The movie is entertainment and horror fun in it's purest form.
Terrible plot "twist" at the end ruined what was already a bad movie. Wouldn't recommend this to anyone.
A great return to form for Raimi. This movie has it all to get me going: dark as night, a twisted, goofy sense of humor, a great score and some damn effective jump scares. The premise may be silly as hell, but it's solid. It is one entertaining horror flick.
Judging from the other reviews, it goes to show how easy it is to miss an eating disorder... That's the true horror story of the film.
The clues were everywhere:
- her gazing at the cake shop,
- her half-eaten salad at her lunch break,
- her childhood photo from the "Pork Queen Fair" when she was overweight,
- Ganush's granddaughter remarking that she used to be fat,
- the multiple times that Ganush rips out her hair and vomits into her mouth,
- the sounds of buzzing flies/creaking doors/etc. everytime she felt her stomach growling,
- her disgust with the cake she made,
- her binging on the ice cream and the obvious lie she told her boyfriend about her being lactose intolerant,
- her drinking only coffee at the diner, before succumbing to binging on an ice cream again,
- her resisting the temptation of the "free cookie" and rewarding herself by buying a new coat.
The fact that her boyfriend wasn't the one who died but (in reality) her getting run over by the train, shows that it was all in her head as she was becoming more and more psychotic, either because of undernutrition or because of an underlying form of schizophrenia.
Selfish misogynistic infuriating characters. Incredibly dull acting and script. Mostly predictable jump scares with some good scenes but few and far between. Stereotypical nonsense. Unnecessary animal cruelty...I see no reason to even wish the main character gets out of her problem. Just really not a good film at all IMO. The end redeems the movie slightly but not enough to make the rest of it watchable. I'm not sure what movie the other reviewers watched but there was no comedy in this black or otherwise.
Quite a unique experience, it’s essentially elevated shlock.
There is some of that Evil Dead DNA in here, but it doesn’t feel like Raimi is just rethreading old ground.
I love the visceral directing, cinematography and editing, it’s very funny and the acting’s great across the board.
However, it does feel a little tonally confused to me; the goofy horror scenes don’t blend that well with the few scenes that want to be genuinly scary, mostly because the straight up horror scenes aren’t always perfectly executed.
The CGI is awful and there definitely should’ve been less of it, the subtext about class feels half baked and the characters could’ve been a little more fleshed out (especially the Rham character who feels more like a cultural stereotype), but it’s still fairly entertaining regardless.
6/10
Horror = Jump Scares!
And why not add some Racial Stereotypes?
If you are looking for a good horror film, look for another one, this is not it!!!
Yeah this one is definitely one of the guilty pleasure movies for me. Is it great? No. Would I recommend it? Probably not. But I'll be damned if it's not fun.
More supernatural mumbo jumbo. Throw in she's a gypsy so she must be evil with witchcraft. a button? really? critics must have been on drugs when they watched this.
Not much here. Easily forgettable.
I enjoyed the dark humor and the unique shots that are found in many Sam Raimi films. The plot itself was a bit dull at times and the ending was a touch predictable. The CGI was not great, I would have preferred more practical effects. Still I found it to be a pretty good film despite its flaws.
I'm not surprised at how visually pleasing this is coming from Horror director extrordinaire Sam Raimi. What is shocking is how...well shocking this is for PG-13 rated Horror. There are plenty of gross-out moments but not the gore or gratuitous violence that is so prevalent in today's Horror. Frankly I think the "torture porn" that is in fashion today keeps a lot of moviegoers away and something like "Drag Me To Hell" may bring many of them back. PG-13 doesn't stop this from being scary or suspenseful in fact it put me at ease knowing I could share a frightening flick with my family without having to expose them to a butchering. The characters are easy to relate to. They're relatively innocent and friendly people caught in the unfortunate position of having to do their job. And wow! The ending isn't fair at all. It's actually mean as Hell (pun intended).
Entertaining horror film but the end is disappointing. Since despite killing a cat ti try and lift a curse. She wasn’t that bad where she deserved to be cursed or dragged to hell.
