Review: Drag Me To Hell

source: IMP Awards

*warning: possible spoilers*

As my mother had two movie passes to use and had always been interested in a good fright, I decided to take her to see Drag Me to Hell last night. My mother regretted wasting the two hours on such a "stupid" movie, when she could have been doing something more beneficial (like praying) instead. I thought it was a good lesson for her--it should discourage her from watching horror movies in the future.

Up to now I had not seen a Sam Raimi horror(-comedy) movie all the way through. I've seen short bits of Army of Darkness, but neither of the previous Evil Dead movies. (I've seen only the first two Spiderman movies.) Alison Lohman was fine as Christine; she replaced replaced Ellen Page. I haven't seen Juno, so I can't say I agree that Page would have given a better performance. Justin Long plays the boyfriend Clay... I remember him being rather annoying in Live Free or Die Hard, and it was hard to shake that impression while watching the movie.

There were parts that were funny and gross. But I would have to agree with my mother's assessment--I probably would not have watched the film on my own.

Christine is a loan officer at a bank who is approached one day by a gypsy woman asking for an extension on her mortgage payment. The gypsy woman has been ill and unable to work. Christine, feeling the need to show the manager of the bank that she can be tough in order to secure a promotion to assistant manager, decides to reject the petition. The gypsy woman goes on her knees and begs, but Christine calls the security guards to remove her from the bank. The gypsy woman, perceiving that she has been shamed by Christine, later returns to put a curse on her. That night Christine begins to be stalked by a demon. She later finds out from a seer/fortune teller that the demon will drag her down to hell in three days.

Christine is mostly a sympathetic character. She has been a pushover and has a self-esteem problem (when she was young she was fat), and is determined to advance in her career so as to impress the parents of her boyfriend Clay and show that she is a suitable match for him. (She overhears his mother complaining that her son should be marrying a more ambitious woman with a better career, able to socialize and introduce her son to important people.) Despite the "tough" decisions that she feels she has to make, underneath she wants to be the "nice" girl who doesn't offend or harm others.

She is presented with a possible solution at the last-minute, but must wrestle with her conscience since it involves committing evil (something more reprehensible than the sacrifice of the cat that she does right after she realizes that she has been cursed and is being stalked by the demon). Her behavior when she figures out what is to be done is understandable, but a reminder of the impact of "girl power" feminism (women can be equally aggressive and physical as men without losing their femininity) on female characters.

My problems with the movie are not with the characters or with Christine's struggle to escape the curse, but with the depiction of evil and the "supernatural." I don't derive any pleasure from being frightened. Horror movies tend to feed irrational fears based on the exaggeration of evil, and I do not think this is a good thing, especially for impressionable imaginations. The use of magic and the occult and the false distinction between "good" and "bad" magic are morally problematic as well. Some may say that as long as one does not take this seriously, it is ok and can be entertaining, but I find it repulsive to the intellect, and cannot suspend my judgment just to try to enjoy a movie. Art is subordinate to the truth. (How does it differ from fantasy, like LOTR? My shot at an explanation -- LOTR is supposed to be an alternate world/universe -- but horror movies are generally conceived as something possible for this world -- no one fears what cannot happen in real life. But one needs to be persuaded that the evils depicted in a horror movie could be real, in order for the horror movie to be work and inspire fear.)

Do such movies reinforce the beliefs and superstitions of our poorly educated people concerning the universe and the moral order? Hell is frightening, but depicted inaccurately -- the demons will be feasting on the soul of victims? According to the movie, it is not a punishment that we deserve by preferring ourselves to God. Rather it is the private dominion of the demons, and it seems that God has no control over what they do or whom they drag down. God is actually quite absent in this movie, though there is one mention of Him, when a character says "Thank God." But the medium who is asked by the seer to help Christine does not invoke God (as far as I can tell), but some benign spirit. Christine could have given an extension to the gypsy woman on her mortgage payments -- but does her lack of mercy deserve this, being sent to hell?

The ending was not very satisfying, even though it tried to be a twist. I thought it was predictable nonetheless, if you were paying attention to certain details in the movie.

I don't think the story qualifies as a tragedy; rather, one's fate is something that is out of one's control. The ending certainly does not respect the notion of desert, which I believe to be a part of traditional tragedy...

I still haven't finished that post on horror movies... I have a little bit more to say about them.

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