Drag Me To Hell (2009)

Urgh. Where to begin with this?

I had rented this film from lovefilm a while back on blu-ray, but at the time I couldn't get my blu-ray player (my trusty PS3) to work, so back it went. Finally, over a year later, I get round to watching it and for someone who is pretty open-minded when it comes to films, I just did not get along with this one.

In Drag Me To Hell's defence, if you are a Sam Raimi fan and like The Evil Dead, then there is every chance you might like this film. It does have its comic moments and it is full of cartoon gore. But we're in the 21st Century now and effects have come a long way (though I will admit parts of this were at least done realistically). For me? I was just like "wtf?"

The premise of the story is loan manager Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) gets cursed by an old gypsy woman, for not extending the loan repayments on her house and so evicting the woman. Christine goes to a fortune teller where she finds out that she is cursed and will be tormented by a Lamia demon for 3 days, before it drags her to hell. So she tries to find out how to break the curse to stop this from happening.

The answer to do this is obvious when she first finds out she is cursed, the fortune teller gives us a massive clue, that is not repeated until near the end of the film, after she has already slaughtered an animal and paid $10,000 to someone who may help her slay the demon. Someone who apparantly has been waiting 40 years for such an opportunity, yet they will only do it for $10,000? Uh-huh.

Such as in the last film I reviewed (God Bless Ozzy Osbourne), there was a scene in the film where I had to look away and hum to myself. I HATE animal cruelty and can't bare to watch it, even if it is fiction, it makes me sad and angry and it was so obvious what she was going to kill as soon as the words "animal sacrifice" were brought up. I even looked away before I knew that my thoughts would be true, it was obvious, as is so much about this film. Christine showed no remorse for what she did and I found it unbelievable that she would choose such a sweet, innocent and personal creature to her to kill. Bitch. So as a character who is supposed to (seemingly throughout the whole film) "have such a good heart" I lost a lot of empathy for her at that point. That being said, despite disliking the character, I will admit that Alison Lohman did a good job of acting and I would like to see more of her work.

The seance scene is just bizarre and it must be supposed to be comical but it gave to me the impression that the filmmakers are just taking the piss at this point. Maybe I was just in a bad mood today, but I actually rolled my eyes. This may have been in part though to worrying I was going to have to look away again for yet another animal slaughter.

Also as previously mentioned, the answer to how to avoid the curse was quite blatant from near the beginning of the film. Not long after it is announced as an option, it is soon quite clear that a monumental screw up has been made and the "happy ending" is about to scuppered with an announcement from her boyfriend (Justin Long). Cue the "surprise twist" falling flat and feeling left with a nice big blob of predictability and disappointment.

You may enjoy this film, or it might leave you thinking you would rather be dragged to hell then have to finish sitting through it. Despite box office success, receiving a Saturn Award for "Best Horror Film" and 7 other nominations, I personally I would say this is a film to avoid.

1/5