Anticipate Drag Me To Hell. Seriously.

If you have any fondness for old school Sam Raimi, SEE THIS MOVIE

You know who's getting dragged to hell? Whoever gave this movie a PG-13. Apparently you can have whatever you want fly in and out of people's mouths (limbs, animals, bodily fluids, in as copious an amount as you desire) as long as it's not genital-related.

Really wanna see this as I love the old school Raimi horror. I might wait for DVD though, seeing horror films in the theater is the worst. I nearly fall out of my seat and embarrass myself at all that dead-quite-to-LOUD-BOO-JUMP-SCARE shit.

it's possible the theater had the sound jacked up to eleven but this was non-stop LOUD-BOO-JUMP-SCARE

This is going to fucking rule.

yeah the trailer really grabbed me, before i even realized who directed it, really looking forward to it.

When i saw the trailer it was like "from the director of spiderman" and the gears in my head had to do some work

i have to see this! sam raimi is back! with hell! and the mortgage crisis! yeah!

seeing it tomorrow!

trailer not enticing me... crzy fang ppl looked cool but the premise of "you are cursed because you did not refi my house" was um uh

whiney have you not seen the evil dead

If it's any encouragement to see it, the trailer totally underwhelmed me as well. And the gypsy does come off like a total dick - she doesn't want to move to assisted living or "burden" her relatives so it's "ignore my debts or burn in hell." But if you can forgive the message "gypsies are some entitled motherfuckers" SEE IT.

Curious if Eugene Hutz will protest now that I think about it

I'll go see anything Raimi does (even that baseball movie), but I was surprised at how "Thinner" the trailer looked.
The reviews, though - like, a bunch of crazy 4 star raves - are interesting. Apparently the lead role was initially supposed to be played by Juno, but she dropped out (which is okay by me). I'm anticipate-y.

ha, "Thinner" was the comparison point that leapt up for me, too

so into this but:

And the gypsy does come off like a total dick - she doesn't want to move to assisted living or "burden" her relatives so it's "ignore my debts or burn in hell."

yah even from the previews this seems a little much like really? your going to damn some1 for all eternity because they wouldnt forgive u not paying them back the money they lent u? then i had this image of the old witch doing this all the time on some shit like @ the grocery store: "i'm sorry miss its only the medium sized frozen pizzas that are 2 for 1 this week, the large size is still regular price" "just as u have denied savings on this delicious meat lovers pizza i will deny u salvation in the afterlife!"

i am glad to hear that this is good, because i am a huge (old school stuff) raimi fan and i could not tell if this would be great or awful

i hope it's funny. the trailer makes it seem like it's going for that j-horror thing but that's probably just trailer bullshit.

But if you can forgive the message "gypsies are some entitled motherfuckers"

Not sure I can. That's some below the belt shit right there.

I want Lamp to direct a sequel to this that follows the gypsy around as she curses everyone who inconveniences her.

Persuade Me to Heck

totally might see it again this weekend

I want Lamp to direct a sequel to this that follows the gypsy around as she curses everyone who inconveniences her.

film to be titled "every old person ever"

aka drag grandpa to the mall

my confidence in this movie was seriously shaken when i looked at the cast list and saw the words "Justin Long as Professor Clay Dalton"

Justin Long is actually a professor irl.

confidence irl shaken

sorry i was lying :(

be confident again irl

confident irl once more, confidence in jim shaken

Apparently the lead role was initially supposed to be played by Juno, but she dropped out.

Thank God. Maybe it's just been the roles I've seen her in, but least likable actress ever.

And lol at Professor Justin Long.

When i saw the trailer it was like "from the director of spiderman" and the gears in my head had to do some work

― steve iirckel (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, May 26, 2009 11:24 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

whiney have you not seen the evil dead

― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Wednesday, May 27, 2009 1:32 AM (14 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the point of my post was that I know Raimi FOREMOST as the director of The Evil Dead, and when I heard "from the director of Spiderman" I had to work backwards to get excited, as opposed to if they just said "from the director of Evil Dead"

The ads I've seen mention both Spiderman and Evil Dead.

