Hell isn't Such a Bad Place...
A nice hell raising story is exactly what Sam Raimi ordered.
"Drag Me to Hell" is the old school Raimi stuff that most have come to know, his ability to bring original horror to the screen with his trademark directing styles. And this is what the his current film delivers—a bit of a fun ride, using the old jump-out-of-your-seat tactics. A good scare to get the blood flowing, heh. And then more.
The story is written by Raimi and his brother Ivan while the film itself is directed by the former. It’s all in the family. But if you look closely, you can see the familiar face of the family: the yellow, beat up 1937 Delta Oldsmobilie. This is Raimi’s very own car. You should be able to find it. It's in all his movies.
The film begins with a Mexican couple fearing for their lives over their child in Pasadena, California in 1969 with a nice introduction to the sorceress Shaun San Dena who makes a bid to fight the demon another day after it drags the boy into the bowels of darkness.
However, in the present time, the central character nicely played by Alison Lohman with the right amount of nativity and gullibility strikes the wrong path with an old gypsy woman with an evil glass eye, uglier than spuds. Lohman refuses to give the elderly wraith a third extension on her mortgage as she struggles to make economic battles. With her eye on the assistant manager position, Lohman gets ambition while putting her foot down.
Everything goes downhill from there.
Lohman’s character has been struck down with a curse. And there is the notion that shadows are jumping at her, lurking around the corners. What’s nice about this film, though rated PG-13, is that it leaves everything to chance, all what you see are shadows and glimpses… perhaps some throwaway glances through windows where the wind shutters. You can to form your own idea of the creature… otherwise, you never see it. Just small burst of it, flashes. And this makes good horror.
Eventually, after the ghostly attacks and the near death experiences, Lohman goes with her college boyfriend played by Justin Long to a fortune teller named Rham Jas. This is where she digs deeper into the realm of the black arts, further down into the depths of a spiritual foreign world… where she learns she will be tormented by demons before she is dragged back to the lonely pit of fire beneath. Hell itself.
If you’re a cat lover, you might want to steer clear of this film. It seems that there is at least one feline casualty in the film and I really hate it when I see a cat go. Cat lovers, beware.
The story gives a rising tide to the finality where Lohman collaborates alongside with the fortune teller and much older Shaun San Dena who form a séance to drive the forces of blackness back to the corners from where it sprang from. There’s plenty of familiar Raimi touches… the ghoul dancing like a hillbilly, the outlandish directing that swivels like a railroad train running off tracks. There’s a nice building up of sheer craziness in a film that must depend on a lot of atmosphere served up with a hot dish of sick humor. Raimi style.
I’m not sure if it is an unconscious effort by Raimi to lift a slight plot from the great old film “Casting the Runes” (1958) starring Dana Andrews and based on a same-titled story by ghost story scribe M.R. James. There’s the same three day lineup. And the atmospheric building up of a creature getting closer, near enough to grapple a victim with its fateful hands by the end of the third day. The old film is a beautiful black and white foray into the depths of horror while it takes a perspective turn with the stubborn-minded scientific view against the antagonistic supernatural world. “Drag Me to Hell” also ends at the train station just as the 1958 counterpart does. Perhaps Raimi was paying tribute to the little known film. He’s done a good job with it.
There’s even the passing on of something owned from one victim to the next. The same thing happens here in “Drag Me to Hell” when Lohman must get rid of something that was taken and returned to her. Just a coat button that seems so minor, trivial. And yet could cost her life.
Even the ending is an anticlimactic one. And makes for great horror stories you don’t get to see anywhere in the movies these days. However, if Lohman was looking for a short cut out of this tight spot, she could have just gone to Bruce Campbell for his help. Then he might have gotten her out of this jiffy fix.
The film pays attention to great details. And rushes in at you with a hurricane of frights while laying down the threads of minor plot points that would later become important. This is a master of horror at work.
If you like gruesome shocks and good scares, this is the movie to see with your first date. Better yet, just go alone and enjoy the fun in the dark when the lights turn out. This is one way of returning to the genre in which made Raimi so loved to this day.
It’s not all in the matter of how popular you are. I’m not sure if he cares about how much money he makes. He just wants to have a good time. And so should you when you see this film. It’ll make you feel like you’re in hell.
