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Drag Me To Hell (2009)

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Overall Rating 67%
Overall Rating
Ranked #914
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A loan officer who evicts an old woman from her home finds herself the recipient of a supernatural curse. Desperate, she turns to a seer to try and save her soul, while evil forces work to push her to a breaking point. --IMDb
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Review by Nirrad
Added: July 29, 2009
This summer has been full of huge blockbusters like "Star Trek" and "Transformers", just to name a few, so it is a shame when movies like "Drag Me To Hell" get overlooked. Judging by its $41 million box office return, I think its safe to say that not too many people were interested in seeing this movie. I have to admit; when I saw the previews I wasn't interested either. I thought it looked boring and stupid. Then when the positive reviews started pouring in, I decided to check it out.

Christine Brown "Alison Lohman" works as a loan officer at her local bank. For the past couple of weeks she has been trying to impress her boss Jim Jacks "David Paymer" so that she can be promoted. However her co-worker Stu "Reggie Lee" is also shooting for the promotion and appears to have the upper hand on Christine. One day an old woman arrives to ask for a loan to help with her house payments. Christine realizes that the woman has already taken out thousands of dollars of loans and doesn't think she should give her more. Christine decides to ask her boss what to do with the situation, and her boss tells her to make the right decision herself. Christine decides to decline the loan thinking that it was the correct way to go and may help her win the promotion. The old woman becomes outraged and begs for the loan. After Christine refuses, the old woman rips off a button and curses it. After a few paranormal occurrences Christine becomes worried and seeks help about the curse. She finds out that she has 3 days until she is dragged to hell and tortured for eternity. She now has to somehow figure out how to stop the curse, or if necessary, apply the curse on someone else before her time is up.

Wow, what a total surprise. Even though the reviews have been positive, I still expected a snooze fest, but you won't find that here at all. This movie is fast paced and doesn't let up for a moment. Just when you think its calm BOOM! director Sam Raimi jolts you with a scare. From start to end this movie is just non stop scares. Which is a good thing and a bad thing. The good news is that the movie overall is scary and creepy. The bad news is that most of the scares are your typical jump scares. I call these garbage scares as they aren't really scary, they just startle you for a second. You know what I'm talking about, when something "scary" happens then they throw in a loud noise. These are terrible and the movie is filled with them from beginning to end. It even does it when a handkerchief comes flying at the screen. Besides these cheap scares, there are some genuinely terrifying moments. One scene in particular has Christine getting chased up stairs by demons. This whole scene sent chills down my spine and kept me on the edge of my seat. As I looked to my left during this particular scene, I could see my friend hiding his face, but trying to make it look like he's just resting his hand on his cheek. His quote is definitely perfect for this movie. "Damn, it just doesn't let up" is what he mumbled during the movie and he is in fact correct.

When it comes to Sam Raimi, you can't expect a movie without some comedy and cheese thrown into the mix. I found that this film boarder lined on being an "A" movie and "B" movie. Because of Spiderman I believe that Sam has become an A list director. "Drag Me To Hell" comes off as a serious movie at first, but then we start to get a taste of " The Evil Dead" soon after the prologue. I found that it was pulled off surprisingly well. There's quite a bit of comedy to be found in "Drag Me To Hell". My favorite in particular is a scene involving an anvil. I'm surprised Sam just didn't go all the way and write "Acme" on the side. But the good thing about it is that it never seems to go too over the top and completely take you out of the movie, or completely ruin the suspense for that matter. For the people who hated the comedy, they just don't get it. You can't see a Sam Raimi movie and not expect some cheese thrown into the mix.

I don't have too much to say for the performances as everyone did a fine job. Although if I were to pick one in particular, I would have to choose Dileep Rao who plays the psychic Rham Jas who is helping Christine to try and break the curse. This man had an amazing on screen presence and I loved every scene he was in. I hope for this mans career to take off. Speaking of actors, Justin Long plays Christine's boyfriend, and I couldn't help but laugh at all of his office equipment. He had an iPhone, iMac and a few other Apple products. For anyone who watches TV, you will know that Justin Long is the spokesman for Apple. I found this funny, yet dirty at the same time. There's not much gore to be found though, actually, there might not have been any at all. There are a few gross out scenes, but they involve a creepy old lady with terrible teeth, nothing gory.

I would have to say that I'm extremely glad that I gave "Drag Me To Hell" a chance and watched it in the theater. I personally don't think this movie will have the same impact on the audience on DVD as it did in the theater simply because of the surround sound. "Drag Me To Hell" is creepy from beginning to end. Throw in an interesting story, comedy, suspense, scares and a satisfying ending and you have yourself a great recipe for a Sam Raimi movie.

8/10.
Tristan #1: Tristan - added July 29, 2009 at 12:24pm
Great return to form for Sam Raimi. It made me jump a handful of times, and was a great theater experience.

10/10
Crispy #2: Crispy - added July 29, 2009 at 4:12pm
I hated all the flash scares. They were just way too many of them, and a lot of them were in the middle of legitimately creepy scenes that were cheapened by them. Even so, it's a hell of a movie.
FurryFish #3: FurryFish - added July 30, 2009 at 5:30pm
Better believe i was hiding my face, freaky shit.
Nirrad #4: Nirrad - added July 30, 2009 at 6:31pm
I did the same thing for when I saw Amityville Horror in the theater.
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