Oddly no mention of For Love of the Game.

ok phew

xp to whiney

How did I not know about this? I love Sam Raimi so much. May have to see it this weekend now. Excited!

From Director Sam Raimi, who made you love baseball again

Yep, I can confirm this was a lot of fun.

TOTALLY psyched for this, moreso, even, than I am for Up (which is saying a lot).

this movie was *awesome*

great old-fashioned horror thrill ride in an old universal movie/EC comics style. kind of reminded me of what lies beneath in that way too... super fun throwback w/o being too kitschy about it

Seeing tomorrow night - I think. Can't wait.

it is kinda racist

anyway the gypsy lady isn't ENTITLED, she doesn't want to lose her house, but the real reason she curses her is for reducing her to begging and shaming her in front of everyone. she's not like a ny times writer type.

kind of reminded me of what lies beneath in that way too...

good to know it's reminiscent of one of the worst movies ever made

more troubling than the racism tbh

sorry dude

I don't know what's wrong with me, I'm totally on the rag today

haha I am really tempted to change the thread title to "'Go see this awesome racist movie!': The 'Drag Me To Hell' Thread"

(I won't)

it could be like pt2 of the iron man thread

"Go see this awesome racist movie!: The Crank 2 thread"

anyway the gypsy lady isn't ENTITLED, she doesn't want to lose her house, but the real reason she curses her is for reducing her to begging and shaming her in front of everyone. she's not like a ny times writer type.

But she didn't reduce her to begging! Lohman said she couldn't help (which as far as the gypsy lady knew was true) and mentioned that the woman might want to consider assisted living or contacting relatives, both of which were apparently more unpleasant to the woman than getting on her knees.

Completely agree with Tuomas on this one.

"choke on it, bitch!" may be my favorite movie moment of '09. (the ending of crank 2 may trump, however.)

i understand people lamenting that it's not as good as evil dead -- but i mean, c'mon -- but people expecting it to be all NEXT LEVEL IN TERROR are gonna invariably be disappointed. (then again my fave horror movies this decade have more or less all been gross-out comedies at heart, so grain of salt.)

people don't want to believe horror movies are wildly different

i got in a screaming match with my friend because i was defending the whole Saw/Hostel thing and he was like "That's not scary. Rosemary's Baby, that's a horror movie." It's really comparing Airplane with Annie Hall

no one ever EVER believes me about hostel

^seriously misunderstood movie. sequel's even better imo.

yeah, both hostels are great, first one feels like one of those genre paradigm shifting flicks, like night of the living dead, texas chainsaw massacre, nightmare on elm st, blair witch project etc

ya i was impressed that the sequel seemed like a conscious effort to be better than the first rather than a knock-off

haha. i've been defending Hostel to friends since it came out. i'm glad i'm not alone in thinking it's misunderstood. still haven't seen the second one though.

Drag Me to Hell was a lot of fun. i thoroughly enjoyed it. i wish they would've at least tried to be clever with the button/coin switch. it woulda been nice for that whole shit storm at the end to have been an actual surprise.

ya but the fact that you see it coming before she does is kind of awesome too

I thought I'd hate "Hostel," but didn't, and the second one was so OTT silly/perverse I sort of loved it. I mean, he's so clearly having a twisted laugh (unlike, say, stuff like "Wolf Creek" or whatever).

I'd be curious if the few folks here that didn't really like "Drag Me to Hell" saw it in a theater or at home. Because I can't imagine it being half as effective in a living room.

Oh, x-posting still, there's no way I can defend the "Saw" movies, because they're made/look/acted like shit. Booby trap horror was done better in "Cube," and even that was pretty shoddy/shitty.

i like Cabin Fever and a lot of gorey new school horror, but Hostel just seemed kinda lame and almost boring to me.

