User reviews

"Drag Me To Hell" transports to you to the era of 1980's where blood, gore, chills and likes of "Nightmare on Elm Street" / "Evil Dead" spawned in plenty. And yes, for a welcome change "Drag Me To Hell" steers clear from the Japanese horror genre and pans out to be a very much American product.

† Alison Lohman "i can shriek" delivers the right expressions warranted for a horror movie. Anything more would have been potential overdose.

† Justin Long "Keanu Reeves impersonator" is plastic expressions all the way.

† Reggie Lee "corporate pacman" does a good job of munching up everything that comes between him and the success ladder.

† David Paymer "carrot dangler" knows how to make the rabbits dance to his tunes.

† Lorna Raver "the trigger of Lamia curse" ensures to get etched in the memory and haunt you for a very long time.

† Dileep Rao "amateur spiritualist" was okay'ish. It appears his part got hijacked by his Guru.

† Flor de Maria Chahua "avenger in waiting" has a brief but effective role. And so was her assistant.

All in all "Drag Me To Hell" is both tacky and cheesy, but that doesn't stop it from sending shivers down the spine. The screenplay is void of drag moments ensuring the audience get fright doses at regular intervals. Good utilisation of visual effects and the background score alleviate the visual experience. The potholes in writing could have been easily creased out. Not exactly horror-comedy like "Shawn Of The Dead" but it does have well-interlaced comical moments between the chills.

Watchable fare... and yes a few days you potentially might abstain from using the staplers.

Sam Raimi hasn't made a bad movie yet, and while Drag Me To Hell has emerged as a case of you hate it or you love it (like Apocalypse Now, Forrest Gump, and Avatar). It turns out to be a fun ride.

Christine Brown is a loan officer in L.A. and is trying to get the position of assistant manager. She decides that in order to impress her boss, she has to be tougher. So when an old gypsy woman comes and asks her for a third extension on mortgage payment, Christine denies her that. Feeling shamed, the old woman puts a curse on Christine, and sends a demon after her. Her life is suddenly in ruins, but with the help of a fortune teller, and his Latin American friends, Christine attempts to rid herself of the demon, before it takes her down to hell.

the ending of the film is more than somewhat controversial, and in fact you could even spend the rest of the day going over it in your mind, trying to figure out what the Raimi bros were thinking. In fact considering what they choose, the entire story is kind of pointlessly staged, but at least it is fun. Raimi takes us on a crazy ride, we the viewers are treated to a handful of shocking and humorous moments, many of which directly resemble, the Evil Dead flicks. You can tell from this that after fifteen years, Raimi is still a master at horror. He has tackled every genre but it is clear now that he is most at home with this genre. I would not say it's lovable, but it doesn't disappoint either.

People who gave this a very low score don't get Sam Raimi. I found it entertaining and I enjoyed the humour. A homage to classic horror films with a mix of humour and old school special effects.

The early trailers for Drag Me to Hell dubbed it as (sic) "the return to classic horror", and for once at least, they are correct.

Sam Raimi manages to incorporate genuine thrills and terror using the old-fashioned format of surprise, misdirection and suggestion. As a frequent viewer of horror films, little surprises me, but in this film I was caught off-guard several times while watching it.

While the majority of the movie is kept on a serious and foreboding level, much like the original "Evil Dead", Raimi can't help but throw in elements of the absurd and slapstick during some of the more horrific scenes, thus reducing the tension and echoing the latter 2/3 of the "Evil Dead" trilogy.

WHile I have nothing against the modern trend of horror movies to provide shocks merely in the form of how much blood and gore they spill, this flick was wonderfully refreshing. It's a must-see, not just for Raimi fans, but for anyone who loves a good scary story and a great movie in general.