"Drag Me to Hell" is the old school Raimi stuff that most have come to know, his ability to bring original horror to the screen with his trademark directing styles. And this is what the his current film delivers—a bit of a fun ride, using the old jump-out-of-your-seat tactics. A good scare to get the blood flowing, heh. And then more.
The story is written by Raimi and his brother Ivan while the film itself is directed by the former. It’s all in the family. But if you look closely, you can see the familiar face of the family: the yellow, beat up 1937 Delta Oldsmobilie. This is Raimi’s very own car. You should be able to find it. It's in all his movies.
The film begins with a Mexican couple fearing for their lives over their child in Pasadena, California in 1969 with a nice introduction to the sorceress Shaun San Dena who makes a bid to fight the demon another day after it drags the boy into the bowels of darkness.
However, in the present time, the central character nicely played by Alison Lohman with the right amount of nativity and gullibility strikes the wrong path with an old gypsy woman with an evil glass eye, uglier than spuds. Lohman refuses to give the elderly wraith a third extension on her mortgage as she struggles to make economic battles. With her eye on the assistant manager position, Lohman gets ambition while putting her foot down.
Everything goes downhill from there.
Lohman’s character has been struck down with a curse. And there is the notion that shadows are jumping at her, lurking around the corners. What’s nice about this film, though rated PG-13, is that it leaves everything to chance, all what you see are shadows and glimpses… perhaps some throwaway glances through windows where the wind shutters. You can to form your own idea of the creature… otherwise, you never see it. Just small burst of it, flashes. And this makes good horror.
Eventually, after the ghostly attacks and the near death experiences, Lohman goes with her college boyfriend played by Justin Long to a fortune teller named Rham Jas. This is where she digs deeper into the realm of the black arts, further down into the depths of a spiritual foreign world… where she learns she will be tormented by demons before she is dragged back to the lonely pit of fire beneath. Hell itself.
If you’re a cat lover, you might want to steer clear of this film. It seems that there is at least one feline casualty in the film and I really hate it when I see a cat go. Cat lovers, beware.
The story gives a rising tide to the finality where Lohman collaborates alongside with the fortune teller and much older Shaun San Dena who form a séance to drive the forces of blackness back to the corners from where it sprang from. There’s plenty of familiar Raimi touches… the ghoul dancing like a hillbilly, the outlandish directing that swivels like a railroad train running off tracks. There’s a nice building up of sheer craziness in a film that must depend on a lot of atmosphere served up with a hot dish of sick humor. Raimi style.
I’m not sure if it is an unconscious effort by Raimi to lift a slight plot from the great old film “Casting the Runes” (1958) starring Dana Andrews and based on a same-titled story by ghost story scribe M.R. James. There’s the same three day lineup. And the atmospheric building up of a creature getting closer, near enough to grapple a victim with its fateful hands by the end of the third day. The old film is a beautiful black and white foray into the depths of horror while it takes a perspective turn with the stubborn-minded scientific view against the antagonistic supernatural world. “Drag Me to Hell” also ends at the train station just as the 1958 counterpart does. Perhaps Raimi was paying tribute to the little known film. He’s done a good job with it.
There’s even the passing on of something owned from one victim to the next. The same thing happens here in “Drag Me to Hell” when Lohman must get rid of something that was taken and returned to her. Just a coat button that seems so minor, trivial. And yet could cost her life.
Even the ending is an anticlimactic one. And makes for great horror stories you don’t get to see anywhere in the movies these days. However, if Lohman was looking for a short cut out of this tight spot, she could have just gone to Bruce Campbell for his help. Then he might have gotten her out of this jiffy fix.
The film pays attention to great details. And rushes in at you with a hurricane of frights while laying down the threads of minor plot points that would later become important. This is a master of horror at work.
If you like gruesome shocks and good scares, this is the movie to see with your first date. Better yet, just go alone and enjoy the fun in the dark when the lights turn out. This is one way of returning to the genre in which made Raimi so loved to this day.
It’s not all in the matter of how popular you are. I’m not sure if he cares about how much money he makes. He just wants to have a good time. And so should you when you see this film. It’ll make you feel like you’re in hell.
posted by K.M. Paters at 10:58 AM
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