Drag Me to Hell

By Kate Xian

Its not everyday we come across a film that generates within us genuine excitement. Until now. Though Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell is, in all honesty, one of those summer films that will sadly get left behind, it is without doubt, not to be missed. Among the major studio big guns of the Terminators, Star Treks and Wolverines, this fun horror flick unfortunately doesn’t have the money, the stars, nor the marketing to push it into the coveted number one summer box office position.

Ok, so it doesn’t have the big budget. Or the celebrities. Or even the ads that shrink wrap public transit. So what does it have?

Genuine filmmaking. And genuine in that fun off-the-cuff way that separates directors from auteurs. Raimi, best known for those little known Spiderman films that oh, you know dominated the summer box office during its theatrical release, returns to his b-movie roots that made his Evil Dead films such a cult classic.

Drag Me to Hell is refreshing among the usual over-sexed and glorified violence that is horror movies today. Instead, Raimi makes a horror film that is very much like the classic horror films that made Hitchcock films both special and classic. From the screeching, frenetic strings that became a horror staple from Hitchcock’s Psycho, Raimi returns it to the big screen.

Like all Raimi films, there is always that element of campiness to it that makes his films go from good to great. The campiness is unlike any other camp that I know – its deliberate, self-deprecating and timed perfectly. But to the untrained eye, much of what makes Raimi’s style, gets lost in translation.

Though violence is minimal – well comparatively to what we know today as horror – Raimi does his usual over the top and absurd violence that makes you laugh out loud. Literally. Drag Me to Hell has a great balance between suspense and fun, never taking itself too seriously.

Drag Me to Hell also breaks the usual horror stereotype of the damsel in distress. Alison Lohman as the heroine Christine Brown fights back, even kicking in the face of the curse-mongering gypsy Mrs. Ganush. Trying to impress her boss, loan officer Christine turns down an extension on Mrs. Ganush’s home and subsequently the gypsy goes on a crazed rampage like all people who think credit means free money. After a spitfire and jaw dropping (pun intended!) fight, Christine thinks she’s won until the old lady’s got a hold of one of her buttons.

Justin Long, better known as Mac from the Mac vs. PC commercials, plays the skeptical boyfriend Clay Dalton. At every turn Clay rationalizes Christine’s erratic behaviour as she’s haunted by demonic spirits trying to take her soul. The film often turns comedic as Christine seems to fight and argue with the air, and rightly so Clay asks the questions we would ask.

Hell takes on somewhat predictable turns but for the most part, it’s different in respect to what film studios are producing today. The horror genre seems to be slipping away as we are constantly being served the same slasher horror flick transmuted into varying gore concepts from the Saw series, to the vulgar sex and violence combo that is Hostel and Donkey Punch. What Raimi does is bring back the horror genre to its roots, paying tribute to Hitchcock and b-movie camp that made the genre such a fun one.

Drag Me to Hell may not be for everyone, Raimi’s style is definitely more for the film geeks and die-hard Raimi fans. He delivers something so unlike what we know today in a general audience point of view that it’ll be difficult for Hell to bring in the box office numbers that it deserves. Either spectrum you sit on, film guru or big studio movies, Drag Me to Hell is one summer flick that shouldn’t be missed with both an open mind and maybe an empty stomach.