A huge disappointment in my eyes, especially after the high praise it has received from critics. Sam Raimi attempts to return to his B movie roots. Like the Evil Dead movies, it's delightfully cheesy and relentless. Unfortunately, it's also very formulaic and, much of the time, downright obnoxious. This is one film I would almost implore people not to see in theaters. At least not ones that like to turn the volume up. This movie is LOUD. I saw Terminator Salvation at the same theater, and was not nearly as deafened as I was by Drag Me to Hell. The problem: horror stings on the soundtrack. CONSTANTLY. The formula of the film is this: quiet set-up followed by sharp screech and an even louder BOO! It's the same thing over and over. I was cowering, but only because I was afraid I might not be able to hear in the morning. The story isn't bad, but it's been done before. Alison Lohman (awful) plays a loan officer who gets cursed by a gypsy after she turns her down for a loan extension. A goat demon begins to attack Lohman and, well, the rest of its intentions are included in the title of the film. Though I generally didn't like it, it's far from a bad film. In fact, I think it might play better on television (it's definitely the kind of movie that I would have caught on late night TV as a kid and loved). The séance scene near the end of the film is mostly gold. The demon itself is scary as Hell, but Raimi's way of indicating it, with sharp screeches, is what ruined the movie for me.

Drag Me to Hell gets off to a strong start, with a young woman's stress at home and work reasonably well developed before, well, all hell breaks loose, and an assortment of colored fluids are expelled from various orifices, often from one person to another. There are a lot of squirm-inducing moments but they are spaced out reasonably well, and this is a fun film.

The young woman (Alison Lohman) is a loan officer at a bank who is vying with another to get promoted at work, but watching her hopes dim as he seems better at playing political games. She also has a boyfriend (Justin Long) whose wealthy parents believe she isn't good enough for. One day at work an elderly woman comes in asking for an extension on her loan payments so that she doesn't lose her house. Fearing that she needs to be perceived as tough enough to make hard decisions, she turns the woman down, leading to being cursed and soon haunted by an evil spirit called a lamia. She turns to a fortune teller for help, but naturally the solution is not as simple as sacrificing an animal.

I liked how Sam Raimi the director moved the action along, skipping unnecessary dialogue and physical movement to get from one scene to another. I thought Sam Raimi the writer (and his brother Ivan) were a little less successful in the middle part of the film, where it stalled a bit. One of the obvious solutions to attempting to lift the curse (getting rid of an object) is oddly delayed. There were also moments where the dialogue was stilted. With that said, the film holds together well, and its big scenes all deliver. Strong ending too.

"Drag Me to Hell" might be the victim of unfair expectations, or just plain incorrect assumptions. This might partially be down to the advertising campaign, which could lead audiences to believing this is purely serious horror, when in fact it is pulp silliness in the vein of the old EC comics, and fully aware of it. Sam Raimi, for whom the childhood experience of reading those pulp tales served as an inspiration for his now-legendary "Evil Dead" movies, and hence gave him his career, has made his most fun and entertaining film since "Army of Darkness", and probably his best since then as well (although I do need to see "A Simple Plan" again) in "Drag Me to Hell", which feels like it could be an adaptation of one of those horror tales.

Hopefully audiences will be expecting something along the lines of "Evil Dead" mixed with its sequels when they go in, or they could leave disappointed. Unless you're scared by old women and supernatural mumbo jumbo, unless you're a superstitious person, "Drag Me to Hell" probably won't be giving you any nightmares. Then again, I'm not scared by anything really. Still, one can't help but feel that this sort of thing (if done seriously) doesn't belong in today's age of rationality and would work only in the 50's, or maybe even then would be too late to really pack a punch.

That's why this is, like the "Evil Dead" movies, a cartoon. It is one cartoony horror set-piece after the other, more often than not with an overt comedic edge, and always, always with its tongue firmly in cheek. The characters are well-realized enough for the movie to be endurable, and well-played too (Justin Long is perfect for the role regardless of how limited his range is and I can't imagine anyone but Lohman playing this particular role), but Raimi doesn't really care about them. He cares more about piling on the pulp gross-outs, resorting here to all sorts of unsavory things (including embalming fluid gushing out of a corpse into Lohman's mouth, one of a multitude of things Raimi takes pleasure in introducing to that particular orifice of Lohman's body), but not much blood at all. It isn't needed either, the PG-13 rating may sound like a limitation but it's hard to imagine this movie with much more gore, although there are a few things that happen off-screen that I would have LOVED to see on-screen, but that might be because I'm a horribly sick person.

Utilizing an active, expressive camera akin to the sort of thing we saw in the "Evil Dead" movies, Raimi stages these ridiculous scenes with gusto and passion. This is not going to terrify many people, but it is absolutely terrific at being what it sets out to be- a live action EC comic. As long as you go in expecting that, you'll probably leave satisfied. I'd like to leave you with the wise words of AV Club critic Scott Tobias: "He wants viewers to jump out of their chairs, to laugh and scream and cheer, and to nudge each other over the transcendent ridiculousness of what they're witnessing. This is junk film-making at its finest."

