Revulsion and surprise are not horror. A four-year old can elicit the same response by opening their mouth to show you their chewed-up food or standing behind a door before jumping out and yelling, “Boo!” While they might be good for a causing a sick stomach or bringing on cardiac arrest, these simple tricks can’t infect their audience with a deep sense of psychological terror or dreadful unease.
By this analysis, then, Sam Raimi’s long anticipated return to horror, Drag Me to Hell, isn’t really horror at all. It’s more of a funhouse ride, or a walk through a cheesy haunted house attraction created by some demented, but childlike maestro.
Alison Lohman plays Christine Brown, a young woman driven to overcome her humble past. Christine works as a loan officer at a Los Angeles bank, and she’s competing with a feckless and sycophantic colleague for an assistant manager’s position.
One morning, a sick and elderly woman named Mrs. Ganush, comes to Christine to plead for a third extension on her mortgage. Christine has a good heart, and she’s inclined to grant the extension, but while her boss leaves the ultimate decision in her hands, he intimates that the best candidate for the promotion needs to be able to make the toughest choices.
More concerned with her career than the old woman’s well-being, Christine refuses to grant the extension. Furious and ashamed, Mrs. Ganush places an ancient and spiteful Gypsy curse on Christine. For three days, she will be taunted and tormented by an evil spirit, but on the third day, the demon will drag her down to hell.
Let’s cover the good first. Drag Me to Hell features a simple story and a construction with roots in the type of creepy and cautionary tales you remember hearing while huddled around a campfire. The whole project is helmed with a groovy sense of nostalgia that breathes a gleefully devious sense of life into the film’s deliciously old school opening credits and the fantastic and evocative musical score.
Many of the scares are achieved using decidedly primitive, but effective, methods. Unfortunately, Raimi often pumps up these moments with obvious computer effects that steal the show and ruin the mood. But, more on this later.
The film is cast very well and the acting is top notch, even if the characters don’t always react realistically or follow the dictates of common sense. Justin Long, who plays Christine’s faithful boyfriend and the film’s sole voice of reason, is effortlessly likeable and a lot of fun to watch. Lorna Raver somehow manages to harvest fleeting moments of pitiful sympathy in her pitch-perfect performance of the contemptible and revolting Mrs. Ganush.
Other fine actors fill out the ranks, but it’s Alison Lohman who steals the show. The young actress is in nearly every scene and she carries the film admirably. Far from simply filling the shoes of a forgettable “scream queen”, Lohman’s performance is, in many ways, a study in the contradictions and insecurities that shape all of our personalities.
Christine is smart and determined, and yet she’s frightened, hesitant, unsure of herself, and – worst of all – burdened with a sense of hopelessness. What’s most interesting is that she is not a completely innocent victim. She’s a kind and compassionate person, but she let her insecurities and ambitions get the best of her better nature, and her moment of weakness opens her up to the assaults of hell. It’s easy to relate to Christine, and Lohman embodies all of these aspects flawlessly.
Unfortunately, while these are nice pieces to the puzzle, they never come together to form an entirely successful whole. The film’s endless parade of gross-out gags and jump scares will certainly twist your stomach and jolt your heart, but they’re shallow and self serving, and they add nothing to the story. It’d be like watching an episode of Fear Factor if a jack-in-the-box popped out randomly while the contestants greedily devoured the vilest muck imaginable.
I guess this fits the strict definition of suspense, but the story itself is strangely devoid of any real suspense. There are certain scenes that work very well. An extended sequence in a parking garage is genuinely scary and exciting, and peppered with a wicked sense of dark humor. The film’s conclusion is also well done and eerily surreal, but it still could have been better. You’ll see the twist coming a mile away, and it felt like Raimi pulled his punches just a bit.
As far as Raimi is concerned, there are tons of clever nods to his revered Evil Dead trilogy that will make horror fans and movie geeks squeal with delight. But you can have too much of a good thing. Drag Me to Hell’s style, tone, and timing has so much in common with those films, that nothing here feels particularly new, fresh, or frightening.
Computer generated effects are hardly ever scary, and, as I mentioned before, Raimi relies too heavily upon digitally rendered visuals of middling quality that aren’t nearly as endearing or effective as his old do-it-yourself tricks. This probably would have been a better film had it been shot back in the early 90s when it was originally penned.
Sam Raimi’s first major film, The Evil Dead, was labeled a “video nasty” and banned in Britain until years after its initial release. Drag Me to Hell is certainly more in tune with the mainstream, but parents (and the weak of heart and stomach) will probably still want to think twice before venturing into the theater.
The film is rated PG-13, but its freakish violence, raw intensity, excessive goop, and cacophony of spooky noises and deafening crashes will likely make it too intense for many viewers. The disgusting gross-out effects might push the fidelity of the rating, but they’re so over the top and pointless that they’re almost robbed of their power to offend.
What is perhaps more disturbing is the way the film dabbles in some serious and dangerously dark spirituality with a seemingly naïve air of nonchalance. I’m sure the filmmakers meant it all in good fun, but I’m not if we should trifle with such things in good humor. It bothers me even more that there was really no force for good in the film. In order to save her, Christine and her allies dip to some truly dastardly levels. It’s not even as if they have to choose between the lesser of two evils. In fighting evil, our heroes simply resort to a different kind of evil.
Drag Me to Hell is a creature full of guts but lacking a sturdy brain. It’s an experience akin to sitting in a dark room and putting your hand in a bowl of grapes that someone tells you is full of eyeballs. I suppose there’s a certain type of “fun” to be had with this type of picture, but I like my horror deeper and more psychological. Unfortunately, and despite a smattering of fine material and a host of good performances, Drag Me to Hell is as shallow and transparent as they come.
Caution Rating: 9.5
