Drag Me To Hell

Synopsis

The very known Spider-Man director Sam Raimi takes a step back to his horror film roots with Drag Me To Hell. It's about Christine a young loan officer who denies a decrepit old looking woman an exstention on a loan to save her house. The proud woman forcfully begs Christine for help and this just freaks Christine out and she yells out for security's help. The woman feels totally shamed and places a curse on Christine which damns her to an eternity in hell. Christine takes drastic measures to make sure the curse gets broken.

Review

As far as horror movies go, Drag Me To Hell is simply delicious with its solid story, intense villain and believable characters. I was truly on edge. I also cracked up in disbelief because there are some CA-RAY-ZEE scenes. The opening credits reminded me of some horror film way back in the day. The powerful score is extremely creepy sounding and sets an eerie tone for a good horror flick.

Drag Me flows around Christine Brown (Alison Lohman, Things We Lost in the Fire), a loan officer who is up for an important promotion and tries to make a big decision by refusing to extend a loan to Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver, The Young and the Restless), an old tragic looking woman, in order to make a great impact on her boss. Not knowing what to do, this proud woman gets down on her dusty knees and begs Christine for help. Christine feels uncomfortable and somewhat threatened, so she yells for security’s assistance.

Mrs. Ganush feels disgraced and retaliates by placing a serious curse on Christine – the curse of the Lamia. Lamia is the most feared of all demons and torments its cursed victims for three straight days. After that, it will drag you to burn in hell for eternity. Christine seeks the help of a fortuneteller because she knows something is completely wrong and her man Clay (Justin Long, Die Hard 4) just thinks she’s suffering from posttraumatic stress. Yeah, right! And that's why she's being ho slapped around by who knows what.

Drag Me has a great set up, foreshadowing, and there are no loose ends. I love that about a movie. Nothing for me was left untold. Pacing of the scenes is on point and the movie moves along quick. I was pleased with how it stayed true to horror form.

There are some yuck moments, like certain projections from a mouth. UGHHHH… just gross. And this movie is not for kids. I just don’t get it. Someone brought his or her kids to see this. One was a baby about 18 months. The poor kid was sick. He was whining and hacking all loud. And the other kid looked to be about 3. I think a 3 year old would have nightmares after watching this film. Heck, I could have nightmares! Please people; stop bringing your babies to the theater. I implore you. I understand if the movie is Up or Bolt, but a horror film just isn’t right.

Anyhoo, the characters and actors are tremendous. When Christine was in jams, she had me thinking…”Run girl! Look out! Drive fool! Drive!” Lohman is good. She's real good. I was in the moment with her and that’s a good thing.

And Lorna Raver – WHEW! -- plays the heck out of her role as Mrs. Ganush. She is one big problem. Her snaggle teeth and dirty, wooden claw like fingernails are awful looking. Every time I looked at her, I got the heebie geebie chills.

Dang, I’m just thinking again about some of the more heightened fright moments. YIKES!!! As scary as they are, I couldn’t help but smile in disbelief at what was happening. Especially, at the scene in the trailer when Mrs. Gushan dragged young girl out of her car. Oh my. If she dragged me out of my car, I would be kicking my legs like I was the Karate Kid or something. Wax on! Wax off!
The title Drag Me to Hell is weird. Is it proposing a request? Frankly, it should be, Don’t Take Me to Hell. Or, Get Back Devil. Or, I Rebuke You Satin. Or, JESUSSS TAKE THE WHEEL! Okay, I know, I’m going a little too far out there, but it’s just what I’m thinking.

Drag Me is a real good horror flick. It truly is. There’s just enough juice to have you squirm in your seat, but not too much to totally have you too sick to watch it. I liked that there were distinct different antagonists when it came to the main plot and subplots. It just added so much more to the film. Drag Me is one of the good ones with a GREAT beginning, CRAZY middle and JUICEY ending.

My Rating ~ 4 Reels

Audience Rating (What's Yours?)