MUBI

This horror comedy is more silly then funny. it plays like a advanced horror film from the 1960’s. It seems to be a horror film for younger teens with it’s gross humor and jump scary scenes. It is a fun movie that infects you with it’s energy and juvenile humor. it plays fast and loose in other words it is vintage Sam Raimi.

I didn’t enjoy this film as much as many critics and audiences did. I found the film entertaining overall. The story is of a bank employee seeking to get a edge in a promotion becomes mean and refuses a old woman’s loan approval. the old woman attacks her and puts a curse on her soon she is being attacked by spirits ans when she goes to get the old woman to lay off the curse finds out it ios too late, she spends the rest of the film trying to find a way to savbe herself. While also having to deal with her life’s problems.

The film could have been a little more funnier, Then again maybe my expoectations were too high. At least Sam raimi got to make a studio film more atuned to his usual and unique style. He seems to be having fun, letting loose allowing him to be more creative. not having to worry about a big budget which allows him more freedom creating with what yopu have around you rather then getting whatever you need. Which leads to a nicer looking product, but not necessarily as good. He had previously directed the spiderman trilogy which were good, but maginalized and made by commitee. Though the success and quality of the films laid squarely on his shoulders.

Though some of the camera angles and shots are familiar from his earlier work, but they are a breath of fresh air. a return to form that fits his criteria.

The film pays a deep homage to the classic horror films of the 1950’s the film is strangely alos a story of survival. the lead starts off the film as meek then finally decides to stand up for herself which starts the chain of events that has her being haunted and abused throughout most of the film, but then once she goes about fighting back she discovers more about herself and what she is capable of. It really is more of a ladies film in that the hero and most of the action lays on the shoulders of it’s female lead and has a more inspiring message and spirit then the film JENNIFER’S BODY which was released at the same time and was supposed to be a more female oriented horror film.

Ellen Page was originally supposed to star in the film, But dropped out to star in WHIP IT. It would have been strange to se eher star in it. i could see why she would want too, but she woul look too young in the lead role. One of the pains of looking youngas a actor.

The film is written by Sam Raimi and his Brother Ivan. They wrote the film after ARMY OF DARKNESS, but ovewr the years got so busy they never really had the time or money to make it. but after Sam’s success it was alot easier to get made.

The film is a popcorn film at heart. It is not trying to redefine the genre or really offer anything new. It plays around within the rules. The film comes off as strangley wholesome and so are the characters, but within the film beats a dark cynical heart. It sets moods of creepiness and tension. That works more then some modern directors these days successfully. The film also doesn’t rely on as many cheap tricks and shockers. Makes the story more central while employing some tricks to furthur the story.

The ending while surprising came off like a TWILIGHT ZONE episode.

This along with “Tyson” were probably the 2 biggest surprises of last year. FINALLY a horror movie that doesnt involve UN-scarry, pale, asian kids hiding under some white womans bed. Now, if youre willing to kinda let go and have fun for about 90 minutes, you’ll probably enjoy this. Just know from the begining that Sam Raimi goes back to his early “Evil Dead” roots and takes a break from the “Spiderman” world, which has pretty much consumed him for the majority of this decade. I get the feeling he wanted to make a smaller feature after years and years of making one sutdio “bloackbuster” after another. In “Drag Me To Hell”, a young bank employee is haunted by the ghost of an old woman who died after being a denied a loan to keep her house. The gore & violence in “Drag Me To Hell” is so over the top in some parts, it makes the movie (in my opinion) a horror-comedy. Combining 2 genres like horror and comedy succsesfully is pretty tough , so i give this movie major props for accomplishing that (Bob Balaban’s “Parents”, Sam Raimi’s “Evil Dead” movies and Polanski’s “Fearless Vampire Killers” are a few examples of true horror/comedy). The fight scene in the parking lot towards the first half of movie is easily the best part.

Sam Raimi returns to the genre that catapulted him to fame with his latest offering, Drag Me To Hell. Although many people turned a blind eye to this film due to its questionable PG-13 rating, I can honestly say that the rating does not hinder this film by any means.

