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Drag Me to Hell Our rating: Your rating:   MPAA rating: PG-13 (for sequences of horror violence, terror, disturbing images and language) Genre: Horror Theater release: May 29, 2009 Directed by: Sam Raimi Runtime: 1 hour 39 minutes Cast: Alison Lohman (Christine Brown), Justin Long (Clay Dalton), Lorna Raver (Mrs. Ganush), David Paymer (Mr. Jacks), Reggie Lee (Stu Rubin) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Drag Me to Hell is not the movie to satisfy the kids with while they eagerly await director Sam Raimi's next Spider-Man installment. It's creepy and gory, not to mention theologically suspect, and will give all but the most stalwart horror fans an unshakable case of the screaming meemees. However, for those who enjoy a straight up genre thrill ride, Drag Me to Hell offers a satisfying experience and poses some intriguing questions.

A disarmingly pretty Alison Lohman (White Oleander) plays Christine Brown, a loan officer in a branch office of a small bank who dreams of being promoted to assistant manager. Her boyfriend Clay (Justin Long) comes from a wealthy family who'd prefer it if Clay could find a girlfriend with more ambition and more social connections. 

Alison Lohman as Christine Brown

Christine's chief competition is misogynist Stu Rubin (Reggie Lee), a slimeball with no discernable code of ethics. Branch manager Mr. Jacks (David Paymer) lets Christine know that her Midwestern, corn-fed sincerity isn't going to get her anywhere: "Make the tough decisions." When Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) hobbles into the bank to ask Christine for yet another extension on her mortgage so she can keep her home, Christine steels herself and makes the judgment call that will win that promotion. She says no.

Unfortunately for Christine, Mrs. Ganush knows a little something about revenge. In a superbly edited fight sequence in a parking garage, Mrs. Ganush attacks. Christine fights back bravely, thanks to the stapler she conveniently brought home from work, but Mrs. Ganush is too strong and too mad. She seizes one of the buttons from Christine's tatty coat, and invokes an ancient curse.

When the furniture starts flying and the scary voices fill Christine's head, she heads to a psychic who confirms the worst. Mrs. Ganush called upon the Lamia, a soul-snatcher who torments a person for three days before—you guessed it—dragging them straight to hell for an eternity of suffering. Christine's only hope is to defeat the Lamia and break the curse.

Justin Long as Clay Dalton

What follows is a rollercoaster ride of shocks, scares, grossouts, and full-on action. Drag Me to Hell delivers on its title as a relentless, nonstop, inescapable journey into darkness.  It's truly heart-stopping at times, and plays the thrills completely straight. There's no postmodern revisionism or torture porn at work here. Drag Me to Hell is a straight-up B-movie horror film made by a director working at the top of his game.

Lohman plays Christine as an innocent, a goodhearted former fat girl who just wants the nice life she believes she deserves. Sure, she feels bad that Mrs. Ganush lost her home, but it's not like it was Christine's fault. She could've given Mrs. Ganush one more extension, but she didn't have to. Who wouldn't root for the young, pretty lass with everything ahead of her over the toothless, slobbering, foul mannered crone?

It's in this complicated moral schema that Raimi shows his true artistry. In between directing the classically campy Evil Dead movies and the mainstream juggernaut Spider-Man franchise films, Raimi made a little film called A Simple Plan, based upon a bestselling novel by Scott Smith. A Simple Plan starred Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton as brothers who discovered a stash of cash in a crashed plan out in the middle of nowhere. They choose to keep the money, unleashing a downward spiral of moral depravity that tears them all apart from the inside out. It's a powerful study of the way that sin begets sin, of how one act of rebellion can destroy a person's soul.

Lorna Raver as Mrs. Ganush. Yuck.

Drag Me to Hell trods similar moral ground. Its genre trappings hide an effective morality play that implicates all of us who believe that we're "good enough" to earn salvation on our own. Christine never repents of her decision to sell out Mrs. Ganush for career advancement. Underneath all that prettiness lies an ugly heart, just waiting for the opportunity to prove John Calvin's first point: that all men have within them a core of total depravity.

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