Drag Me to Hell Review (5-30-09)

I was bored to tears with drag me to hell, the acting was horrid the cgi was pathetic and frankly it felt like the title was the discription of the feeling you get when watching this film. Now I agree with Spoony when he says horror as of late is a joke, theres not been a horror movie in a long time that I would find remotely scary.

I've enjoyed Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness. With that said, I was bored to tears by Drag Me to Hell. It might have been the dull story or it could have been the overload of CGI; it just didn't click as a Sam Raimi movie, to me. There may have been one moment that I found humorous, but it was a very boring movie. It was like a little boy trying to scare a little girl with a dead lizard on a stick.

FUCK YEAH
I loved Drag me to Hell
I was expecting another generic boring suspense movie.
Nothing like that, intense from the first second to the last one.

u never gave a review for Up. But on the subject of Drag Me To Hell, it sounds interesting but I'll wait to either rent it with some other movies in a cheap way (like a renting it for a couple bucks at a blockbuster or something) or checking it out from a library or something like that.

@96> Scream was more satire then true horror. It's hard to quantify a movie that is itself a comment on the genre. The Ring was ok, but no different that the other 500 billion Hong Kong or Japanese horror flicks.

This is the only American horror movie in the past decade that I liked. In fact I actually love this movie! Torture Porn horror is really just stupid and are made for sadists. Remakes are just really stupid. I absolutely hate the Ring, Asian and American. Scream was meh.

I went to see it with my girlfriend, it´s written pretty good, I have to admit, but the jumps scares every other minute became rather annoying then enduring in the end. Good movie though.

But Spoony, wasn't Sam Raimi the guy who made Evil Dead 2 in the first place?

His movies are no where near as good as Scream or The Ring, if you ask me.

Good review!

BTW, not to Bitch about a topic, but, are you doing an UP review?
It's been like a month. I know it's awesome, but I would just like to know your opinion on it.

Ok, saw it and was pleasantly surprised. I only had a few minor hang-ups with it, the rest was thoroughly enjoyable. I do, however, have to chime in and say that my biggest hang-up was the ending. Yeah, I know. I just don't like total bummers for endings. Partial bummers, ok. Total bummers, no way. To paraphrase Spoony's comments about human on human horror, we have enough bummer endings in real life. When I fantasize I don't like seeing evil triumph utterly. I give it 3.5 out of 5...would have been a solid 4 but for the ending.

PUMA MAN!
Kick ass shirt Spoony.
That is all.

@tonara: agreed, and didn't help that the ending was too damn predictable and of no surprise.

Responding to post #93.

Well aren't you just an intellectual superior? Get over yourself, you're not that smart.

I cant agree with you at all on this one and i 99% of the time do. I'm not a man of very many words but i thought this movie was horribly not scary and not entertaining maybe i went to the theater in the mindset of thinking it would be frightening but they only used jump tactics and gross outs and that's not anything to commend someone i was too busy laughing at failed attempts to scare to enjoy this one.

THX SPOONY! i saw your review and decided to go see DMtH (i live in sweden so today was the premier) and i just came back from the theater with a smile on my face! this was my best movie experience since... i cant remember when... im so happy i saw your review else i would have guessed it was another crapadelic waste of time movie spitted out of some money making blockbuster production. and i should also thank you for making me not go see TSalvation. the Raimi's are the coolest alive!

Spoony's world hes the man!

Did anyone else think PHANTASMAGORIA at that punch to Christine's face?

I saw it today...absolutely AWESOME movie. I actually came close to yelling out at one point. The garage scene to me was absolutely terrifying.

Ending should have been the Mac guy at a Wal-Mart looking place saying "I heard you were the guy to see with stuff like this". And then Bruce Campbell turns around and asks, "You got a cabin in the woods?".

Drag me out of Hell

Oh my god Noah. I cannot possibly agree with you more. Hit the nail on the head my friend. As a seasoned veteran of horror films, not to mention working as a monster in a local (and popular) haunted house for 6 years, I am not easy to catch off guard. I am pleased as punch with this work and (cue the ass-kissing) everything you do for us your adoring public. And it is appreciated.

After years and years of disappointment after disappointment in the horror genre, Raimi comes back and deals this knockout uppercut of a film. This is right up there with the Evil Dead series, no questions asked. He delivers everything you want in this one. Cinematic f**king cocaine!! It's so refreshing to feel like you're coming away for a car crash, again, without having to actually be in the SOB.

And if Sirabhorn didn't like the actress- no worries, no happy endings.

NO QUITTING FOR YOU, YOUNG MAN!!! There is still hope!!!

Okay... I'm going to get the fire for this. But Spoony, I was a bit underwhelmed by this movie because of your review. Overall, I thought the movie was good and fun, but I didn't think it was near amazing or one of the best movies I've seen in a long time (and for a side note, I love the Evil Dead series). I mean, I wasn't scared at all (that just may be me though), and the main actress's acting was kind of annoying to me. It was fun, but like I said, I was underwhelmed. Unfortunately I don't think this movie will last in my memory like a movie such as "Evil Dead' did.

The way you described 'Drag Me to Hell' was how I was after watching 'Brain Dead'. Fun and gross and even scary at points. You're absolutely right to say that people go to horror films mostly because they LIKE to get scared and have fun with it. I can't think of one person that would have fun with the crap that is out now. The only 'SAW' movie I liked was the first one, and that thing is honestly barely rated R. If it didn't have the 3 seconds of guts, and a few less curse words, it would be a PG-13 thriller, and for that it is an awesome movie. Every SAW movie since in my opinion has been garbage, losing everything that made the original good.