At its core Drag Me To Hell is a simple morality tale. A young, gracious woman who seems to have never done any wrong in her life, finally gives in to an inner greed for a promotion she desperately wants. Her job deals with extending home owner’s extensions, and when an old gypsy woman comes in to ask for one, our heroine reluctantly turns a blind eye to her, in order to give her boss the image that she can handle things on her own. Well, if there’s one thing we learn it’s to never deny an old gypsy her extension, or else she will curse you and the Lamia will come to take your soul.

Like stories of old, our heroine is a more than decent person. It seems that denying this old woman her extension (even though she could have easily given it to her) is her first real slip up, or even a sin, and now she must deal with the consequences. The story works with this in a very mysterious way. Like the heroine, we are only given a certain amount of information and answers, but we’re still lost in the dark with her. By explaining little this leaves much up to our own imaginations. For instance, we never see the soul-stealing Lamia, but we do see his etch-like shadows creep across windows and walls. As H. P. Lovecraft once said, “The oldest fear and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”

Let’s not forget that this is a film written by Ivan and Sam Raimi. For every scream or shiver they manage to get out of you there will be an equal amount of times where a smile will creep across your face. Drag Me To Hell is packed with a lot of gross out humor, which includes a fair amount of scenes where someone is drenched in bodily fluids. I don’t want to give all of the little surprises away, but I thought they were all hilarious.

A lot of people seemed to be turned off from the PG-13 rating. On the official website for the film, Sam Raimi states that he had intended for the film to be rated PG-13, not because of the money (as a lot of people seem to think) but because he didn’t want to direct a strictly gore-driven horror piece again. Or, in his words, “I didn’t want to do exactly the same thing I had done before.”

Much kudos goes out to Peter Deming, the cinematographer, as this is shot like a classic Raimi film, with lots of off-centered shots and dutch-angled zooms. It feels just like an Evil Dead film. In my opinion, this film heavily relies on the editing by Bob Murawski. Like all classic horror films before it, including John Carpenter’s Halloween, Murawski skillfully uses the shot-reverse-shot technique to its full use. There are plenty of horror films that use this technique, but it has always come off as sloppy. Carpenter’s Halloween suffers from this, specifically when we see Jamie Lee Curtis looking out her window into the yard where we see Michael Myers standing by a clothesline. We have a close up of Curtis looking, cut to a wide of Myers standing below, watching her, cut back to Curtis opening her mouth in fear, cut to wide shot where Myers is now gone, and finish it off with the same close up of Curtis’ face looking confused. This edit gives the idea that Myers just vanished into thin air, when we know that it is more likely for him to just saunter off. That is a cheap thrill through the use of editing. It works on people, but it comes off rather lame to me. Sound design is just as important as editing when it comes to finely crafting a horror film. Paul N. J. Ottosson nailed it with the creepy atmospheric sounds and the disgusting noises when vomit flies through the air.

Drag Me To Hell is a blast. In a time where the horror genre is slowly losing its appeal, it’s nice to have a fresh kick such as this. Not since Feast have I seen a film that balances horror with comedy as well as this. I highly recommend this to anyone who’s in for a good time.

Jauh sebelum franchise blockbuster Spider-Man, Sam Raimi dikenal pertama kali dikenal lewat trilogi horror-nya The Evil Dead. Selain itu, Raimi juga tercatat pernah memproduseri seri film horror lainnya, The Grudge, serta serial TV, Xena: The Warrior Princess dan Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Drag Me To Hell sendiri mencatat kembalinya Raimi dalam menyutradarai film horror yang diwarnai dark comedy seperti yang pernah ia lakukan dahulu lewat trilogi The Evil Dead.

Drag Me To Hell sendiri bercerita mengenai Christine Brown (Lohman), seorang pegawai bagian administrasi peminjaman dana di sebuah bank. Untuk mengesankan atasannya, Mr Jacks (Paymer), bahwa ia mampu menghasilkan sebuah keputusan tegas, sekaligus mengalahkan saingannya, Stu Rubin (Lee), dalam merebut kursi asisten manajer, Christine menolak permintaan perpanjangan masa pinjaman dari seorang wanita gipsi tua, Sylvia Garnush (Raver). Dianggap telah mempermalukan dirinya, Garnush akhirnya mengutuk Christine dengan kutukan bahwa dalam 3 hari mendatang, ia akan diseret ke dalam neraka. Sebuah kutukan yang tentu saja membuat Christine menderita sekaligus kelimpungan dalam mencari jalan agar kutukan tersebut dapat dibatalkan.

