Drag Me To Hell (2009) is Sam Raimi's long-awaited return to the horror genre. The movie stars Alison Lohman as Christine Brown, a loan officer who forecloses on an old Gypsy woman's home for the sake of a promotion. Big mistake...Features a lot of Sam Raimi's signature styles. Chances are, if you like the Evil Dead series, you'll like this film (or you'll hate it because it has actual funding.)
This film provides examples of:
Actor Allusion: Nearly every electronic device in the movie is an Apple, especially those used by "I'm a Mac" Justin Long.
Camp: It's Sam Raimi. The 'scary' scenes had as much chance of making you either scream, puke, or laugh.
Cant Get Away With Nuthin: Christine, an atypically nice horror heroine is cursed just because she did one mean thing in her life. And even then, what she did wasn't that mean. She was just doing her job.
Demonic Possession: When the Lamia possesses the old woman, the goat, and the young guy.
Designated Victim: Sam Raimi has explicitly stated in an interview that Sylvia was the victim of the story. While it most certainly doesn't appear that way at first closer watching suggests that it wasn't the old woman who attacked Christine, while Christines behaviour becomes more typical of a horror protagonist as the movie progresses to avoid her fate.
Foreclose my house after repeated warnings? Fail to convince your supervisor to give me another chance? Force me to move in with my loving daughter? I'll condemn you to hell...
The poor 10 year old kid who was condemned to hell for just stealing a gypsy necklace, which was quickly returned to them by the kid's parents, no less.
Jerkass Stu almost gets cursed to hell for all eternity by Christine.
Diabolus ex Machina: Christine thinks she's given the button to Mrs. Ganush and that the curse has been passed, but finds out that she accidentally gave her the coin instead. Cue her getting dragged to hell.
Downer Ending: And how! Despite all attempts to cancel out the curse and save herself from eternal damnation, Christine ends up being literally pulled down into the burning flames of Hell all the same.
Easy Road To Hell: Apparently, being sent to hell is so easy that a single curse can do it regardless of how good you've lived your life or what you've done.
Felony Misdemeanor: Cursed to be dragged into hell and told she deserves it just because she wouldn't give a third extension.
Fire and Brimstone Hell - According to the ending and Rham Jas's book, this is what Hell looks like, and Christine ends up bring dragged there. Her skin starts to melt off as a result.
Inter-Class Romance: Christine is from humbler roots than wealthy Clay, and the whole plot is caused in part because she wants a promotion to measure up to his family.
Oh Crap: When Christine realizes that she used the wrong envelope.
Ontological Inertia - The curse set upon Christine by the old woman is still in effect even after the old woman dies.
Orifice Invasion - The fly that ends up going into one of Christine's nostrils while she is sleeping, audily buzzes around inside her nasal cavity for several seconds, then crawls out her other nostril. And she doesn't wake up!
Redemption in the Rain - When Christine finally emerges from the gypsy woman's grave in the rain and it montages into her taking a shower. Subverted in that it's not over just yet.
Ganush pulling out Christine's hair. Verges on Running Gag.
There's also the fact that the Lamia torments its victims for three days before actually coming to drag them to Hell.
Running Gag: If something gross and scary turns up on screen, rest assured it's going to end up in Christine's mouth. Thank god she never finds a flasher.
Sadly Mythtaken - So off, it must be intentional. Lamiae are Greek, female, (usually) half-serpent demons that either eat children or young men in the vein of succubi. The Lamia in the movie is a goat (the fortune-teller used an illustration of Baphomet while explaining everything to Christine). They must've been keeping the real Lamia in mind, because during its first visit to Christine its silhouette is first a shapely woman, which then changes into a goat.
When the Lamia possesses people, it might as well be a Deadite. It even makes a call back to the classic line "I'll swallow your soul"
A further Evil Dead shout-out occurs in Clay's description of the cottage he plans to take Christine to for the weekend - "Lots of trees, private..."
The Anvil On Head - Eye Scream bit is a direct callback to Evil Dead II, which has almost the exact same effect in different circumstances.
Evil Dead II has a blood fountain in the basement, Army of Darkness has one in the pit, this has one in Christine's office.
The cat scene is a direct visual callback to "YOU LOVED HER!" from the original.
Night of the Demon/Curse Of The Demon: Sam Raimi knew they were basically doing a retread of this classic British horror movie, right down to the manner of the Lamia's manifestations and the train station ending. Though, to be fair, that film didn't have a Downer Ending. If it weren't for the change of characters and location, it might as well have been a Remake.
Trailers Always Spoil - The trailers feature a part of the last scene of the film. It may not necessarily be seen as a major spoiler. Many viewers may see it as snippet from a final showdown or something, as opposed to the last thing that happens. it's only when the climax occurs with that scene not yet happening that you realize that Christine is fucked.
Voice of the Legion: The Lamia speaks like this whenever it possesses someone.
Yank the Dog's Chain: Christine actually gets two of these in the film. The first is after the ritual where it seems they successfully got the Lamia off her back. Only to be told they just banished it away for the moment and the curse is still in effect. If that wasn't bad enough, the only one who could stop it just died using up all her energy. So she's given the button in an envelope and told to give it away to another poor sap to save herself. After a few considerations Christine actually makes a surprisingly smart choice and tries to give it to Ganush, despite the fact she recently died. After much struggle, it seems she finally pulled it off and everything all peachy. Good things are happening to her and her BF and she are set for a romantic getaway. However while waiting on the train platform. Said BF pulls out the button, it having gotten mixed up during a near car accident. And well...the rest is history.
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