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It's taken forever to write about the two movies I saw this past weekend, but I did want to write about them, as they made up a pretty stellar weekend for moviegoers - in very different ways. It was kind of strange to follow the uplifting and colorful Up with this film, but sort of fitting too.
Drag Me to Hell
The short version, if you're planning to see it:
It's quite good, miles ahead of the crap that most studios are calling horror nowadays. Good scares, not cheap ones, by a filmmaker who knows how to push an audience's buttons and keep them on edge. It's fun scary, not disturbing scary. And despite the PG-13 rating, it manages to be pretty gross, in ways that don't involve blood. And it has loads of Raimi's characteristic humor, which infused the great Evil Dead trilogy in the 1980s. This movie is a blast, and satisfying in just about every way imaginable.
That's all you need to know, if you're planning on seeing it, because like Up, part of the charm is letting the movie surprise you. And scare the poop out of you.
The long version, if you have no intention of seeing it, but want to read about it. SPOILERS, NATCH:
Christine is a loan officer at a bank in Los Angeles, trying to overcome her "off the farm" roots. If you've seen the trailer, you get the gist of her situation and perhaps don't feel a lot of sympathy for a girl who ruins an old woman's life to get ahead at work. But there's a little moe to it than that. She's in a classic subjugated female role in her job, stuck picking up lunch for her boss and a male co-worker with whom she's competing for a promotion. It's clear that the manager wants to give the promotion to someone aggressive, who's not afraid to trample a human being if it will help the bank. And however unlikeable Christine may be for wanting to get ahead so badly, you'd definitely rather see her get it than the asshat she's up against.
Enter Mrs. Ganush, an old woman on a fixed income who is about to lose her house. Christine wants to help her at first and goes to consult her manager, but he passes the buck straight back to her and hints rather broadly that forcing this woman out of her house is the kind of decision he's looking for in the person he's going to promote. So out Christine goes to tell this woman they can't help her, making it sound as if it's not her choice at all and that she's just doing what she's been told. Mrs. Ganush totally loses it, begging Christine on her knees, and eventually Christine calls security to escort her out. And there's a moment just before she reaches the door where her eyes flash, and you know two things: 1) Mrs. Ganush will beg no more, and 2) Christine is going to pay.
Christine leaves work that evening and goes to her car in the parking garage, but not before noticing Mrs. Ganush's faded yellow Oldsmobile (I don't think a Cutlass has ever been so scary, btw). She gets into her car, and of course, the old lady is waiting for her in the back seat. What follows is one of the more intense and awesome catfights you've ever seen, including the horrifying shot of the old lady's teeth falling out before she proceeds to gnaw Christine's face with her gums. WOW. And all of this culminates in Mrs. Ganush tearing a button off of Christine's coat, putting the curse of Lamia (what we're told is a HELLA SCARY demon) on it, and gives it back to her.
Christine is obviously shaken, but not as shaken as she's going to be. On the way home, she insists - against the better judgment of her caring but decidedly unsuperstitious boyfriend (played by Justin Long) - to have her fortune read. Boyfriend kinds of makes fun of the whole thing, but realizes that this is apparently important to her, so he pays for the reading himself in spite of his intellectual misgivings. The psychic gives her a rather vague, typical fortune at first, but eventually recognizes that Christine has an evil spirit upon her.
After many bizarre incidents, some (the nightmare where she sees the old lady in the bed next to her) perhaps a product of Christine's state of mind, others (being hoisted in the air and dragged around a room by an invisible attacker) clearly not, Christine seeks help from the psychic again, and he tells her she has the curse of the Lamia, which will torment her for three days before taking her to an eternal torment in hell. Unless she can stop it. Christine tries to make amends to Mrs. Ganush personally, but discovers that she has just died. The psychic then suggests an animal sacrifice, which Christine (a vegetarian and animal rights activist) is reluctant to perform but eventually does, but it doesn't help. His next suggestion is that she seek the help of a mystic whose life has been touched by this same spirit (which took a young boy 30-some years previously). The solution is costly ($10,000), but Christine's boyfriend is truly concerned about her and pays for it, though he is still skeptical.
