Drag me to hell blu ray movie#

It only takes three days for the lamia to take you away, so Christine has to go with the first person willing to help her, which turns out to be Rham Jas (Dileep Rao), a supposed psychic whose potential con-man status is amusingly unresolved by both the script and Rao's quiet performance.

Drag me to hell blu ray movie#

The movie breezes by at a cool 99 minutes. So often in movies, the skeptic is meant to be relatable to the audience, representing the audience's disbelief, but Raimi plays Clay's dismissal as darkly laughable. Clay is a different type of naïve, believing that Christine's accursed affliction can be chalked up to post-traumatic stress disorder. You also wouldn't have been able to buy Page liking a dork like Christine's boyfriend Clay Dalton (Justin Long). Much like Bruce Campbell's Ash, Christine just doesn't understand how she's ultimately responsible for everything that happens to her, and her inability to come to terms with it actually drives the plot forward. Lohman plays Christine with more naïvete than Page could have mustered (or, perhaps, has ever mustered), but that cluelessness is an important plot point.

Raimi even slaps the 80's Universal logo on the front of the movie and the studio's 70's logo at the very end.ĭrag was originally meant to star Ellen Page of Juno fame, but her usual cynical demeanor would have derailed Raimi's intentions. Also, while I don't agree with the opinion that this is Evil Dead 4 with a different wrapper, it's hard not to flash back to Raimi's other films when a possessed lackey, decked out in signature KNB makeup, dances comically in the air above a flaming table, or when any number of gross-out fluids spew on the movie's hapless characters. Weird compliment, I know, but it's funny in and of itself I laughed because it's like Raimi wants the viewer to experience Christine's physical torment through the abusive soundtrack.

The first thing you'll notice is the sound Drag Me to Hell is one of the loudest movies I can remember seeing. If you're not laughing after every scream in Drag Me to Hell, then you're only getting half of the experience.Īnyone worried by the movie's trailer and big studio backing - and worst of all, the dreaded PG-13 rating - that Raimi isn't going to go all the way with this one can also put their fears to rest. Raimi described the style as 'spook-a-blast', which encapsulates his technique perfectly. When Christine looks out the window at a horrendous creaking sound, Raimi cuts closer and closer on her face several times in rapid succession because he wants the viewer to get up on their toes and grab their dates in advance, and when the scare arrives, it's almost cathartic in its amusement. He and his co-writer brother Ivan (the writing team that gave us Darkman, and, of course, Army of Darkness) know that fans go in expecting to jump out of their seats, and it's twice as entertaining if the film's direction lets the audience in on the joke. The movie is a ride already.Īfter months of terrible slasher pictures, two factors stand out: Raimi's respect for his audience, and his desire to make being terrified fun again.

It's a shame he can't, but then again, it isn't even necessary.

Critics often compare movies to rollercoaster rides, and Castle might have suggested someone hook co-writer/director Sam Raimi's return to the horror genre up to an actual rollercoaster, so the audience could get flung around like poor heroine Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) as she desperately tries to escape a curse placed on her by a shamed old woman (Lorna Raver). seeing it again on DVD was, for once, exactly the same.ĭrag Me to Hell is the kind of movie that would have brought a smile to the face of infamous showman director William Castle, who would hide buzzers in seats and dangle plastic skeletons on wires to get an amused reaction from movie audiences. Note: The first section of this review is taken wholesale from my theatrical review of Drag Me to Hell, because my opinion of the movie in theaters vs.