Waiting for another Sam Raimi horror film has been like hoping your numbers come up on the national lottery, long, arduous and ultimately unfruitful. So it be that when one finally comes around, there is a tendency to over praise, over hype, and even be blind to actually how worthy Drag Me To Hell is. Not only in the pantheon of the horror genre, but in the cannon of its supremely talented director.

So it comes to pass that myself, a Raimi fan for sure, decided to let the hoo-hah die down before venturing in to Hell with Alison Lohman and her devilish nemesis. I note now at the current time of writing that the film is rated just over 7.5/10, that's just about right where it deserves to be. It's not new or remotely ingenious, and for sure it's actually finding Raimi on auto-pilot for himself and his fans. But hey! It's still far better than the ream of remakes and blood for bloods sake cash cows that insult the genre faithful on a monthly basis.

Drag Me To Hell is a comedy horror, there's nothing really scary here, it's gross at times, almost disgustingly {delightfully} so, but Raimi is reliant on fun to go hand in hand with a creeper of a story instead of a conventional boo jump bonanza. And it works just fine. The story sees Alison Lohman's Christine Brown upset an old gypsy woman and gets a curse of demonic proportions laid onto her. This set up then lets Raimi pummel Lohman with a number of excellently scripted set pieces, whilst managing to keep a mystery element ticking throughout the story. Some problems do exist, tho, certainly enough to ensure this isn't the masterpiece the desperate for a Raimi horror hoards have labelled it.

Lohman does real well in relation to duality of character, but both she and her on screen beau, Justin Long, just look too young for the roles they are playing, and yes, it's pretty distracting and an itch you can't scratch. The CGI is also duff and affecting the story, particularly during what should have been a ripper of an ending. And crucially there is a familiarity about the whole thing, a feeling that Raimi and his brother Ivan have just made a collage of genre staples.

Still, Drag Me To Hell makes for a real entertaining night in by the fire. Enjoy a director making a film for himself as much as his fans, a sort of roots revisit if you like. But don't expect a genre defining, or genre boosting, picture, because you may be a tad disappointed with the return. 7/10

Creepy terror caused by a curse against a young woman with a bright future that goes wrong . The bank employee named Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) finds herself growing distresses after she assertively refuses to extend a loan to an old gypsy woman ( Raver ), then she places a hex on her . As when a button is removed during a scuffle , a curse is placed on her . It will result in her being taken to hell in a few days time and the things get worse . Now the girl must call upon his boyfriend named Clay Dalton (Justin Long) and a spiritual adviser (Rao) to help her persuade the gypsy to lift the curse. Time is running out for the desperate loan officer as he draws closer to his own death . At a mansion reunite various mediums who are determined to save her. The psychics attempt to rid her of the strange demon , a malevolent force she is up against , leading until an incredible ending .

This exciting picture is a terror story full of supernatural elements with eerie moments here and there and brief touches of black humor . The makeup and special effects vary , but for the most part, they are quite good , they are realized by Robert Kurtzman and Howard Berger . Colorful and adequate cinematography by Peter Deming who captures perfectly the peculiar scenarios . The film displays adequate musical score fitting to terror and suspense by Christopher Young , an expert composer of dark atmospheres . The motion picture is professionally directed by Sam Raimi ( Crimewave, Evil dead I and II ) who directed ¨Army of darkness¨ another horror film with humor and tongue-in-cheek . This one isn't his worst movie , but definitely not the best either . The result is better than previous Stephen King adaptation called ¨Thinner¨, that bears remarkable resemblance to ¨Drag me to the hell¨. Rating : Acceptable and passable Horror-Comedy from Sam Raimi , well worth watching for Alison Lohman fans .

Drag me to Hell is, really, a throwback in so many ways to the fun of The Evil Dead 2. The camera angles, the excellent score - it all recalls how Raimi played with us in his earlier trilogy. What has changed however, is the sense of pace. We know its coming and Raimi employs all his skills to draw out the tension. The thrills are all there in place, I jumped like there was an electric buzzer under my seat. Perhaps a little too much CGI is indulged in but its easy to forgive in a film as wicked and blackly comic as this. I genuinely found the film disturbing for a 15 as well, again I think this is a mark of tension that Raimi creates with the score and camera work throughout the film. So incredibly refreshing to see a horror film with out the hallmarks of the recent saw franchise. Special mention for the ending, which has conviction and guts and was the proverbial cherry on top of the cake. throughly entertaining.