The mystic holds a seance, which is supposed to summon the spirit, and the participants are going to try to send the spirit into a goat and slaughter the goat, thereby destroying the spirit. They manage to get the spirit into the goat - this is HYSTERICAL, by the way, and a much-needed relief from the tension of the scene - but something goes wrong. The mystic banishes the spirit and ends up dying. And after all that, Christine STILL hasn't escaped the curse. The mystic only banished the spirit from the seance, and it's still coming for Christine in 24 hours, unless she can give the curse to someone else by bestowing the button on them. Her ideas and attempts to pass the curse to other people are pretty (intentionally, I think) humorous, but she eventually figures out that she can pass the curse on to someone who is already dead. So guess who's getting some payback?
In a hilariously over-the-top scene, Christine digs up Mrs. Ganush's grave and shoves the envelope with the cursed button down her throat, bestowing the curse. There's a slight complication with Christine trying to get out of the grave, but she eventually does and her nightmare is over.
Or so she thinks. :)
She goes to the train station the next day for a relaxing getaway with her boyfriend, happy at last that all this is behind her, and he pulls something out of his pocket that she dropped in his car. The button. The envelope she took and gave to the dead Mrs. Ganush contained a rare quarter that she had given her boyfriend earlier in the film, and the coin was what she got rid of. Not the button and not the curse. Horrified, she steps backward, falling onto the train tracks, and just before the approaching train reaches her, the ground opens up and Christine fulfills the destiny she couldn't escape.
Absolutely heart-stopping and ultimately satisfying ending. Not satisfying as in she deserved what she got, though - not exactly. One thing I love about this movie is that there's not an easy answer like that. Does Christine really deserve to burn in hell for eternity for what she did to Mrs. Ganush? Isn't Mrs. Ganush kind of the bad guy? Those are questions worth thinking about, but they don't affect the outcome of the story. After everything that happens in the movie, there's no way from a storytelling standpoint to allow Christine to live.
I was worried about Raimi after Spider-Man 3, but it's great to see him return to his roots and remind us of how much awesome he can make.
Drag Me to Hell
The short version, if you're planning to see it:
It's quite good, miles ahead of the crap that most studios are calling horror nowadays. Good scares, not cheap ones, by a filmmaker who knows how to push an audience's buttons and keep them on edge. It's fun scary, not disturbing scary. And despite the PG-13 rating, it manages to be pretty gross, in ways that don't involve blood. And it has loads of Raimi's characteristic humor, which infused the great Evil Dead trilogy in the 1980s. This movie is a blast, and satisfying in just about every way imaginable.
That's all you need to know, if you're planning on seeing it, because like Up, part of the charm is letting the movie surprise you. And scare the poop out of you.
The long version, if you have no intention of seeing it, but want to read about it. SPOILERS, NATCH:
Christine is a loan officer at a bank in Los Angeles, trying to overcome her "off the farm" roots. If you've seen the trailer, you get the gist of her situation and perhaps don't feel a lot of sympathy for a girl who ruins an old woman's life to get ahead at work. But there's a little moe to it than that. She's in a classic subjugated female role in her job, stuck picking up lunch for her boss and a male co-worker with whom she's competing for a promotion. It's clear that the manager wants to give the promotion to someone aggressive, who's not afraid to trample a human being if it will help the bank. And however unlikeable Christine may be for wanting to get ahead so badly, you'd definitely rather see her get it than the asshat she's up against.
Enter Mrs. Ganush, an old woman on a fixed income who is about to lose her house. Christine wants to help her at first and goes to consult her manager, but he passes the buck straight back to her and hints rather broadly that forcing this woman out of her house is the kind of decision he's looking for in the person he's going to promote. So out Christine goes to tell this woman they can't help her, making it sound as if it's not her choice at all and that she's just doing what she's been told. Mrs. Ganush totally loses it, begging Christine on her knees, and eventually Christine calls security to escort her out. And there's a moment just before she reaches the door where her eyes flash, and you know two things: 1) Mrs. Ganush will beg no more, and 2) Christine is going to pay.