I do take your reviews seriously, and have agreed with you almost consistently on new movies, so I will go see Drag Me to Hell despite my distaste for the shitty title.

Wow, Spoony; you've done it again. I originally wasn't planning on seeing DMtH, period. I mean, yeah, hearing Sam Raimi was at the reins certainly piqued my interest a bit, but I wasn't going to cut it a break. And then I saw this single video of yours and went out that same Saturday night to go see it with 3 friends of mine and we had an amazingly good time. I'm pretty sure everybody in our theatre walked out of that movie completely satisfied.

You're a good man, sir.

I thought your review was insightfull as always and I totally agree with you on all but one thing. the ending sucked a big one, it was the standard evil wins and no matter how much the main chararcter tries to change it. I hate watching horror flicks now a days because you know the ending is going to be the same regardless, i already knew the ending basically going into the movie. I did enjoy it as i enjoy all of Sam Raimi's films but i was hoping fo a better ending. It was over all a very good scary movie with what I thought to be an actually a great story and idea, plus the way it was presented was over all very enjoyable. Oh well I guess nothing can be perfect but this movie was close to it.

I agree that the Saw series has gone on waaaaay to long as well and I find the entire concept really bad in this manner.

This old guy, this cancer victim, claims he wants people to enjoy life by giving them the same thing he had to do which was pull himself out of a burning car..... the PROBLEM with that idea is that he is so obviously NOT actually a believer in that philosophy since he sets up these frustrating and all but unwinable situations, he pulled himself out of a car, what he does to others is make them pull themselves out of a car and die because they did that when in fact they would have lived if they HADN'T gotten out of the car OR he makes it so that car was on a sinking boat which the only way to get off of was to use raft on deck... which has holes in it so it sinks. He doesn't care about people enjoying life, he just wants to see people squirm, regardless of what he claims is his true motive.

But now I'm ranting, anyway, movies need a balance, they need to have effort in them but not so much thought put into it that it becomes incomprehensible. One of my favorites is the movie Tremors, a perfect movie, made me scared to walk on dirt for years.

i took your recomendation spoony....and i TOTALY agree with you. i can see where some people were disappointed with the ending but i enjoy ending like that im against this whole cliche "happy ever after" i liked that i didnt think what happend would happen i mean i predicted what she did (with the envolopes i told my friend in the theater that as soon as it happened) but i still expected a diffrent ending from what i got. i though the movie was amazing. and i have to admit the main character i think is gorgeous and the grave scene only furthered my opinon just becuz she was being so badass and hardcore about it. i love like what you said that great ballance of slapstick and horror that jump and then laugh mixure just gives me a diffrent sence then u get from most movies.
thanks for the recomendation spoony i loved it im buying it the day it comes to dvd and i fully trust your opinion from now on (not that i didnt before rly but now i double trust you....if that makes any sence at all lol)

. . . ok . . . I'll go see it, even though I promised myself I'd avoid PG-13 horror because it's almost uniformly terrible . . . but if it blows ass, and I break my promise for nothing, I will be forced to unleash my undead hordes upon you . . . just so we're clear on that.

Indeed it might have been more ciche to end with a happy ending, but at least I would not have left the thearter disapointed. Its the same type of feeling I get after watching an entirely pointless movie, example would be The Perfect Storm. And I didnt want to feel that way about this move, because I really liked it. Also, there was no mulling over what might happen, after she picked up the envelope in the car, I told my friend next to me in the thearter exactly how the movie would end. Or to be more accurate, exactly what I told him was, "Wrong envelope."

Now if a happy ending would put a bad taste in your mouth, Jaclyn's idea for a better ending would also have been acceptible. I mostly just didnt want to happen, what I had predicted to happen. I just wanted something different. To me it felt like they tried hard to do well with this movie, and then just gave up at the end.

I guess the moral of the movie is, keep a check on exactly where your cursed items are. She was unfortunitly due to the script, doomed.

Good review. I normally get distracted, when you talk, but that was great. I think there was something else, but ... hell, fuck it.

Besides, typically when people are watching a movie they have multiple possible endings in the back of their mind during the movie. If the actual ending is similar to any of the half-dozen other endings they were mulling over in their head during the film, they will instantly say "yeah, I knew that was going to happen"

Honestly if she survived people would be saying, "I knew she would get rid of the curse" Of course you guys did.

A better ending would be: The boyfriend at the end, takes out the envelope and say “Oh yea, because of the coin you gave me, I finished my coin collection.” And the movie would end, suprising the audiance that it didnt end the way we all expected. . (P.S. If anyone agrees with me, let me know)

I disagree. Horror endings where you think something scary will happen preceding the credits roll, yet it ends up being harmless, have been done to death as well, and never in a movie I enjoyed. (The Ring 2 comes to mind)

Honestly, despite the fact that the trailer completely gave away the ending, which I'm sure was on the back of everyone's mind, I honestly thought she would survive in a way not revealed by the advertising. I mean, Raimi spent so much time trying to make the audience sympathetic to her plight, giving her blow after blow, that it would have been even more of a cliche to end on a happy note (typically downer movies have a bittersweet ending nowadays) Your right, the ending was a cliche, but I can't think of any other way to end it without it being typical.