Pardon me while I collect myself. I'd drafted a review in my head as I was watching this and the whole thing just got blown out of the water by the last 5 - 10 minutes. How I view watching this film won't be the same. I guess I should've expected something more than a mediocre cliche horror from the creator of Evil Dead but I'd rather have not been disappointed.
Don't get me wrong, this film was far from amazing to me. Just the end really, really redeemed itself. I could've guessed that there'd be a twist at the end but I genuinely believed the film was going so far one way that I lost all hope of something surprising me. And that's what made the surprise so good.
I urge anyone who's looking for something more in their horrors to persevere as the film really redeems itself.
The issue I had throughout the film was the lack of substance, meaning or message. I thought, 'oh, just another film about hell, possession and gross out moments.' But everything just seemed to tie together at the end. Where's the fun in good overcoming evil all the time, huh?
Plus, I read a few reviews before writing my own and was enlightened on the theme of bulimia and the hints in imagery that link to this. This gives the story that little bit of a deeper substance which I really appreciate.
I'm still in shock.
Watched again for Halloween and I never get tired of this film. Some parts are traditional horror film, some others pure comedy
Una propuesta interesante, sin embargo, la animación CGI es demasiado dura y rompe la ambientación haciendo la historia poco creíble a pesar del buen maquillaje. Sin embargo, es entretenida, y si se le considera de Serie B, es bastante buena.
Drag Me to Hell fails in every aspect of meaningful filmmaking. This film is truly terrible.
"I beg you and you shame me?!"
A very inconsistent tone, sometimes you just don't know if you're supposed to laugh or be scared. Although it's confusing and the transition between both doesn't always work, I have to say Drag Me To Hell excels in both separately; excellent over-the-top campy comedy that had me bursting with laughter and some actual tense scary moments with jumpscares.
Alison Lohman was great in the lead role, surprised it's the first time I see her. Justin Long isn't very present but he was good. Lorna Raver as Mrs. Ganush is my favorite, she's a scene stealer. It really excels in the memorable scenes department, the parking fight, funeral and goat scenes are peak. Lots of over-the-top gross stuff. The movie looks really good in general and nice camerawork. The CGI is bad quality, the Looney Tunes eyes scene completely took me out of it. Banger ending!
Where's the sequel?
Rated a Connor 5, normal 7
"Soon it will be you who comes begging to me!"
As a Raimi and Justin Long fan, I always look forward to rewatching this. It isn’t revolutionary or even that scary by any means, but it is fun and creative and I would say they are successful on their delivery. My main gripe is that I wish it was Rated-R!
Tries to recapture the Evil Dead movies, but with bad cg plugin effects instead of bad practical effects and bad unfunny dialogue instead of bad funny dialogue. You can excuse a movie as being "unserious" if it's enjoyable in some way, but this is just torture (and not in the good way).
I rank the film among the average moments, the film seemed to me more like a horror comedy, certain passages of the film were more of a laugh than to be afraid, but despite certain shortcomings, the film did not bore me.
The last half hour dragged a bit; you know what the "twist" is going to be but have to wait for the reveal in the last 30 seconds.
a ridiculous kind of horror movie. predictable ending but it's entertaining enough to make you laugh about those over the top gross and gory scenes.
3 minutes in, and I'm thinking: "Yes, I will let my future children watch the first 3 minutes of this movie to teach them a lesson...and that's why you don't steal kids, you'll go to hell." :joy::joy:
one of the first horror films I saw at the time, I was very afraid.
“Drag Me To Hell” maintains a very unique honorary status among genre fans, (which is an admittedly dubious one that is constrained by a few odd qualifiers), however it remains the only logical champion for a certain category; that of being the best American Horror film of its decade (2000-2009) with a PG-13 rating by the MPAA.
The first decade of the 21st century was one of the least inspired and quality-averse eras ever in the entire history of American Horror Cinema. The “aughts” as it’s colloquially labeled, was a terrible dry spell for most American movies despite the genre you turned to — dark times indeed. There were occasional moments of relief, (usually coming from reliable Titans like Nolan or Tarantino — as well as the indie filmmakers who are now considered as established creators like the Duplass Brothers or Rian Johnson etc.), but to chance upon a HORROR film worth watching once, much less countless times, that was made in the decade known as the aughts was quite the rare experience.
