very cute, but she shows the smarts and toughness you almost never see in a horror flick. Really good stuff from her. The whole cast from Justin Long to the evil gypsy lady is spot on and you can't leave out director Sam Raimi. His visual style here will remind you of The Evil Dead trilogy, but with a bigger budget and just as much creativeness. It was great to see this now summer blockbuster director go back to his roots and knock it out of the park. The music and sound effects are some of the best I've heard in a long time. When it goes from quiet to extremely loud, the sound alone will make you jump. Out of all the movies I have seen in theaters, I can't remember one with sound mixing this good.
Well, do you think I liked Drag Me to Hell just a little bit? Really? When it comes to horror films, especially in recent years, few pack the thrills, laughs and entertainment value that this one brings.
4 and 1/2 out of 5 stars
Alison Lohman really sold me here. She is very cute, but she shows the smarts and toughness you almost never see in a horror flick. Really good stuff from her. The whole cast from Justin Long to the evil gypsy lady is spot on and you can't leave out director Sam Raimi. His visual style here will remind you of The Evil Dead trilogy, but with a bigger budget and just as much creativeness. It was great to see this now summer blockbuster director go back to his roots and knock it out of the park. The music and sound effects are some of the best I've heard in a long time. When it goes from quiet to extremely loud, the sound alone will make you jump. Out of all the movies I have seen in theaters, I can't remember one with sound mixing this good.
Well, do you think I liked Drag Me to Hell just a little bit? Really? When it comes to horror films, especially in recent years, few pack the thrills, laughs and entertainment value that this one brings.
4 and 1/2 out of 5 stars
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Drag me out of the theater!
Drag me to Hell has plenty of campy moments, a few scary ones, some stylishly directed fun, but for the most part this film is 'run of the mill' material that can get very hokey at... Read more
Published 12 days ago by Natja Kristy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Drag Me To Hell. Scary From Start To finish
I rented this one just finished watching it, this puts the S in scary, and is a fright fest from start to finish. Read more
Published 12 days ago by YOLANDA VARGAS
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's Sam Rami, what else can you say?
It's great if you love Rami flicks - you won't be disappointed. It touches on the delicate balance of choosing to do the right thing, or following the path of the world.... Read more
Published 12 days ago by kristy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing!
This movie is amazing. Same guy that brought us the Evil Dead series. Comedy/Horror does not exist like this anywhere else.
Published 15 days ago by Samson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Movie
Made my top list of best horror movies. Will tell everybody about this movie. It is great..three more words. the end
Published 20 days ago by mike lang
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hmnmm
It was awesome the first time I watched it, but its one of those movies where the main actress gets more annoying the more times you watch it. Read more
Published 20 days ago by Melanie Lambert
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Movie
If you are in to suspense movies this is a great one. It is at a great price too you will love this movie.
Published 24 days ago by Ms. Annette Arnold
4.0 out of 5 stars
I don't know?
I mean overall the movie is good, there are some pretty gross parts especially with the fight between the old woman and the young woman and the spit and slobber and stuff like that... Read more
Published 26 days ago by H. Collier
3.0 out of 5 stars
enteranting horror
First off , im not a horror fan , well not the Jason or the bloody , kill um while they have sex bit , thats trash . Read more
Published 29 days ago by Snake Pisken
3.0 out of 5 stars
watched before alight
saw it before not what i excpected but alight yaeh sure you like this stuff not to scary but enough to like it
Published 1 month ago by michael p reitzel
