Drag Me to Hell (Blu-Ray / DVD)
Reviewed by Uncle Creepy
Starring Alison Lohman, Adriana Barraza, Chelcie Ross, Lorna Raver, Justin Long
Directed by Sam Raimi
Distributed by Universal Studios Home Entertainment
After taking a long break from the horror genre, director Sam Raimi returned to it with a vengeance via this haunting little tale, Drag Me to Hell. Gone were the inflated budgets of his Spider-man flicks, and in their place was all of Raimi’s trademark creativity along with an ample amount of goo and chills.
The story is quite simple. Christine Brown (Lohman) is trying to land a big promotion at her place of employment, which in this case happens to be a bank. In order to do so, she needs to make some really tough decisions, especially when it comes to an elderly woman named Mrs. Ganush (a phenomenal Raver). You see, this old Gypsy woman has a bit of a dilemma on her hands – Get an extension from the bank or lose her home. As a means to impress her boss, Christine denies Ganush’s request, and before you know it, fists are flying, gore is spewing, and a good old fashioned curse is handed down right upon Christine’s head.
Drag Me to Hell starts with a bang and never lets up. The demon or evil spirit haunting our heroine isn’t content with making things go bump in the night. Instead, it opts to hit her in the fuckin’ face and throw her around like a ragdoll. It torments her daily and will not let up until it literally drags poor Christine into the waiting hellish abyss. This makes for all kinds of fun. In fact, with a little tweaking here and there, this could have easily have been a new chapter in The Evil Dead franchise. Let’s just hope this isn’t as close as we get to that, but for right now this movie is the absolute shit. It’s wall-to-wall gross and riddled with disturbingly fun imagery. Raimi fans — REJOICE.
Included in both the DVD and Blu-ray packages are two different cuts of the film — PG-13 and Unrated. It’s a safe bet that you’re interested a bit more in the unrated cut of the film than the theatrical so let’s tackle that. In short, this version is a bit bloodier and a bit gooier. There are only two notable differences — the nosebleed scene and the sacrifice scene. Everything else is pretty much the same, and even at PG-13 it’s still damned good.
Suffice it to say that the Blu-ray both looks and sounds better than its DVD cousin, but that’s really where the diversities end. Other than being BD-Live enabled and sporting a digital copy, the Blu shares the exact same special features as the DVD. We get a few video production diaries that clock in above the thirty-minute mark, and that’s about it. While each one of these short featurettes is great for what it is, both of these packages come off as needlessly skimpy. Come on, Universal, this is a Sam Raimi movie! I’m willing to bet there was tons of materials out there to choose from. At the very least give us a commentary or some deleted scenes to go along with said featurettes.
Maybe they skimped because the film underperformed at the box office. Some horror fans had issues with the movie being PG-13 so skipped it. See how things end up biting us in the ass in the end? A good movie is a good movie regardless of its rating. Now that the flick is here for you to watch in the comfort of your own home, you have no more excuses. Buy this. Watch this. Love this. Drag Me to Hell delivers on just about every count.
Special Features
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“>4 1/2 out of 5
Special Features:
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3 out of 5
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