Drag Me To Hell Or Goats Come From Hell

You choose. We sang in the car after the movie “Sheep go to heaven, goats go to hell” as we are wont to do because that’s how we roll.

Squirrel Queen and I took in Sam Raimi’s latest journey into the horror realm yesterday. I am a complete sucker for horror movies, but there is one thing about “Drag Me To Hell” that I wasn’t expecting.

It was the social horror aspect of it.

“Huh?” you might be thinking but let’s break it down.

Spoilers after the break.

Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is a loan officer in a bank. She’s worried about that she’s dating an uber rich guy named Clay who has just embarked on a career as a professor of psychology at the local college, she is vying for an assistant manager position and she’s told she has to toughen up. She just toughens up with the a gyspy woman who she pisses off with horrifying results.

But it’s the social mores of what Christine goes through that horrified me more than the gross out beauty of Raimi. Let’s reflect, shall we:

• She is a former farm girl in the big city that used to be fat. This is something that really bothers her as she gets upset seeing a picture of herself from her former life. We also find out her dad is dead and that her mom is an alcoholic. There are just snippets of these things, but it helps us understand her lack of confidence effectively.
• She is in love with a very rich dude who does love her. There is no doubt about that. But, as it always happens, there are mommy issues who wants to see her son with someone other than a “farm girl.”
• Misogyny central at her bank with a passive-aggressive weasel of a boss and a coworker who is also vying for the assistant manager’s slot and is a goat himself.
• Christine doesn’t deserve what she gets, but she is no angel either.

Raimi brings on the gore, mind you. The social aspects of loneliness and lack of confidence are just as horrifying because, we the viewer, understand those aspects. I’ve never had a gypsy (only complaint is the stereotyping of the Roma in this movie, but hell, it’s a movie) put a curse on me but that’s the fun, gross-out part. The fact that Christine made a choice to further her career and then deals with the ramifications of that decision is fun for this B-Movie outing.

Props must also go out to actor Dileep Rao who plays psychic Rahm. Man, where did they find this guy? He’s really good here and actually has more face time than Justin Long as Clay.

There are homages to the Evil Dead as well although I would have loved to have seen a cameo from Bruce Campbell. (Sam, come on! It was the first thing we said as we left the theater and that was “Where is Bruce?”)

Raimi is a smart one. One of my favorite horror movies that didn’t get the credit it deserved was The Gift from 2000 and he knows how to hit on social issues that never really become caricatures.

I have tried not to spoil to much of this but I will say I recommend it. With all of the lousy Japanese remakes this country has been doing lately, it was time for a bit of fun and real chills in a horror movie. And, always watch the Japanese original and avoid the Americanized versions in my book.

If you like horror films, I’d give this one high marks and it’s worth full price.