Christine leaves work that evening and goes to her car in the parking garage, but not before noticing Mrs. Ganush's faded yellow Oldsmobile (I don't think a Cutlass has ever been so scary, btw). She gets into her car, and of course, the old lady is waiting for her in the back seat. What follows is one of the more intense and awesome catfights you've ever seen, including the horrifying shot of the old lady's teeth falling out before she proceeds to gnaw Christine's face with her gums. WOW. And all of this culminates in Mrs. Ganush tearing a button off of Christine's coat, putting the curse of Lamia (what we're told is a HELLA SCARY demon) on it, and gives it back to her.
Christine is obviously shaken, but not as shaken as she's going to be. On the way home, she insists - against the better judgment of her caring but decidedly unsuperstitious boyfriend (played by Justin Long) - to have her fortune read. Boyfriend kinds of makes fun of the whole thing, but realizes that this is apparently important to her, so he pays for the reading himself in spite of his intellectual misgivings. The psychic gives her a rather vague, typical fortune at first, but eventually recognizes that Christine has an evil spirit upon her.
After many bizarre incidents, some (the nightmare where she sees the old lady in the bed next to her) perhaps a product of Christine's state of mind, others (being hoisted in the air and dragged around a room by an invisible attacker) clearly not, Christine seeks help from the psychic again, and he tells her she has the curse of the Lamia, which will torment her for three days before taking her to an eternal torment in hell. Unless she can stop it. Christine tries to make amends to Mrs. Ganush personally, but discovers that she has just died. The psychic then suggests an animal sacrifice, which Christine (a vegetarian and animal rights activist) is reluctant to perform but eventually does, but it doesn't help. His next suggestion is that she seek the help of a mystic whose life has been touched by this same spirit (which took a young boy 30-some years previously). The solution is costly ($10,000), but Christine's boyfriend is truly concerned about her and pays for it, though he is still skeptical.
The mystic holds a seance, which is supposed to summon the spirit, and the participants are going to try to send the spirit into a goat and slaughter the goat, thereby destroying the spirit. They manage to get the spirit into the goat - this is HYSTERICAL, by the way, and a much-needed relief from the tension of the scene - but something goes wrong. The mystic banishes the spirit and ends up dying. And after all that, Christine STILL hasn't escaped the curse. The mystic only banished the spirit from the seance, and it's still coming for Christine in 24 hours, unless she can give the curse to someone else by bestowing the button on them. Her ideas and attempts to pass the curse to other people are pretty (intentionally, I think) humorous, but she eventually figures out that she can pass the curse on to someone who is already dead. So guess who's getting some payback?
In a hilariously over-the-top scene, Christine digs up Mrs. Ganush's grave and shoves the envelope with the cursed button down her throat, bestowing the curse. There's a slight complication with Christine trying to get out of the grave, but she eventually does and her nightmare is over.
Or so she thinks. :)
She goes to the train station the next day for a relaxing getaway with her boyfriend, happy at last that all this is behind her, and he pulls something out of his pocket that she dropped in his car. The button. The envelope she took and gave to the dead Mrs. Ganush contained a rare quarter that she had given her boyfriend earlier in the film, and the coin was what she got rid of. Not the button and not the curse. Horrified, she steps backward, falling onto the train tracks, and just before the approaching train reaches her, the ground opens up and Christine fulfills the destiny she couldn't escape.
Absolutely heart-stopping and ultimately satisfying ending. Not satisfying as in she deserved what she got, though - not exactly. One thing I love about this movie is that there's not an easy answer like that. Does Christine really deserve to burn in hell for eternity for what she did to Mrs. Ganush? Isn't Mrs. Ganush kind of the bad guy? Those are questions worth thinking about, but they don't affect the outcome of the story. After everything that happens in the movie, there's no way from a storytelling standpoint to allow Christine to live.
I was worried about Raimi after Spider-Man 3, but it's great to see him return to his roots and remind us of how much awesome he can make.