Now flash back to the middle to late year of 2009; I’m finishing up my final semester of my bachelors degree/college, and I see a trailer for some Horror movie that appears to give you the entire story in a 30 second TV commercial, and then quickly flashes that black credits screen to reveal what was pretty much a kiss of death to Horror movies back then (and if we’re honest, it still is), showing “RATED PG-13” next to the film’s release date...but just below that text is something else that makes your brain do a double take, as nothing is making sense at this moment. “WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY SAM RAIMI.” I recall trying to parse this information, as if the physical laws that define the universe were no longer immutable truths of existence. I raced to the computer. Indeed it wasn’t a mistake or text error. This new film by Raimi was to be rated PG-13, and the early critical response to its press screenings had been overwhelmingly positive. These people weren’t just giving it a favorable nod, they were rejoicing as if the existence of great American Horror movies was no longer on life support, but rather quite promising as the world prepared to enter the 2010s. A new era where we could maybe start to contribute once again to the cache of fantastic Horror films; indeed, the future wasn’t just mindless ripoffs of poorly executed found footage nonsense, nor was it of the torture-porn variety that American filmmakers had shamelessly oversaturated the whole genre as in the “Saw” franchise, (well technically James Wan did use the 2010s spamming the Horror genre with another sort of awful franchise “horror” movie but you get the picture...puninteded).
Drag Me To Hell isn’t good for a PG-13 rated movie. It’s a great movie that you wouldn’t question the rating of if you went in blind and knew nothing about it. (You’d probably guess the director half way through after the second or third scene where projectile vomited blood or maggots directed into the protagonist’s face doesn’t quickly cut away, but rather holds, focuses, or even pushes closer just to make sure you no longer have an appetite...something’s just never cease to be effecting on an audience, and Sam Raimi’s ability to make audiences squirm, shriek, laugh, and gasp all within a minute of footage has been one of his several charming signatures since the iconic Evil Dead/Evil Dead II classics.
"Did I get any in my mouth?!"
Over the top silliness, as expected of Sam Raimi's work. If you are a fan of intentionally bad horror movies, this is the one for you.
you know that one movie you heavily disagree with all the critics out there? this is drag me to hell for me. What a rubbish movie.
Characters are apparently supposed to be gimmicky, some say 'old-school'. Feels like a cheap excuse. They were simply dumb. And when does the comedy start? There's nothing funny in this movie (granted, I'm only 60 minutes in). I'm writing this review to keep me entertained I guess.
If this movie wasn't directed by Sam Raimi, it would be rated way worse given how often he's mentioned. But no one ever asked why this movie was Sam Raimi's second to last. (spoiler: cause it's trash)
This movie is absolutley horrible
What the fuck is this piece of shit
Well, I don't know what I should think about Sam Raimi's newest flick: it doesn't come close to "Evil Dead", but somehow it is intriguing despite its somewhat silly plot.
A throwback to Raimi's horror roots, for the most part this is a lot of fun. What Raimi does so well is balance the horror and comedy really well throughout the film, often in the same scene, leaving the audience jumping and laughing at the same time. The only slight misstep comes at a séance that teeters on absurdity and its reliance on effects leaves the audience laughing at the film rather than with it. The resolution to the film is also signposted much too early to anyone paying attention, making it much less effective that was probably intended. Still a lot of fun though.
Doesn't take itself too seriously and doesn't try to be anything other than what it is; Just a fun movie with some horror elements mixed in.
Not bad
Not that bad but not that good either.
In fact, you seem to never know what the movie wants to be or to show.
Shout by DeletedBlockedParent2011-09-30T11:20:35Z
It seems people who are expecting a serious horror are disappointed by this, but being a Raimi fan (Evil Dead), I knew to expect a black comedy in this too. If you watch it with that mindset, it's great fun and highly entertaining!!