This was a very fun, self aware, campy yet still creepy horror flick (not what I was expecting)

I thought they did a really good job at easing the viewer into the camp/ ridiculousness gradually while still being upfront with the style of the movie from the beginning. I started off open minded and gradually was like mmm idk... and then ended up really liking it. You don't see too many movies in this particular genre done this way.

The acting was hit or miss for me, but in this genre you can get away with a lot more so it didn't really effect it all that much. I will say I am not a fan of jump scares at all and this was just littered with cheap ass jump scares haha but it's to be expected.

Over all I think this was quite successful for what it was and accomplished just that. Would recommend for sure, esp to someone who can appreciate a more "light hearted" horror lol.

From the intense opening scene to the stellar and shocking finale, Sam Raimi has officially returned to the horror genre with vigor and spark in the year's best horror film so far. Starring Alison Lohman in the leading role (Ellen Page was originally cast as the lead but dropped out of the project early in production), Drag Me to Hell feels like much more than your average, predictable horror popcorn flick. It's filled with plenty of twists and turns and, like any good ride, a satisfying conclusion. And the PG-13 rating? Forget about it! You hardly notice that little factor because of how immersed you become in the story. Also starring are Justin Long, David Paymer, and Lorna Raver.

Christine (Lohman), a loan officer at a bank with a lovely boyfriend (Long), is being considered for a promotion. Jumping at the opportunity, she comes across an old gypsy woman (Raver) who requests a third extension on her house. Her boss (Paymer) tells her it's a tough decision, and its her call, so she refuses the woman's payment. Absolutely infuriated, the woman stalks Christine after work and bestows her with a supernatural curse, one which she has only three days to overcome before the spirits drag her to hell.

Lucky enough to have won tickets to a pre-screening of the film, I had heard nothing but great things about it. I was hoping for the best, but I wasn't sure how the comedy and horror would mix together. Much to my surprise, the horror and comedy in Drag Me to Hell are that rare perfect mix of perfection that one craves in horror movies. If too funny, they can go overboard, but not this one. In fact, I don't think I've seen quite a proper mixture since Raimi's own Evil Dead II.

Perhaps the most shocking thing about the movie is how well it's made technically. It had all sorts of interesting shots and the real work of a master filmmaker. Having both written and directed the film, Sam Raimi more than proves his worth to the horror genre despite his long absence since Army of Darkness. In ways, this is also a sort of revival of what people with think of PG-13 horror movies. Drag Me to Hell is one of the most intense, scary horror films in quite some time, despite the PG-13 rating which many tag as already crap.

Drag Me to Hell is full of its epic shocks, and the less you go in knowing about it the better. I could go on for hours about the movie and spoil everything there is to know, but that would truly ruin some of its appeal. Which is certainly not to say that it is lost after a first viewing, just that it's an experience unlike any other going into this movie watching virtually no clips and reading very little about it. It becomes a truly rewarding experience.

Mrs. Ganush is one truly phenomenal villain that provides plenty of scares. Lorna Raver infuses the role with an enthusiasm - an terror - that is rarely seen in big-screen baddies. She has more personality than The Ring's Samara for sure. Clay's character provides a much-needed balance between the goofy and the horrific, and helps make the film's heroine, Christine, all the more believable. It was an interesting twist to see Justin Long in a horror film, despite the nature of his role. I believed his performance and the sincerity of his character. Lohman had a lot resting on her shoulders with this movie, and she totally pulled it off with flying colors. Nobody plays the terrified, but headstrong and determined female lead better than Lohman, and she proves her worth over and over again in this movie. She totally has a career ahead of her.

Overall, Drag Me to Hell did more than just impress me nonstop. It was a masterpiece of a horror movie, with unrivaled intensity, scares, and one killer of an ending. More often now, horror directors/writers seem to have such a difficult time ending their movies properly. This one has an ending which snugly solidifies the movie as an early contender for best horror film of the year. Don't miss Drag Me to Hell... you will never look at handkerchiefs the same way!