UNBELIEVABLE! Dengan tema cerita dan penggarapan yang sederhana, Sam Raimi mampu, sekali lagi, mengulangi kesuksesannya dalam mengarahkan The Evil Dead lewat film ini. Lewat beberapa sentuhan komedi, para penonton tidak akan mampu menolak untuk tertawa. Di lain pihak, Raimi juga tidak lupa memberikan sentuhan horror dan sedikit sadisme di film ini yang akan mampu membuat penonton menahan nafas dan tertahan di tempat duduknya.

Harus diakui, salah satu kekuatan utama film ini adalah di bagian efek tata suara. Di tiap scene menegangkan, Raimi mampu memberikan arahan score yang menegangkan pula. Tak heran, seperti halnya film-film zaman dahulu, tata suara film ini mampu mengejutkan dan menaikkan adrenalin para penontonnya. Ditambah dengan spesial efek, walaupun sederhana, yang begitu moody dan mengena, jadilah kisah horror film ini semakin menghipnotis setiap penontonnya.

Dari sisi cast, Raimi juga berhasil mengeksplor kemampuan akting tiap pemainnya. Alison Lohman, yang memang dikenal berbakat lewat film-filmnya terdahulu seperti di Matchstik Men dan Big Fish, semakin menunjukkan bakat akting yang ia miliki lewat film ini. Cast utama lainnya juga semakin memperkokoh kesolidan kualitas film ini.

Secara keseluruhan, adalah sangat, sangat, sangat menyenangkan untuk dapat kembali merasakan ketakutan setelah menonton sebuah film horror. Hal yang mungkin jarang dirasakan ketika menonton film-film horror di saat modern seperti sekarang. Drag Me To Hell seharusnya dapat menjadi contoh baik, khususnya bagi sineas horror Indonesia, untuk dapat mengelola film secara sederhana, namun dapat tetap menghantui para penontonnya.

Anda seharusnya tidak melewatkan film yang sangat berkualitas cita rasa tinggi ini! Watch this one and enjoy this ride!

Rating 4.5 / 5

It’s no accident that so many other reviews have used the word “fun” to describe this movie. The Raimis clearly love this genre the way kids love to hear and tell grisly stories around a camp fire — always trying to top each other in scare factor and never taking any of it too seriously, even as they pull just a tad closer to the fire for warmth and protection from the darkness. The movie is full of over-the-top exaggerations of innocence and horror that border on caricature or cliche, which are then pushed even further into the realm of such absurdity and moral ambiguity that you toss all critical thinking out the window and just enjoy the ride. You’ve paid the fare for the horror fun ride at the carnival, you’ve come looking for giggles and screams, well the Raimis are gonna give it to you.

When I heard that Sam Raimi was back onto the Spider-Man train, signed on for the fourth installment, I was a bit lost for words. We all know how the third film in the series was a pale shadow of the previous two and the rumors were swirling about a remake of the movie that made him a cult filmmaker, The Evil Dead, so why visit the land of superheroes again? At the moment, I can only think that he is looking for redemption from the legion of fans he let down. Why do I think this? Well, because he doesn’t need it. Horror has always been the genre close to his heart; while he hasn’t been able to delve in himself the past decade or two, he still produces under the Ghost House shingle and keeps his hands soaked in blood perpetually. And finally, after fifteen years away, Raimi was given the opportunity to helm his own tale of demons with brother/co-writer Ivan. Drag Me to Hell garnered high praise and I’ll admit to thinking it would be a dark scary tale full of weight; that’s what’s good these days, right? Boy was I wrong. It is suspenseful, but also a thrill ride full of laughs and gross-out moments—things I don’t normally enjoy in my limited horror tastes—each working together for a great time.

It all started pretty nicely with a prologue from 1969, setting the stage for the demon we would be dealing with in the present. The Lamia is a being that will first come to you as a shadowy figure, able to physically harm you, that will take your body down to hell to be devoured on the third day of its curse. We are shown what happens when it comes to take its soul and also the young medium, sought to help rid a boy of the curse, who proclaims that they’ll meet again, hopefully with a different result … foreshadowing a future showdown perhaps? Fast-forward to today and we meet loan officer Christine Brown, a pretty farm girl that is looking to be a success in the city. With her psychology professor boyfriend, chance for a promotion at her bank, and the workings of what could be the biggest loan her bosses ever had due to her work, life is good. That is until an old hag of a woman comes in looking for a third extension on her house payment. If you are going to prove you have the mettle to be a manager, the tough decisions need to be made. So, bye-bye one-eyed gypsy who has to take her teeth out in order to suck on a jawbreaker—which she not-so-subtly dumps the bowl of into her purse—and hello nightmare.

