Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Christine Brown’s (played by Alison Lohman) life seems to be headed in the right direction. She has a stable job as a loan officer at a bank and has a cozy home life with boyfriend Clay Dalton (Justin Long), who is himself beginning a new job as a professor at the local university. In addition, Christine is up for a promotion to an assistant manager position, with co-worker Stu Rubin (Reggie Lee) being the only obstacle.
Boss Mr. Jacks (David Paymer) tells Christine that Stu has a slight edge for the promotion even though Christine has been there longer. Christin just hasn’t demonstrated that she can make the tough decisions that the new job would require. This news makes Christine determined to prove that she’s up to the task.
She gets her chance when an old woman named Sylvia Ganush (Lorna Raver) comes into the bank. Mrs. Ganush is way behind on her mortgage payments (again), and has come to ask for an extension. Christine refuses, in an attempt to show Mr. Jacks that she deserves the promotion. Even after Mrs. Ganush goes down on her knees right in the middle of the bank to beg for leniency, Christine doesn’t give in.
Later, as she’s going home, Christine is attacked by a deranged Mrs. Ganush in the parking garage. They fight it out, with Christine coming out on top. Mrs. Ganush, however, does manage to put a curse on Christine.
For the next few days, Christine is bothered by weird happenings. She sees Mrs. Ganush in her dreams, bleeds profusely for no reason at all, and sees strange shadows in her home. Freaked out by it all, Christine tries to go to Mrs. Ganush’s house to make peace, but learns from the woman’s daughter that it’s too late. Mrs. Ganush has died.
The rest of the film then shows how Christine tries to get rid of Mrs. Ganush’s spirit and the curse once and for all, first with the help of Clay and then with the help of a fortune teller who may or may not be a scam artist.
My Reaction: I’m surprised that Drag Me to Hell has such a high rating (7.3 stars as of this writing) on IMDb.com. That rating duped me into seeing it, and I was completely disappointed with how the film turned out. This wasn’t horror so much as it was gross-out crap, and it wasn’t clever enough to be a comedy along the lines of the Scream franchise.
I can’t believe how many disgusting things went into Christine’s mouth during this film. WTF? I seriously just wanted to reach through the screen and clamp her jaws down. Is this the kind of thing that passes for “horror” these days? Give me a break.
The story lost momentum well before the halfway point, so by the time the Mexican lady from the beginning of the film was brought back in, I had already pretty much tuned out and didn’t care what was going on. All I can say is that I’m glad Christine got dragged to hell at the end. Good riddance to an annoying character.
Overall, Drag Me to Hell was a rather boring film with an unlikable lead, stupid setup, and poor execution. Even though the main character got what she deserved in the end, it was too little too late. I give this movie 2 stars out of 5.