To properly (and fairly) access my experience with seeing "Drag Me To Hell" Sam Raimi's (The Gift, Spider Man) much anticipated and blogged about new opus, we must first take a little trip back in time to the year 1995. As a kid, I had always been intrigued by the horror genre, most of which likely spawned from my parent's extreme hatred towards it. While they perused the Comedy and Drama sections of our old video store (then stocked to the brim with VHS tapes, I might add) I found myself sneaking off to the far left corner among the gory, trashy, at often times downright pornographic cover art that adorned the paper sleeves for films such as "Invasion of the Blood Farmers" and "Deadtime Stories".

Like a college freshman introduced to mass quantities of alcohol for the first time with no guidance in sight, I was on overload. What were they attempting to keep me from? If I slid this threw the door of my old Sony T-120, what exactly would I be getting myself into? One would like to think I found the answer that day instead of being forced to watch "The Jerk" for the ten thousandth time, but alas, my first experience with the "terror" genre began that same year, late at night, in the comforts of my own bed, with a remote control, a freshly fluffed pillow and the Sci-Fi Channel.

The words flashed onto the screen, "The Evil Dead" in blood red, bold faced lettering. As I watch the plot unfold I found myself paralyzed by the images I was seeing. Humans being possessed by demons, dismembered by their own friends, maniacally laughing in a distorted, demented all together frightening way and above all jumping out at me when I least expected it. I was changed. My outlook on movies changed. My fear of the dark was created and that was WITH commercial breaks. Of course, I have only one man to thank for getting me hooked on the "Terror" genre and that is Sam Raimi.

After almost twenty years (since "Army of Darkness" the final installment of the Evil Dead franchise) Mr. Raimi returns to his old stomping grounds with "Drag Me to Hell", the tale of Christine (Allison Lohman, Matchstick Men) a loan officer whom forces Mrs. Ganush, a sick, decrepit gypsy woman from her home by denying her an extension on an already delinquent bank loan. As fate would have it, after work in a desolate parking garage, Christine is attacked and the curse of the Lamia is placed onto her. In the days to follow she is brutally attacked by unseen entities, experiences visions of a deformed Mrs. Ganush and attempts to reverse the curse by contacting psychic mediums. Time is of the essence, but taking the curse off proves to be much more difficult than it was to put on as we witness Christine attempt to silence it before she is dragged to hell.

Earlier on, I referred to my obsession with the "Terror" genre. Terror differs from Horror in that its goal is to completely terrify the audience as opposed to simply scaring them. "Drag Me to Hell" falls into one such category. From start to finish, you make the first plunge down the drop of a 100 minute roller coaster and in the end feel as if you've been tossed around and abused by a master manipulator, Raimi. It is evident, through the use and placement of scares, gore, mixture of comedy and horror as well as pacing of the plot that Raimi didn't have to do much dusting off to get back in the game. He clearly knows that, in this genre, simplicity is often times the best course of action. The storyline and its unraveling is basic, often times boarding on naivety, but the absolute madness that ensues within its walls is comparable to a warm piece of chocolate cake.

Allison Lohman (who replaced Ellen Page in early stages of development) does a fine job of portraying Christine and the character arc that she goes through. Page would have brought a bit more grittiness to the role, but that's beside the point. Lohman is able to bring the charm and diversity to the part. Justin Long as Clay, Christines boyfriend, delivers as always and manages to keep it real in a role that could have very easily turned corny had it not been handled correctly. Supporting cast, Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) and Rham Jas (Dileep Rao) the Medium are both convincing in their extremely demanding parts.

What's so special about "Drag Me to Hell" is that it knows its roots. It takes us back to the days when it was a true "experience" to see a horror/terror movie. When you went into a movie theater and the audience jumped, yelled at the screen and quivered in shock and disgust. At the conclusion it brought them to their feet with a standing ovation and all along with the mindset of, "Okay, we're all in this together, let's make it out in one piece." "Drag Me to Hell" is what a good experience at the movies is all about. There will be those who hate it, loath it even, but for the handful of us that were transformed into obsessed fans of this niche market by a master director, it will validate our love for the genre and will forever stand as a true testament of the best it has to offer. As for myself, for a short moment in time I was a thirteen again, curled up under my covers, frozen with fear, and loving every single minute of it.