Universal
R1 DVD
Drag
Me To Hell is the latest film by Sam Raimi who built his reputation with the
Evil Dead series in the Eighties before moving on to direct Spider-man 3 (2007).
Drag Me To Hell harks back to his early horror days with many scenes being
quite reminiscent of the Evil Dead style.
The
film centres on the much hated world of bankers. Christine Brown (Alison
Lohman) finds herself working in an office in which the men seem to make the
rules and she is punished for being sensitive and caring. When a battle erupts
between her and an obnoxious pushy newcomer for the job of Assistant manager,
she decides to take no prisoners. She is sick to death of being asked to get
sandwiches and coffee ! This leads her into a moral quandary over Mrs. Ganush,
an elderly woman who comes in for a further extension of her home loan. Mrs.
Ganush has already had two extensions and is clearly likely to default, yet to
refuse assistance will result in foreclosure of the loan and losing her only
home the same day. With Mrs. Ganush, as with so much of the film, Raimi has
great fun playing with horror stereotypes and images. She is an old Gypsy woman
with exaggerated yellowing fingernails, dentures which look more like fangs and
a clouded eye, never mind that she takes her dentures out to suck the lollies
which Christine has for customers on her desk.
Christine
discusses the matter with the bank manager but knows if she grants Mrs. Ganush
a further extension she can kiss goodbye the Assistant Managers job. She stands
firm and says no. She tries to negotiate with Mrs. Ganush about staying with
her daughter or arrange temporary accommodation to no avail. Mrs. Ganush does
the unexpected, she gets on her knees to beg, embarrassed and not a little
horrified Christine calls security and removed from the Bank. Mrs. Ganush is
shamed and soon she is babbling in a strange indecipherable tongue, it is
clearly a curse.
Now
the film moves into overdrive, ever possible horror cliché is manipulated to
immense effect. While we know we know we are being played with, it still works;
that’s the amazing thing about this film. Raimi takes every possible horror
technique and ramps them to a ridiculous level but rather than being kitsch, it
ends up scary in a truly comic sort of way.
We
have incredible scenes with Mrs.Ganush which are so over the top they are
hysterical, we have a bizarre Indian seer Rham Jas, who likes to sprout Jung
and a séance which has to be seen to be believed. Possession, goats, gypsies
and a cat sacrifice; this is outrageous stuff.
The
plot is suitably silly but doesn’t try to be profound, this is a B Grade
midnight movie on the big screen with a big budget.
The
acting is solid, Alison Lohman as Christine is credible and offers a convincing
performance, even if her boyfriend (Justin Long) is a bit of a dolt and not
particularly interesting. Reggie Lee (Stu Rubin) as her fellow office worker
lets down the side and seems to overact in every scene. The real star of the
show is Lorna Raver as Mrs. Ganush, she is so utterly repellant that you cannot
keep your damn eyes off her. I love her !
There
is so much to admire in Drag Me to Hell from the great cinematography and
Raimi’s trademark use of sound and weird camera angles to lots of messy gore
and a sense of play which makes this a real winner.
Reviews appear on the Synergy website with
a single cover image. In the digital and print edition, reviews appear with
multiple images and with expanded content. We recommend you download the free digital edition (or buy the print edition) to get the most from Synergy Magazine.
This review will appear in Volume 2 No.6 (2009) of the digital and
print edition of Synergy Magazine.
If you came to this page directly (and
missed our menu), click here to go to the
front page of Synergy Magazine Website or click the following link: http://www.synergy-magazine.com