For the duration of the film we see Christine haunted by the woman, visions manifested by the Lamia when it doesn’t come to terrorize her itself. I have to give Raimi credit for his ability to mix humor and terror so perfectly. I began to lose my hold on enjoyment during the interaction at the bank, watching Lorna Raver’s gypsy be as disgusting as possible, only to see her up the ante during a bout of fisticuffs with Alison Lohman’s Christine in her car, but after I bought into the humor, it all became okay. There was a fly buzzing in the prologue, so you knew it would be coming back, but I was unprepared for the oral fixation that abounds. Between the fluids coming out of Raver’s mouth as she attempts to gum Lohman to death, or the vomit of creepy-crawlers that emits later on during a dream, or the faucet of blood that finds its way onto David Paymer, (“Did any get in my mouth?”), it was all so over-the-top that it worked. The tension was always relieved with laughter and the gross moments elicited giggles while disgusting me at the same time; each plays their role just on the edge of going too far. It is subtle, but effective, keeping a tint of hyper-reality over everything, not quite campy, yet also far from total seriousness.

Lohman is constantly playing her role of Christine with a glow of country purity, giving off a childlike façade—making her fear more palpable—while still having the ability to kick butt when asked. The temper that comes out is so effective that you have to laugh due to the change in personality from that kind-hearted innocent the moment before. Justin Long is always going to be humorous, no matter what he plays, so I think he didn’t really alter too much, but Dileep Rao definitely added a little flair to his psychic seer. I enjoyed the back and forth from these two, one the analytical science practitioner and the other an open-minded mystic, especially the little moments like Rao seeing Long’s Platinum AmEx card for payment. It was also a treat to see Reggie Lee play it funny as Stu, the competition for Christine’s promotion. He is sleazy and conniving, but the real payoff comes at the end, when his true nature comes out, (“You aren’t going to tell my father, right?”). The most off-kilter scene has to be a dinner with Long’s parents, though, meeting Lohman for the first time. The awkwardness of his family’s money and her naivety is good enough, but when the ice is broken and Mrs. Dalton opens up to Lohman, the exchange is so dreamlike in absurdity that it deflects the soon to come demonic interference to ruin everything.

Raimi knows his stuff and his audience, giving it his all and filling the film with his trademark humor and love of gore. There are some flourishes—what a technical move of focus change when a fly “lands” on the camera lens looking down upon Lohman and Long in bed—and a brilliant use of sound. The aural attributes add so much to the mood and investment into what is happening on screen. And the computer graphics making up the shadows are top-notch, especially during a creepy and effective séance towards the end that will frighten, until a possessed soul does a little gig of course. But that is what makes this movie tick, tones tempered and changed to keep interest throughout, always keeping the audience on its toes, walking the line between full horror and campy so-bad-its-good. The plot is pretty simple and obvious in parts, secrets are not hidden and you can guess at what the characters don’t quite know yet, but none of that matters because Raimi doesn’t give you enough time to think too much into it all. Instead, he entertains and disgusts for the duration, culminating in an ending of absolute perfection. Well done sir; I won’t be too heartbroken if you ruin Spider-Man even more, as long as you have more old-school horror up those sleeves.

http://jaredmobarakreviews.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/drag-me-to-hell/

While some may be put off by the somewhat silly and corny scenes (see “talking goat” or “bile-spewing gypsy-corpse”), I find the movie to be exactly what Sam needed to make. It’s an evil dead movie that finally has a budget to go above and beyond what anyone saw coming. Though the plot can be predicted easily, it is the execution of the story that should be examined. This film travels the beaten path, but it takes a fun and freakish route.

Really great work done here by Mr. Raimi. This feels like it was made right after Army of Darkness. I like to think Raimi picks up his career before the Spider-Man movies and will keep on churning out these mini-masterpieces for a long time to come. If the only reason Spider-Man 3 existed was so Raimi could make Drag Me to Hell afterwards, then I’m glad I didn’t go through with it and pull that trigger opening night.

