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Drag Me to Hell (2009)

Christine Brown, played by Alison Lohman, is a mild mannered loan officer who is struggling to rise through the ranks at the bank she works at with little success. When an old gypsy woman comes to the bank asking for an extension on her loan, Christine finds herself rejecting the extension in order to put herself in a better position for advancement. The old gypsy woman makes quite a scene, begging for Christine to help, but to no avail and she is soon thrown out of the bank by Security. Later that night the old gypsy woman returns to Christine and attacks her in an abandoned parking garage. The fight scene between them is rather prolonged and brutal and ends with Christine being cursed. She is met afterwards by her boyfriend Clay Dalton, played by Justin Long. As Christine and Clay are heading home she wants to stop by a random psychic for a reading and he agrees even though he does not believe in such things. Luckily the psychic is real and informs them of the curse that is placed upon her. After that she begins to have strange nightmares and visions. Clay thinks that she is just suffering from post-traumatic stress. He tries to comfort her as best he can but without much luck. She goes back to the psychic for help later and for the rest of the movie he tries to help her free herself from her Curse. Unfortunately it is not an easy road for her and her visitations from the evil spirit seeking her soul become more and more horrifying. She struggles on however, quickly becoming willing to do whatever it takes to rid herself of this curse.

This movie would seem to have it all. It obviously had a big budget. The acting was quite good, though nothing too extraordinary. Still, it came off as believable. The storyline wasn’t bad, but could have been filled out more. I wasn’t a huge fan of the special effects. They were fairly well done, but they came off to me as campy and would have fit better with a lower budget movie. They did more to gross me out most of the time than really add to the horror of the movie and at times they were just cheesy and I don’t think they were always meant to be. Still they got the job done and helped move the story along. I liked that the movie did have some actual action scenes, my favorite being the brawl between the sweet little banker and the old gypsy woman, but it wasn’t the only one and they helped to keep the movie fast paced as it moved along.

I wouldn’t say this is a must see movie. It was alright and I wasn’t disappointed by it, but it didn’t seem that original or interesting to me. So if you want to watch something for fun and be disgusted and maybe a tiny bit scared now and then, this could be on your list. I think I’d rather personally see what some more original concepts could be made with even a fraction of the budget though.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by Scott Schwarzwalder