Drag Me
to Hell is a 2009 American horror film co-written and directed by Sam Raimi. The plot, written with his
brother Ivan, focuses on loan officer
Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), who reluctantly, under orders
from her boss, must refuse to extend a loan to a gypsy woman by the name of
Mrs. Ganush (Lorna
Raver).
In retaliation, Ganush places a curse on Christine that, after three
days of escalating torment, will plunge her into the depths of Hell to burn for eternity. The film
also stars Justin Long as Christine's boyfriend.
Raimi wrote Drag
Me to Hell with his
brother, Ivan, prior to working on the Spider-Man films. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was released to wide critical
acclaim. It was also a box office success, making $90.8 million worldwide on a
$30 million budget. And after strong DVD sales of $13.9 million in its
first year, its total was accumulated more than $104 million.Drag Me to Hell won the award for Best Horror Film at the 2009 Scream Awards and the 2010 Saturn Awards.
SINOPSIS
In
1969 in Pasadena, California, a couple seeks the
aid of the medium Shaun San Dena (Flor de Maria Chahua)
saying their son (Shiloh Selassie) has been hearing evil spirits' voices after
stealing a silver necklace from gypsies. San Dena aids the family by carrying
out a seance, but they are
attacked by an unseen force that pulls the boy into Hell. The medium says she
will encounter the force again one day.
In
present day Los
Angeles, bank loan officer Christine Brown (Alison
Lohman) hopes to be promoted to assistant manager over her co-worker Stu
Rubin (Reggie Lee). Her boss, Jim Jacks (David
Paymer), advises her to demonstrate that she can make tough decisions to
get a promotion. Christine is visited by an elderly woman, Sylvia Ganush (Lorna
Raver), who asks for an extension on her mortgage payment. Christine,
though empathetic with the old woman's crisis, decides to deny Ganush an extension
to prove herself to her boss. Ganush begs Christine not to repossess her house
and kneels in front of her, but Christine gets scared from the woman's bizarre
pleading as she is helping her to stand up and calls the security, who take
Ganush away while Ganush blames Christine for "shaming" her. Jim
compliments Christine on how she handled the situation.
When
the working day is over and Christine goes to the bank parking garage to head
home, Ganush attacks Christine in her car, rips a button off Christine's coat
and uses it to place a curse on her as revenge. Later, Christine
and her boyfriend Clay Dalton (Justin
Long) meet the fortune
teller Rham Jas (Dileep
Rao) who, after seeing multiple demonic faces, tells Christine that she is
being haunted by an evil spirit. At her home, Christine is attacked by the
spirit and has nightmares about Ganush. At work the next day, Christine snaps
at Stu and has a projectile nose bleed that soaks her boss in blood. She runs
away and Stu is seen secretly taking a file off Christine's desk.
Christine
then goes to talk to Ganush at her soon-to-be-taken home, only to find that she
died the previous night and awake is being held. Christine returns to
Rham Jas, who explains that as long as Christine is the owner of an accursed
object (her button), she will be haunted by a powerful demon called the Lamia
(not to be confused with the Greek child-eating demon) that
will torment her for three days before taking her to Hell. He suggests a
sacrifice to appease the demon. The next day, the Lamia returns and thrashes
Christine in her bedroom. Desperate to stop the attacks, Christine sacrifices
her pet kitten, an act that leaves her heart-broken. At a dinner party with
Clay and his parents, she is again tormented by the Lamia, but this time
through the use of illusions, which frightens the Daltons.
Christine
returns to Rham Jas for further help. He says that Shaun San Dena (Adriana
Barraza) will risk her life to stop the demon for a fee of $10,000. Further
supernatural attacks on Christine lead Clay to pay the fee. San Dena prepares aseance to trap the Lamia's spirit in a goat
and kill it to vanquish the spirit. San Dena allows the Lamia to inhabit her
body. Rham Jas tries to persuade it not to steal Christine's soul, but it refuses
and vows never to stop until Christine dies. Christine then places San Dena's
hand on the goat, causing the spirit to enter its body. San Dena's assistant,
Milos, attempts to kill the goat, but is instead bitten by the goat and in turn
becomes possessed, attacking the members of the seance. San Dena banishes the
Lamia from the seance, but dies in the process. Christine thinks the medium has
overcome the Lamia, but Rham Jas explains that she only managed to drive the
spirit away until the next day, when it will come back for Christine. Then he
seals the cursed button in an envelope and tells Christine that before the next
day comes, she can get rid of the curse by giving the button to someone as a
gift, thereby passing the curse on to that person.
After
being driven home by Clay, who doesn't know what actually happened at the
seance, Christine attempts to find a recipient for the curse. She decides to
give the envelope to Stu in revenge for his stealing her work, but changes her
mind after seeing how pathetic, tearful and panicky Stu is when he meets her.
With guidance from Rham Jas, Christine learns that she can give it to Ganush
even though she is dead because "the soul never dies". Christine
drives to the cemetery where she is buried and digs up her grave. In a
torrential downpour, Christine jams the envelope in Ganush's mouth in anger and
gets out of the grave just in time before dawn.
Christine
then returns home. Preparing to meet Clay at Los Angeles Union Station from where they plan to depart for a
weekend in Santa Barbara, she gets a phone message
from her boss telling her that she landed her dream position after Stu
confessed to stealing her work and was fired. At the station, Christine also
buys a coat that she has been eyeing for a long time, as a sign of a new
beginning. Clay, planning to propose, reveals to Christine that he found the
envelope containing the cursed button in his car. Christine then realizes she
mixed up her envelope with another that she gave to Clay when she accidentally
dropped it. Horrified, Christine backs away and falls onto the tracks. As a
train barrels towards her, fiery hands burst from the ground under the tracks.
Clay can only watch in horror as Christine is dragged screaming down into Hell,
and is left holding Christine's cursed button.
AKTOR / AKTRIS FAVORIT
Dalam film ini, aktor atau aktris
favorit saya adalah pemeran utama yaitu Alison Lohman yang berperan sebagai
wanita yang terkena kutukan, Christine Brown. Wanita berparas cantik ini, dapat
memainkan perannya dengan baik yaitu sebagai wanita yang terkena kutukan. Aksi
puncaknya yaitu pada saat Alison Lohman sebagai Christine Brown memberikan
amplop yang dia anggap berisi kancing jaketnya kepada mayat Mrs. Ganush di
makamnya. Pada saat itu Alison benar-benar mampu memainkan perannya sehingga
dapat membuat penonton merasakan apa yang terjadi pada saat itu.