Fiesta total para aquellos que tengan ganas de pasar un buen (mal) rato en el cine. “Drag Me To Hell”, pelicula que marca el regreso de Sam Raimi a sus orígenes terroríficos, es no solo una gran película de género, sino que tambien es una prueba de fuego sobre la maestría de un director que nade entiende por qué demonios, justamente, entrega pelicula tan buenas. Porque si, es tiempo de ser sinceros: todos la pasamos bien viendo “Evil Dead” pero jamas pensamos que este director condenado indefectiblemente a la clase b cinematográfica podria alguna vez ser uno de los directores contemporános mas interesantes, y uno de esos que nunca defraudan. “Drag Me To Hell” es, entonces, eso, una pelicula que sirve para demostrar que por mas hombres arañas que se hayan metido en el medio, Raimi es un director que nunca falla y al que siempre podemos esperar para que nos alegre las noches de fiesta. Es esta su pelicula consagración como uno de los maestros del terror y si quedaba alguna duda despues de ver todas las “Evil Dead” esta es el filme que deberia enterrarlas a todas.

De todas formas, no se trata aqui de ver cuánto del Raimi de los origenes hay en esta pelicula, cosa que me parece totalmente estúpida, dado que Raimi siempre se las arreglo para poner su sello en cuanta cinta estuvo. Me parece que esa es una cuestión que no se deberia ni siquiera mencionar, porque, como decía mas arriba, Raimi es el director que mejor supo manejar su pasaje por las grandes ligas y, en todo caso, lo que deberiamos ver es cuánto de esa pasada realmente se puede observar en “Drag Me To Hell”. En ese sentido, la primera parte de la pelicula se observa un poco mas “clásica”, lo que no es algo malo, sino mas bien todo lo contrario, porque lo que hace Raimi es cimentar las bases comúnes de toda pelicula de terror. Tenemos a la pobre chica inocente que sufre las consecuencias de una maldición producida por una anciana a la cual no quiso ayudar con su hipóteca. A partir de ahi, lo que viene es alegria pura que pone la piel de gallina. Efectiva en todo momento, estamos al frente de una pelicula que se propone, ya desde el comienzo mismo, no dar descanso alguno. No hay escena en la que no se maneje una cierta tensión y en la que algo, finalmente, estalle. Sin embargo, es esta primera parte del metraje en la que todavia Remi no logra sacarle el jugo completo a su regreso al género que tantas alegrias le (y nos) dio. Estoy hablando concretamente de lo que hace de las “Evil Dead” algo completamente orginal, que es el uso de la comedia slapstick como parte del golpe de efecto producido por el terror. Es la mezcla de esas dos cosas supuestamente incompatibles lo que hace que haya tanta alegria en las mostruosidades de Reimi. Y lo que las hace tan entretenidas. Y parece ser nomás que nuestro querido amigo esta muy al tanto de eso y por esa misma razón es que, cuando la pelicula esta en su clímas máximo, es donde saca toda la artilleria pesada. La pobre inocente protagonista se transforma en una prototipo femenino de Ash y sale a combatir a ese demonio que se las quiere llevar a las profundidades. Es en este punto donde la cosa se pone mucho mas divertidas y esos momentos de tensión se ven condimentados con el gusto especial que les da el uso del absurdo y del slapstick mas fisico que se puede encontrar en una pelicula de terror (atención a la escena del garage y a la del cementerio, dos lecciones de cómo hacer terror sin demasiado artificio). En este punto donde uno realmente puede sentir que Raime está haciendo lo que mas le gusta y que le esta saliendo endomoniadamente genial.

Es asi entonces como Sam Raimi vuelve un poco hacia el lugar del que,. en realidad, nunca se fue del todo. No solo entrega una pelicula que srive de ejemplo a todos esos directores que piensan que el terror se construye unicamente poniendole un énfasis agudiismo al sonido (por dios, que esta pelicula no solo tiene un sonido estupendo, sino que no se agarra de eso solo para construir su clima) o a cualquier cosa técnica menos a lo que verdaderamente importa, sino que ademas uno puede salir del cine cagado de risa y cagado de miedo. Todo por el mismo precio.