Mikes Film Talk

The 2009 Sam Raimi film Drag Me to Hell is a campy dark humoured horror film. It gives us a female version of Bruce Campbell, in Alison Lohman.

Drag Me to Hell is pretty damn good for a film that sat dormant for over ten years. Sam Raimi and brother Ivan wrote the screenplay. This was after the last of the Evil Dead films had been made. The original title had been The Curse (Hmmm, wonder why Sam didn’t use that title?) and it was meant to be a modern morality tale.

Unfortunately Sam had to wade through three Spiderman films before he could start work on Drag Me to Hell. So it’s no real surprise that the screenplay is over a decade old. This is Sam Raimi going back to his Evil Dead roots. And though he doesn’t have Bruce Campbell to torture, he does have Alison Lohman. She proves   that you don’t have to be Bruce Campbell to imitate a Timex timepiece.

Lohman actually endured some things at the hands of director Raimi that would have most folks gagging. She doesn’t doesn’t even like the horror genre. To paraphrase an old song: “She’s a game girl though.” Lohman did all her own stunts. Pretty impressive.

The story

The film opens with a 1969 visit to a spiritualist. She is trying to drive an evil spirit or demon out of a young Mexican boy. She loses the fight. Hell comes and drags the boy through her floor. Screaming all the way. The film then jumps ahead a whole lot of years to the present.

We meet mortgage clerk Christine Brown (Lohman) who is competing for the post of assistant  manager against her creepy colleague Stu Rubin (played with a kind of smarmy charm by Reggie Lee). In an effort to please her annoying boss Mr Jacks (David Paymer) she turns down Mrs Ganush’s  request for an extension on her mortgage which will stop the bank from taking her home. Mrs Ganush is played brilliantly by the much younger Lorna Raver

Mrs Ganush flings herself at Christine’s feet and clutching her skirt, begs for her to reconsider. Christine ‘freaks out’ at this dramatic behaviour and calls for security to remove the gypsy “Romani” woman. She is dragged away by security. Ganush spits at Christine and swears angrily at her.

A shaken Christine leaves for the day. Getting into her car she is attacked by Mrs Ganush. This is one of the funniest scenes in the film. The two battle tooth and nail for dominance. At one point Christine ‘staples’ the other woman’s head. Christine thinks she has won, Mrs Ganuh  snatches a button from her clothes and places a curse on it and Christine. The woman then vanishes.

A Little Help From a Friend

Christine enlists the help of her fiancée Clay Dalton. Justin Long is Clay. *This is perhaps the ‘straightest’ role he’s ever done. Part from his “geek” in Galaxy Quest. They go to a fortune teller Rham Jas ( Dileep Rao) who first tells there is nothing he can do. Christine learns she is haunted. By an evil spirit. Christine goes home. The spirit attacks. She returns pleading for a t solution.

Jas explains the the spirit is the Lamia and it is very powerful. He tells her to sacrifice a small animal to appease the spirit. Christine heatedly states that she could never kill and innocent animal. The next day the spirit attacks again. Christine is thown about her bedroom like a rag doll. She immediately kills her new kitten. *One of the funnier moments in the film.*

The rest of the film is Christine’s battle to defeat the now dead Mrs Ganush. And to defeat the curse. Sam Raimi could just as easily titled the film “Things That Make You Cringe with Embarrassment.”

Most of Christine’s ‘tortures’ are in public and excruciatingly embarrassing. These set pieces are social gaffes so outlandish that they reach the realm of slapstick. The nose bleed at the bank, the humiliation at the meal with Clay’s parents, the entire episode at Mrs Ganush’s funeral.

It all works

And that for me was what made the film fun and entertaining. What makes these social faux pas work so well is Christine herself. She is the epitome of the small town farm girl who feels out of her depth in the big city. Her insecurity is what forces her to cruelly turn down the pleading woman at the start of the film and this is what gets her in trouble.

Raimi’s classic Evil Dead series has its hapless hero Ash. In Drag Me to Hell Christine is gettting the metaphorical crap kicked out of her. Repeatedly. But like some kind of demented Weeble, she refuses to stay down and fights all the way to the end of the film.

This film made me laugh a lot. It also made me jump and squirm at some of the more ’embarrassing’ punishments meted out to the heroine. In short this was Raimi doing what he does best, making horror films that make you do all the aforementioned things while watching.

If they ever give out awards for Court Jesters of Horror, it should go to Sam Raimi and Wes Craven. Two of the best Schlockmeisters in the business.

The verdict

I would rate this film as a ‘two-bagger’ because you’ll lose half of your popcorn from jumping and the other half by doubling over in laughter. In all reality, this is a full 5 star effort. I mean, come on! It’s Sam Raimi!

The Trailer