It was great because it was so lame and boring. Like, here we go. The end.

"Cabin Fever" was much better on paper. And neither is as good as Roth's "Thanksgiving" short.

Raimi gave me what I wanted. Thank you Sam Raimi. Took you long enough!

Somehow I missed this when it was in the theaters, but it was the perfect Monday night/stay-at-home movie.

I'd be curious if the few folks here that didn't really like "Drag Me to Hell" saw it in a theater or at home. Because I can't imagine it being half as effective in a living room.

Watched on laptop (but through relatively high-end speakers) and not only did I jump in places but legitimately coughed beer during the seance/goat scene.

This was a nice movie, but the end twist was sooo predictable. When she drops that envelope, you know what's going to happen later on.

Oh, looks like I made the same comment 2 years ago.

In my opinion predictability, or inescapability, is sort of the point.

Inescapability of the curse and predictibality of the plot are not the same thing! The writers could have come up with some less obvious-to-the-viewers way of making sure the main character never got rid of the curse, so the twist in the end would've been a true surprise, but it still would've meant she couldn't really escape her fate.

Somebody said upthread the pleasure for the audience is in knowing she's doomed, same sort of idea as Hitchcock saying there's no suspense unless the audience knows more than character. The movie wasn't about suspense so I didn't feel the need for anything as tawdry as a twist at the end.

didn't love the film, but wasn't at all bothered by the transparency of the plot mechanics.

kept expecting there to be some "twist" around the girl's past (she used to be fat, live on a farm, have a thick southern accent - all of which are alluded to but for apparently no particular reason?)

Just there to make you feel more sympathy for her.

Finally saw this tonight. Loved it. You get the idea that this will be a classic Raimi/EC Comics jaunt just from the opening titles alone.

This and ED2 rely SO MUCH upon proper sound design.

saw this again recetnly. held up. good times.

I loved this when I saw it but the 3 other people I watched it with HATED it. I felt like we'd watched different movies.

oh man I should watch this again

So great.

DESTROY the optional DVD cut that adds horrible digital gore, though.

I dunno, I think maybe DRAG ME TO HELL is probably the greatest horror movie of the last couple decades?

i revisited it a few months ago and yes it’s the best

love a horror movie where you gradually realize the protagonist is the antagonist

Right, in a movie where you spend most of the time thinking the demons of Hell are the antagonists.

Love it, but I've always found the ending mean-spirited, like most horrors of the 2000s. I've always read some misogynistic glee into it - I prefer the ambiguous punishments meted on Ash at the end of the Dead movies.

I want true horror to be mean-spirited I guess, else where's the horror?

I also love the inversion of Casting the Runes

unfortunately, gotta say, the thing is that the main character pretty much deserves everything that happens to her, so hard for me to read this film as particularly mean-spirited

"Life's not fair" is a big part of horror's appeal.

the second time she does a nakedly cynical rung-climbing thing instead of the actual right thing you're like "jesus christ you should be cursed forever"

It just occurred to me how rare it is to see a movie title posed as a request to which the film itself responds with a hearty 'can do!'

love a horror movie where you gradually realize the protagonist is the antagonist

yesss

Yeah, conversely I probably wouldn't think about this film that much if it wasn't for the surprising sad trombone ending!

How was the rewatch? I remember this being entertaining but never particularly scary, like Army of Darkness

i do admit to loling at Justin Long crying on the train tracks

I loved this movie on my first and only watch.

Yeah, I saw this in the cinema at the time and it's stayed with me quite a bit, definitely superior horror

same, it's probably the last horror movie I've watched at a cinema. Too many jokes in it obv!

Very surprised to discover Sam Raimi is still only 64.

how long has he been 64

I remember the first time I saw him being interviewed in the late 80’s and was floored by how youthful he looked

Has he ever talked about giving a financial contribution to Bush 43 in 2004? I wonder if he’s a Trumper