Drag Me to Hell (2009)

 

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Drag Me to Hell (2009) – S. Raimi

It only gradually dawned on me that this film is actually an homage to Jacques Tourneur’s Curse of the Demon (1957) – which I should have realised since that is one of my all-time favourite films.  Most obviously, there is a curse placed on the protagonist (here, Alison Lohman) that means that a demon will come and destroy her in a matter of days.  In CotD, the curse came from an Alastair Crowley-type figure and here it is from a Hungarian gypsy but the slow encroachment of the demon is the same, all shadows and psychological effects at first before the full-on attack.  Although Tourneur’s film (drawn from a story by M. R. James) really focused on the passing of the runes, the passing of an object is not neglected here and although Dana Andrews played a sceptical psychologist who was cursed in the earlier film that role goes to Lohman’s boyfriend (Justin Long) in this film – she is a bank loan officer instead.  Beyond also showing a séance, that’s probably where the similarities end (except perhaps the ending and its location!).  Raimi’s film is much more tongue-in-cheek, a bit scary but definitely with some gross-out humour (and comedy-of-embarrassment scenes) and “modern” special effects and action, harkening back to the later Evil Dead movies for which he is rightly famous.  Ultimately, this is a fun ride but with an extra special something for fans of classic supernatural horror (which really can’t be beat – check out the earlier film if you can!).