Christine (Alison Lohman) is a loan officer looking to impress her boss by making "the difficult decisions". This means turning down an old gypsy for a third extension on her mortgage, greatly offending and bringing shame upon the gypsy. The gypsy then curses Christine to be tortured for three days by a shadowy demon called Lambia, the black goat, and on the third day to be brutally dragged to hell. Christine goes on a frantic search to find a way to rid herself of the curse, and risks losing her kind-hearted nature in the process.

When I first heard the title of the film, I thought it sounded brutal and awesome. "Drag me to Hell". They could have called it "Lambia", "The Curse of the Goat", "Hellbent", "Hellbound", or any other generic name, but they went with the best title possible, one that prepares you for exactly what the movie is about.

The film begins by showing the studio titles, but interestingly uses the older Universal logo, back before the release of Jurassic Park in 1993. This is interesting and very indicative of what you're going to get with this film. In much the same way Star Wars was a throwback to old space operas like Flash Gordon and borrowed aspects from westerns, samurai films, and many other genres, this is a throwback to both the low budget horror films of the 50s and the popular horror flicks of the 80's, and at the same time to the director's own Evil Dead series.

Sam Raimi's touch is very apparent in this film, including eyeballs popping out of a head and flying into someone's throat, possessed people levitating and telling other characters that they are going to devour their souls, and the attitude of using some gross-out horror to get goth squirms and laughs out of to masculine female lead is at times reminiscent of Ash from the Evil Dead trilogy, spouting a few of her own one-liners and kicking a bit of ass early in the film.

Where the film most excells is in its balancing of horror (Which had me geniunely frightened, no mean feat since my film diet consits mostly of horror films and I haven't been this scared in over 2 years) and comedy, which is inherent both in the most obvious ways but also in the general attitude of the film. I found myself laughing at points that would be innapropriate in any other film, but in this film the humor was intentional. The film never takes itself too seriously, and has the same undercurrent of comedy and even a bit of classical slapstick just like you'd expect from Sam, whose Evil Dead 2 is this films closest cousin.

This film has been billed as "The return of true horror", and critics have been saying it's a "return to form" for Sam Raimi, and I agree completely.

As much as I liked Bruce Campbell's recent Evil Dead spin-off "My Name is Bruce", I couldn't help but be disappointed that it didn't take the horror angle seriously at all, and instead just wanted to make the audience laugh. While it succeeded, I still would have prefered an Evil Dead 4 in it's place. With Drag Me to Hell, however, I can die satisfied if no Evil Dead 4 is ever made. This IS Evil Dead 4, in spirit if not in title.

So, in closing, this is probably the best horror film I've seen in recent memory. Not since [REC.] have I been so blown away by a horror film's consistant quality.

My one and only gripe is really a fanboyism thing. Unlike Sam's generally consistant use of Bruce Campbell and his little brother Ted Raimi in cameo appearances and small roles, neither is present in this film. However, the "Classic", the 1977 oldsmobile present in every one of Sam's films except THe Quick and the Dead, appears as the old gypsy's ominous car.

Why is noone else posting here? Come on, this was a good movie!

Quote from Ash

Why is noone else posting here? Come on, this was a good movie!

Because most people (such as myself) don't have time to watch every single movie that comes out.
Trailer looked good, but I havent went to a theater in a month or so.

No one cares about Sam Raimi outside of spiderman.

If you like Evil Dead, you'll likely like this.

I liked evil dead cause I thought it was funny.

That's pretty much why everyone likes Evil Dead.

Its more complicated than just it being funny, but really, that's the main reason.

I absolutely loved this movie. Sam Raimi's style came out perfectly and left me wanting to see it again.

My favorite scene had to have been the coffee shop where she is trying to figure out who to condemn. Everyone in the audience laughed when she saw the old man on the respirator.

Hah, same at my theater. The look on Justin Long's face at the end was the best reaction to something bad happening I've ever seen in a movie. EVER.

I wish I lived in America. Nobody makes a sound at our cinemas, and if you do you're seen as annoying.

Man, the plot was shit, the whole movie was built around the jump scenes. But it was pretty funny because you knew that no matter what you did to plug your ears or something, you would get jumped. It took like 5 minutes for it to happen at the palm reading. And EVERYONE in the theater jumped there.

Honestly, it's not the jump scenes that got me, it's the shadows. Shadows of goats freak me out. Their horns just look so damn unnatural.

theres too much bugs/mucus/vomit combos lol

Quote from Automaton

I wish I lived in America. Nobody makes a sound at our cinemas, and if you do you're seen as annoying.

its like that in America too, faggot.